John Flanagan: Strengths and Weaknesses

 

John Flanagan is the best-selling author of the "Ranger's Apprentice" children's book series, along with its companion series, "Brotherband Chronicles". I was really into these books as a kid and have recently picked up a couple again. They continue to strike me as engaging, fun, and well-written.

Strengths

Flanagan's books are fun. He is not at all shy about bringing you action, witty humor, and fun scenarios for the heroes to try to navigate. His books are written with a refreshing lightness and excitement, a mood that fits beautifully with the titular character, Will, of the Ranger's Apprentice series.

Flanagan is an engaging writer. He paints engaging settings that allow me to picture the backdrop and imagine the scenes as they play out. The dialogue is generally witty and compelling, sprinkled with humor and drama.

Finally, Flanagan writes with a refreshing simplicity, which sometimes plays out as a weakness, but in this genre, it's usually a strength. Instead of becoming lost in plots and subplots, or an unnecessarily large cast of minor characters, the stories are straightforward and easy to follow. Some books feel like work to read, and his are the opposite.

Weaknesses

One of Flanagan's weaknesses is the generally godless nature of his novels. In each Ranger's Apprentice volume, for example, the Ranger Corps' mystique and mystery is repeatedly and clearly revealed to be nothing but skill and subterfuge. Likewise, villains who appear to have supernatural properties are found to be well-trained tricksters. It makes one wonder whether the divine has any place in his world.

Another his his penchant for recycling plot devices - especially a couple that don't happen to be my favorites. One is kidnapping; a disproportionately large number of his books involve some protagonist or supporting character who must be rescued. Another is cliffhangers. I prefer for my novels to be able to stand alone as works of good fiction, but Flanagan often prefers to stretch a conflict across multiple novels, without clear resolutions at the end of each. There obviously is a place for ongoing conflict in a long-term series like this, but each book should come to a satisfying conclusion, which I don't always get in his writing.