Sorato’da Pusu

Ranger's Apprentice: The Royal Ranger #7

by John Flanagan, Görkem Görk (Translator)

Tehlike yaklaşıyor...
Will ve Maddie, diplomatik bir görevle Toskana'ya giderler. Amaçları, Arridi ve Toskan ordularını ortak bir savunma için bir araya getirmektir. Peki, iki taraf güçlü bir müttefik olabilir mi?
İlk tatbikatlar umut verse de kuzey sınırından gelen bir haber tüm dengeleri sarsar. Gizemli bir süvari birliği ülkeye izinsiz girmiştir. Düzensiz ve dağınık görünümleri, Will'in aklına, geçmişte tanıdığı bir tehdidi getirir: Temuçileri. Bu savaşçılar, yalnızca istila için gelmezler; önce dener, ölçer, sonra yok ederler.
Will ve Maddie, düşmanlarının Temuçiler olup olmadığını anlayabilmek için yola koyulurlar zaman daralmakta; düşman, gölgelerde pusuda beklemektedir. Sorato'da başlayacak bir savaşı önlemek gerekir çünkü bu savaş, tüm kıtayı felakete sürükleyecektir.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Adventure, Audiobook, Action, Middle Grade

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2024

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

For mysteries by this same author, see John A. Flanagan.

John Flanagan grew up in Sydney, Australia, hoping to be a writer. It wasn't until he wrote a highly uncomplimentary poem about a senior executive at the agency where he worked, however, that his talent was revealed. It turned out one of the company directors agreed with John's assessment of the executive, and happily agreed to train John in copywriting.

After writing advertising copy for the next two decades, John teamed with an old friend to develop a television sitcom, Hey Dad!, which went on to air for eight years.

John began writing Ranger's Apprentice for his son, Michael, ten years ago, and is still hard at work on the series.

He currently lives in a suburb of Manly, Australia, with his wife. In addition to their son, they have two grown daughters and four grandsons.

Reviews

[Fetch the goat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t get me wrong, I loved this book. But I do miss the banter between the rangers. The past books have been: war, war and war.
I miss the old banter of just will and halt talking. Halt teaching stuff to will. The yearly rangers get together. Their jokes and all.
We barely have gotten to see that with Maddie. I hope the next book will be more like that. Because that is what makes the books feel like home.

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh gosh, I'm back at it again. The second Royal Ranger book in a row that's breaking my "I never normally write reviews" thing. Again, This review is personal and you should make your own decision buying this book. Consider this a place only to vent my frustrations.

After my extremely negative review of the disastrous Arazan's Wolves, I'm back again venting my absolute disappointment. What is going on with this series now?

My problem with this book is really, boiled entirely down to just one thing: Where is Maddie?

We're seven books into this series now, named the Royal Ranger for Maddie, the princess ranger. But you wouldn't know it, since Ambush at Sorato is a book about Will. Everyone else is accessory. Now, I like Will, but Maddie, the main character of this book and series, gets maybe 10 lines of dialog in the whole book. She does nothing. If she wasn't in this story, nothing would change. She's already not in most scenes. (Even that scene with the scouts, what would have changed if they hadn't chased Maddie? I suppose without it, we wouldn't have got any rangering at all. Which is sad.)

Other secondary characters barely get any more screen time than that, but it is still more than our "main" character Maddie. Selethen makes a return from Erak's Randsom in the first series, and appearences in Brotherband, which I hope you've read, because otherwise Selethen is not a character, just a walking and talking excuse to have cavalry in the story.

There's also a Toscan general, Aquilifer, who I think was there. He doesn't do much either. I can't remember a single memorable thing about him.

Our two villains, the Temujai general and the Genosovan crossbow commander both get more page time, more dialogue and more characterization than Maddie (Or anyone else besides Will). They have arcs, some amount of texture and personality. They get to interact with Will and the other characters. I don't think either of them ever speak to Maddie or interact with her. Could be wrong, but if it was there it mustn't have left an impression on me.

There is yet again, similar to Arazan's Wolves, no apprenticing taking place. I don't think there's a single teaching moment at all. Why is Maddie even still an apprentice if Will does everything anyway?
We're seven books in and I don't even know where Maddie is at in her apprenticeship. She was, third? Fourth year in the Red Fox duology, but since then that plot has been completely forgotten. Where's my story about Maddie being a cool adult ranger solving problems on her own? Or a story about how her unique perceptive as a young ranger or a royal, or even the first female ranger, affects her, her worldview, her character, or how any of that even matters. Because it's not present in this book or any of the recent books.

At least there was no Magic in this one, I suppose.

I don't know how to articulate my frustration properly. I get the impression that Flanagan just doesn't know what to do or where to take this story. The thought has crossed my mind that it's even a Ghost Writer for the last few books, which is really harsh, I know, but I just can't find any of his earlier love and care in this anymore. I've been reading through Brotherband recently, and the difference is so stark it's just, odd. As a female reader, I know Flanagan has always had a complicated relationship with his female characters, and now I'm wondering if he's being forced to write these by his publisher when he wants to write male characters again. Or maybe I'm just being worn out by it.

In summary, I know this was an intensely personal and rather rambling review, but like I ended my previous review, this book was not great. It wasn't trash, it wasn't terrible, but it was boring. It's like asking an AI to write the plot to a Ranger's Apprentice book, trained on the first series so it forgot Maddie exists. A pastiche of a ranger's apprentice story, going through the motions, with no substance at all.

I truly hope this series picks up. I have such fondness for this world, these characters (normally...). I finished my Arazan's Wolves review by saying I eagerly awaited where this series could go, and that is still true. But something needs to change. I can't wait to see what Maddie does when she gets to be an actual character again, but I'm starting to lose hope that will happen.

[Ray Westenberg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hello and welcome to my scathing and probably-unpopular-opinion review of Royal Ranger Book 7—or, as I like to call it: “Where Was Maddie?”

Hey John, hate to tell ya, but unfortunately your ghost writer did not serve you well with this book either :/

The short summary is that this book was short, boring, uninspired, and badly written. It reads like a Rangers apprentice fan decided to write their own fan work, but badly. There’s a scene transition that is literally just one word: “Dawn.” (I actually laughed out loud at that one). And the person that wrote this book clearly has no idea how to write or what to do with female characters. The action was stilted, poorly executed, and boring to the point of painfulness. This was not a very long book, and yet, I was relieved when it was finally over.

Now, to get into the specifics: the biggest and most outrageous problem is that Maddie is barely in this book. AT ALL. This is supposed to be one of the later and defining books in a series about HER apprenticeship to become a ranger. And yet, literally huge chunks of chapters and plot lines are from Will’s POV (her mentor), the enemy army’s POV, the other Allied army’s POV, etc. So much of the book did not involve the Rangers and even less of that involved Maddie. When she was actually there, she barely had more than one line of dialogue that contributed nothing to the story. She only spoke a total of 22 times (yes, I counted), which may seem like a lot, but it was magnitudes less than any of the other characters and this is supposed to be MADDIE’S 200+ page book. When she actually does speak, she’s either asking Will what they’re going to do next or literally just relaying things that Will already told her. There was one scene where Will and Maddie are speaking with one of the Toscan generals and Will and the general talk for so long that it was literally 10 pages before Maddie was mentioned again and I remembered that she was even in the scene. She had no original thoughts ideas or actions and it’s like the writer completely forgot about her or had no interest in her character.

There’s only one scene where she’s alone and acting by herself and it’s basically her trying to escape from two calvary men. Her inner thoughts are “damn, I’m trapped, what am I going to do?” Like isn’t she supposed to have learned anything in her (presumably) seven years of apprenticeship ???? We have no idea where she is in her journey compared to the original Ranger’s Apprentice series where Will had clear milestones in his ranger training. With Maddie, it’s like the author completely forgot what her character is supposed to be doing. Meanwhile, Will has many scenes negotiating the hire of archers, overseeing the construction of shields and other defenses, training over a hundred soldiers in new methods of combat, etc. All while Maddie runs away from two calvary men and does nothing else. It’s Will planning and Will leading and Will deciding who’s going to do what and who’s going to go where. He speaks for Maddie all the time and never seems to be doing any teaching. She’s literally just his young assistant that follows him around, does nothing, has no thoughts, and barely speaks. She’s written as such a submissive and unintelligent character which is really insulting and unfortunate, especially bc I feel like her character did have some defining moments of ingenuity earlier in the series.

There’s one line that actually made me cackle because it so perfectly describes the entirety of Maddie’s character in this book: “He turned to Maddie, who was an interested spectator to this conversation.” Like LOL. That’s all she did the entire time. Stand there and watch in silence.

Anyway, there were plenty of other character and writing issues that made this book pretty unreadable. Like, for example, some of the dialogue is repetitive and just bad. Will‘s new favorite phrase is apparently “we’re burning daylight.” He says it like four times and it feels like an excuse for the author not writing more lines of dialogue (just have them say the same thing over and over, I guess). The action and combat scenes were also not great; the only reason they ever took up more than one page was because people would accidentally miss their shots or rush things and end up dragging out the conflict just bc of their mistakes. A significant plot point is that Selethen gets captured but that’s only because his horse happened to randomly trip in a hole and fall over. Like wtf ???

Another thing is the characterization was very odd and inconsistent. Like what the absolute hell was going on with Will’s rage quit at the end of the book? I get that he would probably be angry about the archers looting the fallen enemies, but Will literally goes on like a ranting tirade about it. Will would never loose his marbles and throw a rage fit like that. It was such a weird and shocking scene and it’s obvious this author doesn’t understand him at all. And then Will spends an oddly large amount of time at the end of the book traveling to another country to re-negotiate the fee for hiring these archers because he’s still angry about how they performed. Like, Will would never be interested in haggling over hiring fees for some other country’s soldiers. And then the book ends with Will having a completely unnecessary shooting duel where he gets to show off his Ranger skills and has to take down and KILL the commander of the archers just because the commander feels slighted by Will getting angry at him. Like, since when does Will get irritated and enter pointless duels just to murder annoying army commanders ??? Like wtf ??? (and I have nothing to say about Maddie’s character because she literally didn’t have one. And this is all happening in MADDIE’S book btw, just in case you forgot. I know I certainly did)


SOOOOO: now that you’ve read all that, I think you can see why I have issues with the last couple books in this series.
In case you’re interested, I’ve seen some suggestions in the reviews on what’s been going wrong lately with John Flanagan. Some ideas are: Flanagan is being forced to write a female character from his publisher/someone else when he just wants to write male ones. OR: He’s completely lost his love for the series and can’t be bothered enough to write these people with the same care and compassion he did in years prior. OR: my personal belief, he’s literally had a ghost writer for the past 2 books and it’s not even Flanagan at all. This is the idea I support the most because in the first few Royal Ranger books, I feel like Flanagan at least had some care and interest in writing Maddie as a female character and how that impacts her unique experience as the first female ranger in the corps. Now, Will has completely lost the apprenticing plot and there are no teachable moments for Maddie, she has no growth or development, and she’s basically just an accessory to Will. There’s also all the blatantly terrible issues with pacing, characterization, dialogue, plot, etc. Not to mention the complete violation in the previous book of the mechanics of the world that Flanagan spent over an entire series developing (yes I’m talking about the literal magic in Arazan’s wolves). These last 2 books have felt like poorly-directed AI or (bad) fan-made stories. I would honestly be surprised if Flanagan is still writing these at all.

Welp. It wouldn’t be one of my special interests if the franchise didn’t implode and absolutely destroy itself with its newer installments. I’ll just end it here with this: that ghost writer would do well never to reveal their name. I can’t imagine they would get much positive recognition for these last couple of works.

[Freya · Rating 4 out of 5]

OMG that ending!!! My heart practically jumped out of my chest haha. I need some time to recover xd but although this was an unusual volume, solely about war strategy and defending a country, I really enjoyed it!

[Witse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent book, bit of a shame because it's far below my reading level but I can't miss out on new books from my fav series when I was a child :)

[Irene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nee, sorry. Helaas. Jammer.

Eerlijk gezegd vond ik de eerste 50 blz echt saai en verloor ik zomaar ineens interesse in een Grijze Jager deel. Dat is me nog geen enkele keer overkomen (ook al vond ik iets van deel 17, het las nog steeds wel lekker).
Voor mijn gevoel was Maddie best weinig aanwezig, ook vroeg ik me af hoe lang haar opleiding nog duurt en dat het soms nog steeds lijkt alsof ze pas aan de start staat. Volgens mij weet ze best veel, maar wordt dat niet opgeschreven waardoor Will nog steeds helemaal THE MAN is. Is hij op zich ook, maar het voelde wat uit balans. De slag zelf was wel prima, maar ik moet bekennen dat ik dat hier en daar wel met een schuin oog gelezen heb.

Jammer voor mij, want ik hou nog steeds van de Grijze Jagers. Misschien hè.. is het gewoon tijd voor een laatste deel. Zomaar een tip: laat alle Grijze Jagers van boek 1 t/m 12 een rol vervullen, leuke reünie tegelijk.

[Natalia]

Nie jestem w stanie ocenić tego na konkretną ilość gwiazdek 🤷‍♀️ Ta część nie będzie jedną z moich ulubionych, ale nadal pałam wielkim sentymentem i miłością do tej serii. Dobrze było wrócić po dłuższej przerwie szkoda tylko, że akcje skrócono do minimum.

[Eva Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

13-jarige ik is blij :)

En dit blijven toch eeuwig boeken die je in één ruk wil uitlezen en je gewoon heel eventjes doen ontsnappen en meeslepen in weer een nieuw avontuur. Forever love John Flanagan <3

[Darth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jedna z najlepszych części 🤌👌🤩
I dobrze wiedzieć, że to nie koniec 🥳🥳
Podoba mi się strona, w którą to zmierza 👌👌🏹🏹🏹⚔️🗡

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

*długie westchnięcie*
Ta seria jest dla mnie zbyt ważna, żeby postawić taką ocenę i po prostu zamknąć aplikację, więc lecimy. Zacznę od ogromnej zalety. Podobało mi się zwrócenie uwagi na nierówności między stanami i wskazanie na konsekwencje tego dla uciskających. Miło też było spotkać się ponownie z Selethenem.
A teraz umówmy się, "Zwiadowcy" nigdy nie byli wybitnym dziełem literatury, ale zdobyli sobie rzeszę fanów wartką akcją, emocjonującą przygodą i cudownymi relacjami, więziami między bohaterami. Te punkty chcę poruszyć.
Wartka akcja jest bardzo ważna, zwłaszcza w książkach przygodowych jak ta. Okazuje się, że może być aż nazbyt wartka, co nie działa na korzyść książki. Od ważnego wydarzenia, do ważnego wydarzenia. Żadnych retardacji (które naprawdę są potrzebne i nawet Homer o tym wiedział! (jeśli naprawdę istniał, oczywiście)). Co więcej, wszystko dzieje się za krótko. Książka została okrojona do minimum, bohaterom zbyt łatwo przychodzą zwycięstwa. Przez to w ogóle nie byłam w stanie zaangażować się w historię. Kolejne wydarzenia po prostu się działy i wiedziałam, że zaraz dziać się przestaną i zaczną się kolejne. Jedną z cech powieści jest wielowątkowość. Pod tym względem czułam się, jakbym czytała długie opowiadanie.
Kolejna rzecz, co stało się z bohaterami? Teoretycznie wiodącą postacią w tym cyklu jest Maddie. W tym tomie była zaledwie tłem, Mat'zaka było znacznie więcej. Cały czas miałam wrażenie, że Will nie jest sobą. Pisałam też o tym w recenzji poprzedniego tomu, ale ich relacja n i e i s t n i e j e. Spodziewałam się, że Maddie stanie się dla Willa córką, której nigdy nie miał, tak jak Will był takim synem dla Halta. Raz było powiedziane, że Will nie chciał, żeby coś jej się stało, ale tego zupełnie nie widać. Zabrakło jakichkolwiek dialogów, które pogłębiałyby relacje między bohaterami, nie tylko tą dwójką.
Czy przeczytam następny tom, jak tylko wyjdzie? Na sto procent. Może jestem naiwna, ale nie przestaję wierzyć, że seria wróci do dawnego poziomu.

[majkaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

tak mnie boli że z każdym kolejnym tomem tracę trochę miłości do tej serii

[Dara · Rating 4 out of 5]

w porownaniu z innymi czesciami dosc slabe, ale i tak kochamm

[Abby (Reader of Clean Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was unnecessary. To be honest, the whole Royal Ranger series is unnecessary. The OG Ranger's Apprentice series is amazing and one of my favorite book series of all time, but The Royal Ranger was never nearly as good.

I just feel like John Flanagan wants to keep writing more stories in the same world when he already has so many and he kinda just needs to stop.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

john flanagan, i know you’re 80 years old but please get new ghostwriters 😭

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have slowly been enjoying every new book less and less since book 1 of the Royal Ranger's series, and this is one is just another perfect example of why. I think this time around, though, I've figured out what's wrong. Where the first series - and book 1 of this series - had a lot of character focused moments, character developments even in later books in the series, this series is just lacking that left and right and it shows. Maddie isn't developing as a character, matter of fact she doesn't even feel like the main character of this book at all. Imagine becoming a side character in a series named after you. What happens in this book is so detached from both Will and Maddie (and Selethen as well, for that matter) that there is rarely any tension, and that the entire book just falls ridiculously flat. I'm incredibly disappointed, since I foolishly had high hopes for this book in particular. Bringing back Selethen, the Temujai and the Genovesan Assassins sounded like a great idea, but it fails to deliver. We only have a handful of moments with Selethen, who is also seriously sidelined as a character. But that's fair enough, I guess. The Temujai were interesting, but I figured there could be more. In book 4 of the Rangers Apprentice series the battle against the Temujai is so well written that after all these years it is still seared into my memory. It felt like an incredibly forming moment for Will as well, but we don't get to see him make even a hint to that. I wanted to see him be scared at facing this enemy that had gotten very close last time he faced them. Any emotion at all would have been nice, but no. Plus in book 4 the Temujai had this really interesting battle tactic that I was fascinated by when reading the book. Here, though, it might be there between the lines? But it's not really mentioned at all. In fact, the Temujai don't really seem like a dangerous enemy at all. And then we've got the Genovesan Assassins that made me seriously piss my pants when they were the main antagonists in book 9. Here though? In this book they were only portrayed as money hungry idiots who could shoot moderately well with a crossbow. Imagine my absolute devestating disappointment. Not even a single hint of purple cloaks or poisonous darts.

In conclusion this book is sorely lacking any and all emotional depth, doesn't have a lick of character development in sight, and feels like fanfiction of the Rangers Apprentice for which the author didn't even bother to read the source material.

I'm sorry Flanagan, but you can and have done way, way, way better than this.

[Shoggothey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kolejny tom Zwiadowców fabularnie nie zaskakuje - te same postaci, te same miejsca, ci sami wrogowie. Niemniej to nadal ci sami Zwiadowcy, którzy bawią i umilają czas niezależnie od tomu i wieku czytelnika.

Tym razem Will ze swoją uczennicą biorą udział w pokazie 'zbrojeń' dwóch państw, z nadzieją, że w przyszłości połączą one siły i uzupełnią słabe strony swoich sojuszników. Sytuacja zmienia się wraz ze zwojem dostarczonym przez zwiadowcę jednego z przywódców, w którym zawarte są informacje o dosyć licznej kawalerii naruszającej granice państwa. Will rozpoznaje w opisie wrogów Temudżeinów, którzy zaszli mu za skórę już wiele lat temu i razem z Maddie decyduje się ukrócić ich działania, dając im do zrozumienia, że nie mają szans na najazd.

Książka nastawiona głównie na działania 'militarne', gdzie raz jeszcze widzimy zwiadowcze popisy bohaterów i ich walkę o spokój. Klasycznie poza Maddie i Willem, główną bohaterką staje się kawa, pita przez bohaterów litrami (z miodem oczywiście!).

Tak jak kilka ostatnich tomów - nic specjalnie zaskakującego. No ale to nadal Zwiadowcy, ciężko nie polecić!

[Gabcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

90% tej książki to opisy działań wojennych, wszystko dzieje się szybko, chłodno i bez emocji, a liczba wymienionych zdań między Willem a Maddie nie przekracza 5

Uwielbiam tę serię, wiadomo że przeczytam kolejną część, chociaż nadzieja na utrzymanie poziomu z pierwszych tomów całkowicie już we mnie umarła

A, no i nie było Halta (a ja kocham Halta)

[Floris Weyns · Rating 4 out of 5]

't blijven leuke boeken

[Hopksiazka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nie przypominam sobie aż tak porywczego Willa

[Hanna Bogdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lepszy niż kilka poprzednich tomów, przyjemnie i szybko się czytało, klasyczny klimat Zwiadowców 💙

[✧~grey~✧]

ahhh im hoping there's another book - this one was so good! one of my fave things abt this series is that it's exciting but kind of chill at the same time, not an incredible amount of stress for the reader and i don't have to go into the loop of cursing the writer mid-series only to kneel at their altar and praise them by the end. also maddie is just awesome <33

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars because this series is a childhood favorite! I missed seeing Halt. Plot line was generally interesting but book was a bit shorter this time.

[Eva_812 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dit was een ontzettend onsamenhangend boek, waar we in no time van hot naar her gingen.
Will is zo perfect en slim en elk plan dat hij bedenkt, slaagt. Flanagan heeft blijkbaar niet van het principe "als je als auteur het plan aan de lezer vertelt, mislukt het" gehoord, want elk plan slaagt en haalt alle spanning uit het boek (en ja, sorry hoor, maar 90% van het plan lukt en die laatste 10% niet, dan geldt het alsnog als een geslaagd plan).
Ik ben erg benieuwd hoe oud Maddie nou eigenlijk is. Is ze nog steeds niet klaar met de opleiding? Ze lijkt nog weinig te leren en hobbelt maar een beetje achter Will aan, terwijl hij alles doet en oplost. Hetzelfde geldt trouwens voor de andere personages: allemaal bijkarakters bij de Grote Will Show.
Gewoon zo jammer dat Flanagan dit concept nog steeds verder uitkauwt en er niet gewoon een einde aan kan breien, nu hij nog maar sporadisch een goed element in z'n boeken kan verwerken.

[Igniss · Rating 3 out of 5]

w sumie całkiem okej część, na pewno lepsza niż poprzednia, ale nadal jak na zwiadowców było średnio

[Serena Haddock · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only keep up with Maddie's stories because I feel a small since of loyalty to this fictional world since my sister's and I loved the originals so much.


Can't wait to read the next one lmao even if it pains me :D

[Bethany W · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love this author and the world he created. However this book felt like it was written by AI or a ghost writer. Maybe both. It lacked the author’s tone and style.

I kept waiting for the plot to begin — it never really did. The characters were inconsequential and there was ZERO character growth or challenge. People just *existed.* Part of the hallmark of this series is seeing the characters push themselves, overcome trials, and grow as people. This was basically just a prolonged battle description.

Additionally, very little was explained in the book. You were just expected to remember all the players, their history, and what they did. There have been a lot of players added over the years and I found myself going “wait, who was that again?” It was a disappointment.

My mom is a nationally published author, so I know how much negative criticism can hurt. I love what the author has created and we are super fans. If he reads this, please know that this criticism was spoken with love and respect.

[Aleksandra Jagielska · Rating 4 out of 5]

moje inner child zostało zaspokojone
stosunkowo malo maddie - a to na plus:)
ale serce nadal mi się kraja, gdy myślę o tym, że bohaterowie mojej ukochanej serii z dzieciństwa są już dorośli (co za tym idzie - ja tak samo… ale ciii)

[Claire (the_reading_apprentice) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever been disappointed by a new release in your favourite series? Because that's exactly what happened for me with this one. It felt like the main character (Maddie) was barely on the page, and so much of the content felt recycled from older books in the series.

Slight Spoilers for this book and The Emperor of Nihon-Ja: for example, Selethen is 'introduced' to the Toscan infantry methods, despite first seeing them in RA book 10, and TRAINING THE NIHON JAN TREE CUTTERS TO USE THOSE METHODS. It would have been so easy for Selethen to make a reference to those previous adventures instead of acting as if he's never seen it before. And yes, I'm mad about it.

A series issue that really comes to the forefront in this book is that Maddie feels lonely. She doesn't have anyone her age to lean on or go on adventures with. She's with her mentor, Will, and that's it. And maybe some older characters introduced in other books, like Selethen or Arald. Whereas Will had the chance to go on his adventures with Horace and Alyss and Evanlyn, and with the slightly-older Gilan, and their group dynamic was so much fun!

I know I'm not the target audience anymore (I'm in my mid-twenties instead of 12-15 years old) but I still love so many of the other books - which is why I'm still giving this a 3 stars meaning: "I liked it". I'm just disappointed, and I really hope that any further books don't disappoint me like this one did.

And for a short kid's book, it took me ages to read it because I was just so annoyed about the inconsistencies and recycled material.

[Christian · Rating 1 out of 5]

If the previous book wasn't enough evidence, it is now set in stone that John Flanagan is no longer writing these books. He is now just a figurehead.

Maddie (the titular hero of the series) is barely utilized in the book, getting a full two chapters of her own. The rest is either Will's or the enemy leader's viewpoint. Any other auxiliary characters from previous entries in the series aren't even mentioned, except Selethen.
The events of The Emperor of Nihon-Ja is completely ignored.