Fantasy

This was a reread since I recently got the sixth and seventh book, and I’m probably gonna buy every book in this series because goddddd, I love it so much. This isnonly the first book, but I already love the band of misfits that all have their separate personalities, but they fit together so well. Maybe I am biased because I have read and loved these books since I was like 14, but I genuinely think they are amazing and can do no wrong, I love this series sm ( )

My son and I love reading John Flanagan's tales in the world he's created. We love the brotherly love, the friendships in them. The humor. The ingenuity of the characters.
Hal and his brotherband are great to read about, as are the side characters. We were instantly drawn into the characters' lives, invested in them right away.
One thing I loved about the original Ranger's Apprentice series was that the problems faced were never brought on by the young main character making some foolish decision, as many children's movies and books go; the challenges were externally instigated, and the beloved characters would surmount any difficulty by cleverness and skill. I docked one star from this Brotherband book for the sole purpose of there being a divergence from that trend, and some hardship ensuing from beloved characters making foolish mistakes (not reasonable mistakes, but ones that didn't feel genuine to the characters).
The audiobook reading is fantastic as ever, thanks to John Keating for lending his talents once again to entertain us and save us from having to try to replicate multiple voices and accents.
We started book 2 right after finishing book 1, and look forward to continuing this Brotherband journey. ( )

Maybe it's just me, but I had a hard time getting into this book. It's about vikings (even though they have other names-still vikings). Vikings were marauders. So it took at least a third of the way into the book to start to root for the underdog characters. It did grow on me enough I may read (or more likely listen to) the next book in the series. ( )

A companion, inferior series to Rangers Apprentice. Young Skandians are grouped together in brotherbands to be trained and to compete as teams. A group of rejects become a small team and against all odds manage to use ingenuity to level the playing field; however, just after their moment of triumph, disaster strikes and they are once again the outcasts as they started. The main character (Hal) is quite likeable. ( )