In this final iteration of the twelve books in the Ranger’s Apprentice series, you get yet another
completely different experience as the timeline leaps forward roughly sixteen years. In this book,
you get a nasty shock as a gruesome twist turns Will into a grim, bearded ranger just as Halt had
once been. In this book, you get to see the new princess of Araluen, Maddie, turned from a brat
into the only bright spot Will has left in his life as his heart is blackened by a desire for revenge
against the men that killed his late wife Alyss. In this book, you get to see Maddie transform
Will’s life the way that Will had transformed Halt’s. And, as she does so, Will soon finds himself
face to face with the very man he had been hunting all along. This book is truly an excellent way
to end the series with closure. I will admit that the nasty shock of Alyss’s death wasn’t
appreciated, but the book was well written enough and so well balanced, it more than makes up
for it. There isn’t much else I can say about this except that it really is a good ending (and
beginning for something else) to such a fun series. Besides you have to be veritably insane to
read the first eleven books only to stop now.