The Golden Oakleaf - RIP John Flanagan

RIP John Flanagan

Back in 2006, when I was in Middle School, my family was visiting one of my Uncles and Aunts and naturally we found ourselves in a bookstore. There I was, perusing the Fantasy section with my father, when we came across a book.

Neither of us had ever read it, though of course our first thought was of Aragorn son of Arathorn, the Ranger whom in the town of Bree is known as Strider. Yet this new series, called Ranger’s Apprentice, seemed to be only about Rangers and it caught our interest enough to buy it. Now back then I was new to the genre, and though I had Tolkien and a few other great works such as Christopher Paolini's The Inheritance Cycle and Garth Nix The Abhorsen Series under my belt, they had, to a book, been recommended to me either by my friends or my father. Ranger’s Apprentice had no such personal accolades and in consequence it sad unread yet often considered on my shelf for several months before I started it...

...Beginning an Age of my life. I was hooked. Riveted. Falling so utterly in love with the story that I suggested it to my father and sister, who took it up and were similarly enchanted. But that does not describe how much we would go for the books. Being an Australian author, back then (before the series achieved internationally bestselling stardom) new Ranger’s Apprentice books came out in Australia many months before being released in the United States. Yet we were not content to wait. When Book 4, titled The Battle for Skandia, first came out in America I had already read it months prior under its true title and original cover: Oakleaf Bearers. How? Buying books from overseas has never been an issue for my father, and Oakleaf Bearers was but one of many new Ranger’s Apprentice books I read and had on my shelves long before they first graced American bookstores. Original Australian editions I still have, sitting on the exact same shelf. And let me tell you, I watched the Book Trailer for Erak's Ransom at least two dozen times. Watching it still rekindles that feeling of excited anticipation of epic adventure, if naturally tinted by nostalgia.

One time I finished reading the series up the last currently out book... and I picked up Book 1 again and started over. Something I have, to this day, NEVER done before or since.

Then on on January 3, 2014 – two years before I started Stars Uncounted – I wrote the following post on Facebook:

John Flanagan...Thank you so much. Thank you for teaching me how to wield a bow, move silently, throw a knife, and track a foe. Never did drink coffee though, so, sorry about that. Thank you for writing the Ranger’s Apprentice series and giving me 8 years of joy and laughs. You proved that Fantasy need not have magic to be phenomenal

Farewell Will Treaty, Sir Horace, Halt, Evanlyn (Cassandra), Erak, Alyss, Gilan, Tug, Crowley, Gundar, Selethen, Baron Arald, King Duncan, and Maddie.

I have just finished The Royal Ranger, the last book of John Flanagan's Ranger’s Apprentice Series. An Age of my life has ended.

I was devastated to be done, yet understood why John Flanagan was finishing because one could hardly expect him to write a whole other series with with Maddie as the Apprentice and Will the Master, right?

Haha. Right. Famous last words. Because on Saturday December 1, 2018 – two years after I started this mostly humble blog – I go to the bookstore and find The Red Fox Clan, book #2 of the new Ranger's Apprentice: The Royal Ranger series which was nothing less that an entire sequel series follow-up to the now-old book #12 of the main Ranger's Apprentice series! Of course, my full reaction was rather more complicated, humorous and aggravating in equal measure, but the fact remained that it was not the end! Merely a new beginning, and Flanagan had already been, and continued to, write The Brotherband Chronicles (which I have never read yet now just might). Nor, in fact, have I finished The Royal Ranger series since shelf space is far more limited than Flanagan's pen. But now I think I will finish, for while the literary world has lost a titan with John Flanagan's passing, he left us with over two dozen Fantasy masterworks without magic that teach strategy over strength and that physical height is overrated and often a hindrance to heroics. But humor is where he really strikes gold, because there is something about Halt's scowling face that brings and special light to all ours days

"Sarcasm isn't the lowest form of wit. It's not even wit at all." – Halt

“Once you best a man, never gloat. Be generous and find something in his actions to praise. He won't enjoy being bested, but he'll make a good face of it. Show him you appreciate it. Praise can win you a friend. Gloating will only ever make enemies.” – Halt

“I forgot how much fun it is having an apprentice.” – Halt

“People will think what they want to...Never take too much notice of it.” – Halt

"Sometimes we tend to expect a little too much of Ranger horses. After all, they are only human."  – Halt

Last but not least, there is the matter of the long tradition of Rangers which Flanagan continued. For that, read my Rangers: From Merry Men to Dúnedain (and beyond) post.