The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan

Every once an a while I get recommendations from multiple people on the same book or series. As previously discussed, sometimes this backfires and for some odd reason I drag a bit on actually trying the book. This series was originally recommended to me four years ago by a student. Soon after, Vincent also recommended it. I finally started the series last month with the first book: The Ruins of Gorlan.  It was a quick read featuring a young male protagonist, Will, who is the kind of misfit I enjoy reading about. Will actually really reminded me of Piemur from Anne McCaffrey's Pern Series. In any case, I quickly picked up The Burning Bridge afterwards.

It's always a little odd to me how in a lot of YA series, particularly fantasy series, the protagonists lead this charmed life where they take on big dark evil forces and miraculously don't tend to face many consequences. Nothing really happens to them for meddling with the evil lord whatshisname even though said lord is way more powerful and been up to his nefarious plans for much longer. I guess every once and a while it's credible that everything would work out, but these fantasy heroes really beat the odds.

Not so, apparently, in Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice Series. The hero still seems to save the day, but at the end of the The Burning Bridge everything does not work out for Will. In fact, despite his success, Will faces personal disaster. I found that refreshing. And, of course, wanting to immediately jump into the next book.