Ranger's Apprentice: The Early Years - The Tournament at Gorlan by John Flanagan

I loved the Ranger's Apprentice series. I wanted to go to lunch with the characters and have them for my best friends. John Flanagan writes strong women characters and well developed men characters.

So, of course I had to buy the new prequel that came out last year (new and not from a thrift store) My copy of The Tournament of Gorlan was signed by the author. It's been a few years since I read the last RA book, so I'd forgotten a few things. This book takes us back to when Halt became a Ranger and shows his fun friendship with Crawley.

I enjoyed seeing Halt meet Pauline for the first time and be completely flustered because Halt is usually unflappable. The battle scenes were exciting. I wish there had been more scenes with Pauline.

I'd hoped to see more dimension in Morgorath. I want to know why he is so mean. What made him so awful. Flanagan does a great job showing how deceptive and manipulative he is, but why is he this way? What made him Morgorath. I hope the next book gives us this part of his makeup.

If you are a Ranger's Apprentice Fan, you will like this book, but you may want to read the short story this is based on in the Lost Stories as a refresher. Reading this book makes me want to reread the entire series, especially the first one as Morgorath is in that one.