IT IS ON THE WAY! - RANGERS APPRENTICE #8 - THE KINGS OF CLONMEL

First if you like a good story let me recommend Our History Project website and podcast. Real adventures of the little known sagas of American History- Action, Drama, War, sports and more. It is a great site with some fantastic stories.

Now!

The eighth book in the Rangers Apprentice Series by John Flanagan was published November third and after some delay (not sure why) is now on its way to my waiting hands.

Right now in the United States we are on book #4 so if you want more of the series you need to order from Australia, which is adventure in its self. Expect the delivery to be somewhere around four weeks and by the way don't even bother with Amazon.au they don't have it and is not really in the country.

This is a series that follows a young lad named Will, his training and adventures while growing up in the Ranger Corps. I would really spoil it to give you the entire run down of the series. Let me just say read it. You will not be disappointed. It is a story for the ages, truly. I am enjoying reading with my kids these adventures and my 10 year old has already re-read the series multiple times. She is trying hard to finish them again before the new one gets here. Which means every day we have a battle of wills, me saying - When is going to get here? and her - "It didn't come today did it?

The nice things about these books are that they are (books 1-4) available by most Libraries as a free download audio books through NetLibrary. If you want to discuss this book or others you can head over to the Rangers Apprentice Forum. There are currently 2 websites that I know of for the Rangers Apprentice Books - one is the .com site - http://www.rangersapprentice.com/ and the other is the Australian version of the .com - http://www.rangersapprentice.com.au/index.asp where you can play games, do puzzles and get downloads.

Needless to say I recommend the books and if you have not picked them up, do! They are that good.

To see the very cool and updated cover art see my new post at http://wcandersonreviews.blogspot.com/2010/09/rangers-apprentice-by-john-flanagan-new.html

BOOK REVIEW - THE YOUNGEST TEMPLAR - KEEPER OF THE GRAIL

The new book by Michael P. Spradlin, "THE YOUNGEST TEMPLAR - KEEPER OF THE GRAIL" is a story of Tristan, who was not only an orphan but also now a squire to the Templar Order.



The book is fairly fast paced and intriguing with enough twists to keep you interested. It is written somewhere between first and third person. I generally loath the first person written style and usually can not make it through one without giving up. However, while this is written in a first person fashion it flows very well and will drag you into the story easily. Many writers could take lessons from Spradlin on this style.

The history of the Templar's was well researched and the book contains a nice supply of history to accompany the story. Michael P. Spradlin did a great job with this book and it is the first of his stories that I have read. Which begs me to think I will check out his other writing as well.

Highly recommended - pre-teen to teen for the most part, but anyone with knowledge or is fascinated by this period of time will like the story.

RENAISSANCE MAN

It is not widely known but I have a story to tell and I am giving it a go in writing my first book. Who knows where it will go, but I will finish it. My oldest daughter and I read together before bed sometimes and it has been a treat to share with her my imaginary world.

After I'm done with it I would like to get other opinions and one form is to make an Internet audio book. I have been searching for the right tune to accompany the beginnings and chapter breaks and I think I have stumbled quite literally on a genre I really knew nothing about. But, I like it - are you ready for this Victorian or Classical Guitar. The style ranges from Circa 1400's - early 1920's I understand.

After hearing a few samples I searched the world wide web to see what was out there and there turns out to be not much in the way of listening. However I did run across one site that's intitled "Early Music" by Jon Sayles.

He has quite a bit to sample on this page and to me it is completely different than anything I have listened to. So expand your horizions and give it a listen. You may be suprised.