The Lost Stories
Australian front cover of The Lost Stories
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| Author | John Flanagan |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Jeremy Reston |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Series |
Ranger's Apprentice (book no. 11) |
| Genre | Fantasy, Adventure |
| Publisher |
Random House (AUS & NZ) Gottmer (NL) |
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Publication date
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3 October 2011 (AUS) 7 October 2011 (NZ) 15 February 2012 (NL) |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) E-book |
| Pages | 580 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 724025032 |
| A823.4 | |
| Preceded by | The Emperor of Nihon-Ja |
| Followed by | The Royal Ranger |
The Lost Stories is the eleventh book in the New York Times best-selling series, Ranger's Apprentice by Australian author John Flanagan. It is a collection of "lost" tales that fill in the gaps between Ranger's Apprentice novels.
The book was released in Australia on 3 October 2011 and in New Zealand on 7 October 2011. It is available in many languages, including Czech, Korean, and Dutch. It is available in hardcover, paperback, e-book, and audiobook. Although the novel is rated for children ages ten and up, the content is light and includes kissing, violence, killing, and gruesome injuries in the same manner seen in the prior books. The Lost Stories currently is 19,925 on the Barnes and Noble Sales ranking.
The book begins with a scene many years in the future. A professor named Giles MacFarlane is overseeing an archaeological expedition when his assistant, Audrey, finds a little house in an area where homes wouldn't normally be built. Inside, Professor MacFarlane finds stories that tell what happens to the Rangers after they return from Nihon-Ja. In the chronicles, Gilan battles several thieves who are trying to kill Jenny, Will's hideous speech ignites a purple fire as he fights a moondarker, Evanlyn and Horace are married and at the end of the book Will and Alyss are married as well.
In the Republic of Aralan States (formerly the medieval Kingdom of Araluen), in Redman County, the archeologist Professor Giles Macfarlane and his team have excavated the remains of the infamous triangular Castle Redmont. He hoped to find proof of the legendary Rangers Corps’ existence. In their third season on the sight, a spry, energetic university volunteer named Audrey came across the remains of Will Treaty’s cabin in the woods. There Macfarlane found a chest containing the Lost Stories of Araluen, chronicling what happened to Will, Halt and the rest after they returned from Nihon-Ja, giving the Professor the proof he was after. He then proceeds to read them.
Will Treaty, after gathering local gossip, returns to his little cabin in the woods to find Halt, his mentor and friend, waiting there for him. After coffee, Halt hesitantly tells Will a tale of his parents from immediately after the battle at Hackham Heath against Morgarath’s army: upon losing that battle, Morgarath did not surrender, preferring instead to keep throwing his troops at the Kingdom’s forces to cause as many losses as possible. In one of the skirmishes Halt steps up to take command of a failing flank. He notices that the Araluen line might collapse before he arrives on the front lines. He therefore stops at the back to empty his quiver of arrows into the enemy’s front line, halting their advance. Halt rallies the Araluen troops but gets knocked to the ground by a club, stunned. A sergeant takes the lead, standing over Halt and then leading the charge to win the skirmish, all while enduring multiple wounds. As the sergeant lies dying on the ground, he tells Halt that his name is Daniel and that Halt should promise to take care of his wife and baby, which he does. Waking up in a healer’s tent, Halt immediately sets off to find out where Daniel lived. He learns that two cheats, Kord and Jerrel, might know where Daniel lived as they asked for people’s homes before playing. Halt, undercover as a soldier named Arratay, joins the gambler’s tent. After pretending to imbibe copious amounts of drink, letting slip that there might be another arduous campaign and pretending to fall asleep, Halt overhears the two planning to desert the army and pillage Daniel’s home first as it was the closest. Halt follows the deserters for a day and half, finally arriving at Daniel’s farm. The farm was on fire and Kord and Jerrel were terrorizing the widow and her child. Halt intervenes, stabbing Kord but upon confronting Jerrel, Kord, as a last act, trips Halt. Daniel’s widow jumps on Jerrel, who was about to kill Halt, saving his life but giving up hers in the process. Halt dispatches Jerrel and promises the dying woman that he would take care of the baby, whose name she reveals to be Will. After burying the woman and leaving the thieves to the crows, Halt takes Will to the Ward, an orphanage on Redmont Fief for those whose parents died in service. Halt reveals to the now grown Will that he hadn’t told him until this point because he was afraid Will would blame him as he viewed Will’s parents’ deaths as his fault but Will comforts Halt, claiming Halt gave him the chance for a new family.
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