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It's even harder when you're stupid.

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Thursday, June 12, 2014

The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan ★★★☆☆

Fiction – YA/Juvenile – Medieval
262 pages
Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up
Publication Date:  2005
Ranger's Apprentice #2
Literary Awards:  Children's Book Council of Australia Award, International Success of the Year Award (2007)

The Burning Bridge (Ranger's Apprentice, #2)Will and Horace are sent on a special mission to their kingdom’s neighboring allies, Celtica, to request help in their fight against Morgarath, but when they arrive the towns are abandoned and frightening new information about Morgarath’s troop movements forces them to rethink their plans.  With the safety of their kingdom hanging in the balance Will and Horace must find a way to thwart Morgarath’s plan.

The orchestration of this novel is leaps and bounds beyond the first.  It has the quality that I had expected in the first and is pretty much an improvement in every way.  The story is more sophisticated and better laid out making the alternating points of view more appropriate. The risk factor is upped and better suited for making this an adventure story.  With a quicker pace and more action it held tightly onto my attention leaving in suspense of what was going to happen next.  The battles were complex and interesting and the ending was exciting and unexpected.  Again I enjoyed the lack of magic and found it unexpectedly refreshing.   Occasionally the writing did trip me up and pushed me out of the story world and I was a little surprised he didn’t draw out the Morgarath storyline, but in comparison to everything else these were minor distractions.  

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