Review Detail

Escape From Falaise (Ranger’s Apprentice: The Royal Ranger #5)

Middle Grade Fiction 1510

Terrible towers and blustering barons!

April 29, 2022

Overall rating

4.7

Plot

4.0

Characters

5.0

Writing Style

5.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Maddie and Will were captured by Lassigny when they went to retrieve the sniveling Giles who was taken in The Missing Prince. At first, they are thrown into the dungeon and given NO COFFEE TO DRINK, but then are moved to a guarded tower and served proper meals so that they come clean to their captor, who doesn't believe that they are a jongleur and his daughter. When they admit to being spies, Maddie falls into a challenge to joust with one of Lassigny's men, and of course she just wipes the floor with him, shooting arrow after arrow into his helmet to make him loopy without hurting him too much. Lassigny is so angry that he banishes the man. Will and Maddie try to figure out how to escape, and Maddie notices a vaguely familiar figure hanging around; Tomkin, a local ne'er-do-well. It turns out that Tomkin is really someone from their past who comes to save them, and there are further feats of derring-do as the two escape and go on the run. Will they be able to rescue Giles and get him back to his father? What other might the Rangers uncover?

Good Points

This is the 26th book set in the world of the Araluens, and I still love these! I really can't explain the appeal of these, but I will say that this is one of the very rare multibook series where every single book gets read until it is worn out. I've had to replace The Lost Stories twice. There is something about the camaraderie, the characters (who doesn't love Halt getting seasick or Horace pretending to be a Teutlandic knight?), the adventure (setting fire to a stables after making sure the horses are all safe, climbing up a garbage chute), or the sumptuous meals?

I do have one small complaint: what's with Maddie's hair on this cover? *Shakes head.* Not sure where she is getting the flat iron in the dungeon.

If you haven't entered the world of The Ranger's Apprentice, remedy that by reading The Ruins of Gorlan right now. This is a highly addictive series, and I love that Flanagan has this smaller arc with Maddie in it. Another series to read along with this one is Delaney's The Last Apprentice, which has a little darker look at life in quasi-medieval times.