The Battle For Skandia
VOYA
Fans of The Ranger's Apprentice series will again dive right into this fourth adventure. Will and Evanlyn have eluded their Skandian captors and are waiting out the winter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Halt and Horace have managed to bluff their way across the Skandian border. Apprentice and master are finally reunited as each set out to rescue Evanlyn, again captured by invading Temujai warriors. Halt, Will, and Horace need to convince the Skandians that the Temujai are a greater threat than they are, and the enemies need to work together to defeat the invaders or risk seeing all of their lands fall to these fearsome fighters. This installment clips along at a much faster pace than the preceding book. Newcomers to the series would be able to jump in easily, as very little relies on previous volumes. Will and Halt are reunited quickly, and the multiple story lines merge into one action-packed sequence of strategy and battle as the war with the Temujai enfolds. Characters have a bit more depth, and the humorous banter between Halt and Erak adds personality to both, keeping the book from becoming overly grim. Will and Evanlyn seem to grow up enough to realize that their prospective stations in life are a barrier to deepening the relationship they developed during the course of their servitude in Skandia. The resolution ties up many loose ends satisfactorily, although there is room for more books in this series. Reviewer: Arlene Garcia