Ranger's Apprentice

Apprenticeship

Alongside four other characters (Jenny, Alyss, Horace, and George), Will is a ward of the Castle Redmont. At age 15, the orphans are expected to either become chosen as an apprentice of one of the masters at Redmont Fief or to work in the fields. Will wants to be a knight, but is denied apprenticeship by Sir Rodney and other various Craftsmasters. Instead, Will is selected by Halt to become a ranger. Rangers are the intelligence force and the unofficial "spies" of Araluen. They have mastered many skills, particularly camouflage, archery, and knife throwing. After being an apprentice for a few days, Will's teacher, a legendary Ranger named Halt, takes Will to see his new horse. With Tug, his new horse, Will trains in the skills needed to pass his assessment at the annual Ranger's Gathering. However, The Gathering is cut short with rumors of Morgarath's underlings, the Kalkara. Will, Halt's former apprentice Gilan, and Halt pursue the Kalkara, two monstrous creatures with a transfixing gaze, sent on a mission to assassinate Halt. Gilan gives his horse to Will and he travels to Castle Redmont to fetch help. Halt kills one of the Kalkara but is injured in the process. Will then arrives just in time and kills the other beast with a flaming arrow.

In the second book, The Burning Bridge, a war with Morgarath is approaching and Will, Gilan, and Horace, Will's friend, are sent to Celtica to ask for reinforcements. However, when they arrive, every town they find is deserted. Only an girl from Araluen named Evanlyn can tell them what has happened. Wargals have kidnapped and slaughtered some of the population and forced the rest to flee. Gilan moves on ahead of Will and Horace to report to the King. Meanwhile, Will, Horace, and Evanlyn encounter Wargals. They follow them to the Fissure, a deep gorge thought to be impassable. The Celtican miners were all captured to complete a bridge across the Fissure, and a tunnel through the cliffs above up to Morgarath's lair. The bridge and tunnel would allow Morgarath's army to assault the King's army straight from behind and crush it. Will, Horace and Evanlyn who is, in truth, the Crown Princess Cassandra, discover this. Horace tells Gilan what happened and they ride back to the main army. They inform the king and his advisers of Morgarath's plan, and the king dispatches an auxiliary force, led by Halt, to stop a force of Skandians that has come up from the coast to outflank the king's army.

Halt succeeds in destroying the Skandian force and he returns to the king with a plan. Halt's troops dress in the unmistakable horned helmets of the dead Skandians and take their shields, leading Morgarath to believe that the Skandians are ready to outflank the king. This goads Morgarath into ordering his Wargals to charge into the open plain. However, just as the armies are about to collide, the king's army parts in the middle, and Halt's cavalry charge down the open center at the advancing Wargals. The Wargals, who are afraid only of horses, are demolished by Halt's cavalry, and by the king's horsemen who join in the assault. Seeing his army destroyed, Morgarath offers a flag of truce and prepares to challenge Halt to single combat to avenge his own defeat.

Halt nearly accepts Morgarath's challenge, but Horace challenges Morgarath instead. Because he is wildly inexperienced, while Morgarath is an accomplished warrior, Horace is hopelessly outmatched by Morgarath. However, by diving under the hooves of Morgarath's steed, Horace manages to dismount him. Fighting on foot, Horace's sword is broken, but he uses a Ranger tactic, the "double knife defense", which he learned in Celtica watching Will and Gilan practice it, to stop Morgarath's next attack, and he stabs Morgarath through the heart with the knife.

In the third book, The Icebound Land, Will and Cassandra are taken as slaves to Skandia, a frozen, pine forested country north-east across the Constant Sea at the Araluen border. Will is forced to work outside in the bitter cold of the yard, while Cassandra is taken in to the kitchens. He quickly becomes addicted to warmweed, a drug that gives a person warmth, but also destroys the mind and body. The Skandian who captured Will and Cassandra, Erak, sets up a plot to rid Will of his addiction and escape with Cassandra. The two succeed in escaping, and take refuge in a small log cabin for winter. Following Erak's advice, Cassandra gives Will ever-decreasing amounts of warmweed at ever-increasing intervals. Soon after, Will overcomes his addiction to warmweed. Meanwhile, to rescue Will and Cassandra, Horace and Halt also set off for Skandia by crossing into Gallica and making their way north along the coast. Horace becomes known as 'The Oakleaf Knight' as he defeats many Gallican knights in combat, thereby attracting the attention of Deparnieux, a famed Gallican knight. Deparnieux gets tricked by Halt and is killed. Later, Halt "accidentally" left a burning torch on a pile of oily rags, and so sparks a fire that burns Deparnieux's keep.

In the fourth book, Oakleaf Bearers, while foraging for food, Cassandra is captured by a Temujai warrior. The Temujai are a fierce, nomadic tribe of horse warriors from the east and are masters of the recurve bow. Will tries to rescue her, but fails until Horace and Halt come along. Halt captures one Temujai and realizes the Temujai are back to try and take over the western world again. Twenty years earlier, they almost succeeded until politics and a serving of bad shellfish got in the way. Halt agrees to help Skandia drive off the Temujai since Halt feels if the Temujai defeat the Skandians, they will then attack Teutlandt, Gallica, and at last, Araluen. The Skandians make use of Halt's knowledge of the Temujai tactics, and Will takes charge of a force of archers to use in the upcoming battle against the Temujai.

During the battle, the Skandians surprise the Temujai with their archers, and they use the archers to destroy the Temujai system. The Temujai are forced to withdraw or risk having their previous conquests revolt. The Skandian "Oberjarl" Ragnak, is killed in the battle, and Erak is elected to succeed him. Erak agrees to stop massed attacks against Araluen resulting in the end of constant Skandian raids against the Araluen coast and the Treaty of Hallasholm.

Erak's Ransom takes place in between books 4 and 5, a few months before Will receives his Silver Oakleaf. Skandian Oberjarl Erak Starfollower goes on one last raid to Arrida. However, he gets captured for a ransom while he is attempting to raid Al Shabah, a province in Arrida. Because Erak believes that he was betrayed by Toshak, a Skandian, the raiding party goes to Araluen for the ransom money. Princess Cassandra goes to Arrida to negotiate prices with Selethen, the Wakir (leader) of Al Shabah. Will, Gilan, Halt, Horace, and thirty of Erak's men go along for protection. They are also there to deliver the ransom. After the negotiation is over, Selethen reveals that Erak was being held in Mararoc, a fort in the desert, so they travel there. However, Erak is stolen by the Tualaghi, a merciless nomadic tribe of devil worshipers. The rescue party, with the help of the Bedullin tribe, eventually turn the leader of the Tualaghi into a slobbering mess and free Erak. Princess Cassandra reasons that she no longer has to pay the ransom to the Arridi, because the Tualaghi held Erak when the Araluens saw him. Nevertheless, she decides to pay twenty thousand reels of silver each to the Bedullin and the Arridi. At the end of the book, Will is promoted to full Ranger and is awarded a Silver Oakleaf.

First mission

After receiving his Silver Oakleaf and being given Seacliff Fief to take care of, Will takes on his first mission as a full Ranger throughout the books of The Sorcerer in the North and The Siege of Macindaw. A few weeks after arriving in the fief, Will is sent north to Macindaw to investigate claims of sorcery, disguised as a minstrel. The lord of Castle Macindaw, Syron, was struck down. Many believe a sorcerer to be the cause of the illness since Syron's ancestor was also murdered by a sorcerer who some think is Orman, Syron's son; or Malkallam, an old sorcerer who poisoned Syron's ancestor. Alyss, also in disguise, is sent up to help Will, but is captured by the rogue knight Keren, responsible for poisoning Syron and Orman. Will manages to escape with Orman and his assistant Xander, and enlists the help of the sorcerer who is in fact a gifted healer called Malcolm. Horace is also sent up north by Halt to provide back-up.

To rescue the castle, Alyss, Horace and Will devise a plan. They receive the help of the Skandians that Will gave supplies to and use them to assault the castle. Horace explains that to successfully capture a castle, a three-to-one ratio is needed. With only about 25 Skandians and 35 soldiers in the castle this would seem impossible. Will hears a rumour of a Scotti Invasion so he captures General MacHaddish, who tells him the plan. Malcolm sets up some conjurations that draw the attention of the soldiers in the castle to one side, while Will and Horace infiltrate the castle using a strange upside-down cart. Soon the Skandians also enter the castle. Will quickly climbs up to the tower where Alyss is being held. However, Keren hypnotised Alyss into believing Will is the enemy, and orders her to kill him. As she holds a sword above her head to kill him, Will tells Alyss, that he loves her, and the hypnosis is broken. As Keren attacks Will, she throws acid into his face and Keren stumbles backwards in agony and falls out the window (which Alyss had weakened with the same acid) while the Skandians, led by Horace, are able to take control of the castle.

Will returns to his fief (Seacliff) with his first mission as a full Ranger a success. At his log cabin he receives a letter from Alyss stating that Will told her in a dream that he loved her, and that Horace has told her that although it seems like a dream, it might not be. At the end of her letter she writes "I love you, Will." Will leaves his log cabin again with Tug, to deliver his own reply to Alyss.

The Outsiders

In The Kings of Clonmel, Will, Halt and Horace are sent to Clonmel to prevent a cult called the Outsiders from taking power. The cult offers to protect a village from bandits that are actually part of the Outsiders in exchange for gold. When the village has been stripped of its possessions, the cult runs off to the next village. In this fashion, they take over five of the six kingdoms of Hibernia. Halt, Will and Horace are sent to Clonmel, the last kingdom, to try to prevent the cult from expanding into Araluen. Halt tries to persuade his twin brother, King Ferris, to use his troops to drive the cult out. In the end, the cult loses power in Clonmel, but the leader, Tennyson, runs away to try to reach the other five kingdoms of Hibernia, which he controls. During the confusion when Tennyson escapes, King Ferris is killed by a Genovesan assassin, and Halt's nephew Sean becomes king. Will, Halt and Horace leave Clonmel to chase the false prophet, Tennyson.

In Halt's Peril, after reaching a smuggler's port and managing to get information on Tennyson's whereabouts, the trio hires a ship to take them to Picta, where a smuggler had taken him. The chase is on as the three pursue him through a drowned forest, and finally, at an encounter with Tennyson's hired assassins, Halt is shot with a poisoned arrow and incapacitated.

Due to Picta's geographical location being near Macindaw, Will does a tiring one-day one-night ride to reach Malcolm, the man that is the best healer in all of Araluen, if not the world. After bringing the healer back, Will learns that Halt was poisoned with a toxin that has another toxin extremely similar to it, and they both have antidotes, but the wrong one will kill him. Will then captures the assassin that fired the arrow, and forces him into telling which type of toxin he used by poisoning the assassin with his own poison, and Malcolm cures Halt. Later that night, the assassin tries to escape, but Will manages to kill him before he does.

The group, on the move again, manage to find that Tennyson is up to his old tricks again and is trying to swindle the money out of more countrymen. Using Halt's similarity to King Ferris, whom Tennyson murdered, they manage to discredit Tennyson in front of the farmers. They proceed to use their reputation as Rangers and drive the men off. Will manages to kill Tennyson by dropping the entire batch of Malcolm's self-made smoke bombs, causing a cave-in that kills Tennyson and his followers in the debris, giving Halt, Horace, and Will a heroes' welcome when they return to Araluen.

The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

The Emperor of Nihon-Ja begins with Horace and George (from the Ward) in Nihon-Ja, speaking with their Emperor, Shigeru. Meanwhile, Will, Halt, Selethen, and Alyss are watching a Toscan general demonstrate his military tactics while at a treaty signing between the Toscans and the Arridi, both allies of Araluen. During a ride in which the Emperor of Nihon-Ja accompanies Horace and George back to the city in which they could sail back home, they are told by the Emperor's Cousin, Shukin, that there has been a coup against the Emperor. Furthermore, a Senshi (Skilled Nihon-Jan swordsmen) ambush nearly succeeds in killing the Emperor, but Horace intervenes and decides to help the seemingly ill-fated Emperor find a legendary, impenetrable fortress known as Ran-Koshi while George goes to the nearest city and sends word to the famous Ranger duo. Back in Toscana, the Crown Princess of Araluen, Cassandra, appears and enlists the help of the two Rangers, Alyss, and Selethen to go after Horace, using Gundar Hardstriker's ship (From Books 5 and 6). En route to Ran-Koshi, Horace's party befriends the local woodworkers known as the Kikori. For Halt's party, they encounter a pirate ship but make short work of it. After paying a Kikori village for their hospitality, people from that village catch up and tell the Emperor that a Senshi scouting party destroyed their village. From then on, Kikori of various villages came to join Horace's group on the trek to Ran-Koshi. Halt's group hits Nihon-Ja and they arrive at an inn, making a rendezvous with an ally of the Emperor. Horace, on the other hand, allows Shukin and a few Senshi delay Arisaka's enormous Senshi party of around five-hundred while they buy more time by crossing a bridge and destroying it. In this encounter, Horace drops his sword into a ravine. Halt's group learns of Horace's whereabouts and Horace's group hits Ran-Koshi. Horace's group settles in while Halt's group sails around and enters the plot of land nearest to Ran-Koshi. Halt's group is apprehended by a Kikori scouting patrol, but when presented to Horace, he recognises them and gives them a warm welcome. They set up a large wooden wall to stop Arisaka's army, and in the first day, they manage a victory with about two losses. Horace gets a new sword, which was Shuikin's dying present. The girls, (Cassandra and Alyss) set out across an enormous lake in a canoe to recruit a gigantic tribe of warriors allied with the Emperor: the Hassanu. Will, noting how the Kikori work together excellently, copies the Toscan general at the beginning of the book and forms the same fighting position as he does. They launch an attack against the second Senshi scouting party, and in this encounter, Will manages to intercept a flying arrow and Horace kills the enemy in single combat. Alyss and Cassandra manage to make it to the other side of the giant lake and establish contact with the Hassanu, but they find out that they are not willing to cross a forest en route to Ran-Koshi due to a "malevolent spirit." Alyss and Cassandra set out to kill the malevolent spirit. Arisaka's main party arrives near Ran-Koshi, but due to heavy snows, wait for spring to begin their assault. Alyss and the Princess discover that the "spirit" was actually a giant snow tiger, and after a fierce battle, kill it. Spring arrives, and Halt's group attacks Arisaka using their two shield walls. The battle seems evened out until Arisaka's reinforcements arrive. Then, as Will and co. are regrouping, Alyss and Cassandra arrive with the Hassanu. Before a bloody battle can start, the Emperor calls a truce in which they manage to convince everyone, including Arisaka's army, that the Emperor is truly a good man and Arisaka was a power-hungry fool. Arisaka is enraged by this and kills the man nearest to him. Will directly confronts him and kills him with a well-placed throwing knife. On the way back to Araluen, they discuss their nicknames given to them by the Nihon-Jan, with Horace's being Kurokuma (Black Bear/Eating Prowess), Selethen's being Taka (Hawk/Nose or Fighting Capability.), Alyss's being Tsuru (Crane/Obvious), Cassandra's being Kitsune (Fox/Because she's speedy), Halt's being ... Halt, and Will's being Chocho (Butterfly/Because his mind is as nimble as one). On the return trip to Araluen, Horace and Cassandra announce that they are engaged. The book ends with Will making a very, very poor attempt at proposing to Alyss and Alyss marching off in mock indignation.

Note: The Nihon-Jan language is basically Japanese using Romaji. They are also explained in the book.

The Lost Stories

The Lost Stories consists of 10 different short stories. It contains a foreword set in July 1896 in Redman County (Formerly Castle Redmont) situated in The Republic of Aralan States (Formerly the medieval Kingdom of Araluen) where Professor Giles MacFarlane has set up a digging expedition to uncover any important pieces of history. They had unearthed a granite plaque, carved with the likeness of a tusked boar, signifying that the area was once Castle Redmont. In the third season of digging, they had not found anything as important as that first one. The professor was losing hope until one of the young volunteers named Audrey rushed up to him and informed him of a cabin they had found outside the village limits. They discovered a secret compartment in the floor containing an ancient wood and brass chest. The chest contained The Lost Stories of Araluen, which picked up the stories of the Rangers after their return from Nihon-Ja.

Sales

Rights to sell Ranger's Apprentice have gone to 16 countries including North America (where Oakleaf Bearers is better known as The Battle for Skandia), United Kingdom, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Denmark and Sweden.^[8] In Australia, the seventh book, Erak's Ransom, reached number two on Australian children's charts.^[8] The series has been on The New York Times Best Seller list for 77 weeks as of 13 December 2013.^[9] By 2010, over 2 million copies had been sold.^[10]

Awards

The Ranger's Apprentice has won numerous awards. The series was one of the honour books for the Koala Winners in 2009.^[19] The seventh book, Erak's Ransom, was chosen as the Books of the Year for Older Children and the International Success Award.^[20] The first and fourth book won the Aurealis Awards while the third book was highly commended^[21] Then, the first, second and fifth book each earned the Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book.^[21] The first book was also the Longlisted for the Ottakar's Book Prize for 2006–2007 and the first book also was nominated for the Grand Canyon Reader Award in 2008.^[21]