The Ruins of Gorlan
core novel 2004 Ranger's Apprentice
Record
| First published | 2004 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.26 (180,190 ratings, collected 2026-08-27) |
| Page count | 249 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780142406632 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Ruins of Gorlan opens the Ranger's Apprentice series in the Kingdom of Araluen, where fifteen-year-old orphan Will hopes to be chosen for Battleschool on Choosing Day, the ceremony that decides the futures of the castle's wards. Passed over because of his small size, he is instead apprenticed to Halt, a taciturn and mysterious Ranger whose skills in the kingdom's defense are respected and feared in equal measure. Under Halt's guidance, Will begins learning the secretive Ranger arts of stealth, tracking, and archery. At the same time, the exiled warlord Morgarath, hiding in the mountains for fifteen years after his earlier defeat, begins plotting revenge against the kingdom that cast him out, deploying monstrous creatures known as Kalkara as assassins against his enemies. As Will adjusts to his new life, the threat Morgarath poses draws steadily closer to the kingdom's borders.
Where it sits
- Universe: Ranger's Apprentice
- Series: Ranger's Apprentice core; position 1 of 12 in the series' recorded order
- Author: John Flanagan
Notes
- From the series record (Ranger's Apprentice): The twelve-book original sequence.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Ranger's Apprentice: position 1 of 12: next The Burning Bridge (2004)
Sources
← Ranger's Apprentice dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.