It has been a year since I read the sixth book in the Ranger's Apprentice series and since I was looking for an Australian author to read for the Southern Hemisphere reading challenge, it seemed the perfect moment to pick this series up.

For this book I've made the change from reading it in Dutch, to English. This caused little problems (it took me quite some time to realize that Horace is Arnaut from the Dutch books), but after some initial confusion it was a good read.

Because of the time between the books, I wasn't bothered too much with the weird chronology in this part of the series (book 7 takes place before books 5 and 6). Apparently, John Flanagan decided he had left out some of Will's story and just added it later.

So, Erak's Ransom takes place just before Will becomes a real Ranger, and he will need everything he has learned when they venture into the desert to save an old friend, Erak, who's been captured.

I quite liked the story of this one. I felt that, compared for example with book six, more things happened and there was more suspense (though it was limited a little bit with the fact that this book takes place earlier). Will however annoyed me a little as he is turning more and more in the special snowflake one who is the only one who can solve things and is also the one who is always right. I like my main characters slightly more flawed.

Looking forward to the next book!

Read also my reviews for the rest of series:

The Ruins of Gorlan (The Ranger's Apprentice #1)

The Burning Bridge (The Ranger's Apprentice #2)

The Icebound Land (The Ranger's Apprentice #3)

The Battle for Skandia (The Ranger's Apprentice #4)

The Sorcerer of the North (The Ranger's Apprentice #5)

The Siege of Macindaw (Ranger's Apprentice #6)