The Icebound Land

Well, this is another solid entry in The Ranger's Apprentice series. I began this series wanting to look for a quick middle grade fantasy read and was not disappointed. I felt that the first two books were very well written, and they featured main characters that we could latch on to and enjoy reading. The Icebound Land however was not as good as I would have liked, and let me down with the main plot.

The characters are still as good as ever in this book, with Halt and Horace trying to get to Will and Evalyn who were captured in the last book. We see Evalyn come into her own in this book as she has to help Will overcome the effects of a drug that makes him docile and unfit to perform almost anything except for the most menial task. This makes for good suspense on both sides, which I won't spoil.

There are a few things that I should mention here just for warnings sake. One is that there is the mention of drug use in this book. It is handled well, and shown in a negative light, but it is still something of note. Also, there is an example of prostitution in the novel. It is treated where the reader can comprehend what is happening, whereas an ignorant character cannot, but still, it should be mentioned. Normally, I would not bring it up, but it did feel somewhat inappropriate, with these things have not been mentioned before in the series, which made it feel out of place and awkward.

Then there is the big problem of the main plot of the novel. Really, not anything of consequence happens in the book. Most of the time our characters are sitting around, or standing around, waiting for something to happen. This can make for a book that felt sluggish in terms of pacing, even with its short length.

Still, I'm willing to give the next book a try. I am excited to see where the characters will end up from here, given what they have been through. I give it a three out of five.