Book Review: The Ruins of Gorlan

Title of Book
Author
Flanagan, John
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

The first installment of Ranger's Apprentice, the Ruins of Gorlan, is a fantasy-based book telling the story of a young orphaned boy, Will. Living in the Kingdom of Araluen, Will grows up in the time of a coming war. His journey starts once he is assigned to his job in the Kingdom, to which he will later become one of the most renowned and powerful characters.

As a start to a large series, the Ruins of Gorlan is a perfect set-up to the characters and plot. It introduces characters in a unique standpoint, without rushing to develop each character in the start. Will is a relatable protagonist to the audience, where he is equally balanced in regards to strengths and weaknesses. One aspect that is most enjoyable is the successful combination with fantasy into medieval times.

Reviewer Grade: 10

Reviewer's Name
Nam T

Book Review: Inheritance

Title of Book
Author
Paolini, Christopher
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

With Inheritance being the last of the series, the book brings everything to an end to everything that we've experienced in Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr.
Eragon must do whatever it takes in order to take down Galbatorix, and his friend, Arya, is focused on taking down his greatest enemy, Shruikan. The two, along with Saphira, venture out to fight against their ultimate enemies for the final round in the hopes of gaining peace and stability.

Inheritance was a great book to the end of the series. It was a successful installment in the Eragon series, as it was able to show that everything in the past books was a great importance for the ending of the series as a whole.

Reviewer Grade: 10

Reviewer's Name
Nam T

Book Review: Brsingr

Title of Book
Author
Paolini, Christopher
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

The war between Eragon and the corrupt King, Galbatorix, continues. Eragon and Saphira continue to persist against the rule of Galbatorix in order to overthrow him. With Eragon and Saphira being one of the few remaining Dragon Riders, they must push to the nation of Alagaësia to be successful.

Brisingr was a highly climatic and thrilling book. It was able to bring together components from both Eragon and Eldest, while also being able to recognize unique parts of Brisingr itself. For example, Brisingr was able to develop upon the characters to where we could see ourselves through their perspective and experience it in an exciting manner. Brisingr is very immersive, with its significance in describing the setting to a great extent.

Reviewer Grade: 10

Reviewer's Name
Nam T

Book Review: Eldest

Title of Book
Author
Paolini, Christopher
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

Eldest is a direct follow-up from the last book, Eragon. Eldest takes place three days after the final battle in Eragon. There, human resistance fighters alongside the dwarves and a clan called Varden, to which they defeated the swarm of enemies sent by the antagonist, Galbatorix. Gaining help from an elf, Arya, he helps Eragon and the dragon Saphira to defeat a trusted ally of Galbatorix, Durza.

Eldest was able to continue the story of Eragon, and add more components that increases the interest in the reader. For example, it diversifies the lore and universe of Eragon as a whole, leaving us more to read and study of. The character development from Eragon played a substantial role in the behavior of the characters in Eldest, with each of them having a unique personality.

Reviewer Grade: 10

Reviewer's Name
Nam T

Book Review: Eragon

Title of Book
Author
Paolini, Christopher
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

Finding a blue stone by Princess Arya, the orphaned farm boy Eragon finds out that it is a dragon egg. Once the dragon, Saphira, had been born, Eragon is trained to become a dragon rider by his teacher Brom. His legacy would become a prophecy to free his people from the tyrannical ruler, Galbatorix.

Eragon was a well-written and well-paced book. The character development had a strong foundation, leading to relating with the characters. One of its most unique details in the story is originality and ability to emphasize upon fantasy, yet demonstrate it in a reasonable way. The things I enjoyed most from the book was the setting.

Reviewer Grade: 10

Reviewer's Name
Nam T

Book Review: Bad Luck

Title of Book
Author
Bosch, Pseudonymous
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

Bad luck is an amazing book showing lots of humour, fantasy and fun.
Clay is playing a regular game of capture the flag at his camp, Earth-ranch which is on a volcanic island when the vog (volcanic smog) gets so thick that he can't find his way back to camp. Clay then finds his way to a cave that has art of dragons and a book telling their secrets. Clay then finds someone who washed up on shore because his dad pushed him off a cruise ship. The cruise ship then docks at the island saying they are looking for the kid but really looking for a dragon. Clay makes friends with the washed up kid and they find the dragon and make an alliance with it.

Reviewer's Name
Vincent D

Book Review: Gone

Title of Book
Author
Grant, Michael
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

Michael Grant has renewed a classic for the next generation of readers. Gone has a very similar structure to Lord of the Flies but has enhanced the story in many ways. Gone presents added science fiction elements to the story that will draw in many readers and provides conflict that will force you to keep reading. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. However, some readers may find some elements of the story slightly disturbing. Therefore, I recommend this book for high school aged readers and up.

Reviewer's Name
John B

Book Review: Thunderhead

Title of Book
Author
Shusterman, Neal
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

The exciting sequel to Neil Shusterman's Scythe, Thunderhead, follows Citra and Rowan in a futuristic world ran by an Artificial Intelligence named Thunderhead. In this new Earth, death has been conquered, and there is actually no way to die, unless of course you have been killed by a scythe. Scythes are mysterious people hired by the government to keep the population down by gleaning, which is a polite way to say killing. Everyone fears the scythes. Citra is a newly trained scythe. Her scythe name is Anastasia, because each scythe name is named after someone before death was finished off. Rowan on the other hand is a rouge scythe named Lucifer, who tried out to be a scythe and did not make it. He executes scythes of the new order, people who believe in mass gleanings. Citra and Rowan both are followed in the story, while trying to defeat the new order in the amazing novel: Thunderhead, by Neil Shusterman.

Reviewer's Name
Owen H.

Book Review: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

Author
Sanderson, Brandon
Rating
5 stars = Bohemian Rhapsody Awesome!
Review

Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians is a thrilling book about a teenage orphan called Alcatraz Smedry. He is passed along from home to home because he always breaks what is most important to his foster parents. However on his thirteenth birthday, an old man shows up claiming to be his grandfather. He kept saying that he was late. Because he had a talent, a talent for being late. And he tells Alcatraz that he has a talent, a talent for breaking things.

Alcatraz is sucked into a world of crystal knights, bad romance novel golems, and dark oculators. In each book he learns a little more about his family and his talent. Alcatraz learns about the hushlands and the free kingdoms and the evil librarians that want to take over the world. He finds out about the dark talent the talent that will break the world. And he finds out the magic of putting footnotes in a book.

This is one of my favorites because of the funny dialog and the narrator. it touches on some funny topics and includes evil monsters. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves magic and a good story. between evil librarians and reckless smedry's this is one of my favorate series. Alcatraz vs the Evil librarians is a steller book.

Reviewer's Name
Maddox A.

Book Review: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Part 3, Stardust Crusaders, 01

Author
Araki, Hirohiko
Rating
4 stars = Really Good
Review

The continuation of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure brings back old characters with a fresh take and introduces us to new characters that make Jotaro's group feel rounded. It is definitely different, but 100% recommend it.

Reviewer's Name
William W.
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