Scorpion Mountain: Brotherband Chronicles, Book 5

/// Edit: Just to note I have now finished the book with an additional section explaining my feelings after its completionOk, so a thing to keep in mind is I'm not entirely finished with the book, only about half way through, but I had some nigglings that wouldn't go away and I felt the urge to share them, so here are my thoughts so far.The book isn't the best of Flanagan's works, not quite up to the level of previous entries but good and entertaining nonetheless.My major quibble, as was a case with the latest rangers apprentice book, the royal ranger is that character contradictions are beginning to become woefully apparent. The fact that will in the last book was overpowered by lowly brigands ground my gears to say the least, this one however (mild spoiler) compares the characters of horace and stig, claiming they are on equal footings.... This may seem minor to some, but to me, claims like this need to make sense, and to me, this doesn't. Stig is at most a late teen to early twenty something male, and in this series has been described a capable warrior, nothing more. Yet here he is being called equal with Araluen's Best, literally their best soldier.... Why, it simply serves to discredit horace. Even looking at the challenges the two have faced, horace's opponents have usually been professional soldiers or leaders and he has bested them all. Stigs and the brotherbands in comparison have thus far been pirates, brigands and slavers..... The two just aren't on the same level, nothing about them has previously indicated that this is the case.Excuse the rant, but stuff like this really detracts from the overall quality of the narrative, having horace be on equal footing with thorn say makes sense, both being their nations premier warriors, but this..... Gah, please don't go bandying such statements around lightly in future Mr Flanagan. I just personally feel that a certain "ranking" is in order when watching or reading any book or film, you wouldn't have aragorn be overpowered by a single orc, or the hulk bested by a normal human in an arm wrestle.... Stuff like that breaks immersion in a heartbeat. Things like Duncan losing his temper for the first time in my memory and over literally nothing, with thorn losing his temper equally quickly and irrationally.... Please take more care with character continuity.TL;DR The calibre of challenges the herons faced has always been well below that of halt, will and horace etc, thus any comparisons between the two should adequately reflect that.Anyway, enough on that, as for the rest of it, the story is Ok, dialogue is good. Will say a little too much time is spent with characters and their personal thoughts for my taste but to each their own. The gravitas of the herons challenge is pretty standard for brotherband books thus far, not RA level and that's fine, just hope in future comparisons between the two can reflect that with greater accuracy.This review has sounded rather negative, and I don't want it to come across that way, I have thus far except for a few frowns over the nonsensical nature of character continuity enjoyed the book, I personally prefer the RA ones so I'm probably a little biased, but on the whole I think it's a good read and if you've like the previous entries then it would be a safe bet to say you'll like this one.I'll update once I'm don't for a more comprehensive and holistic review.Edit #1 (abundant spoilers, do NOT read unless you have read the book)Ok, so I finished the book, and I'll admit things started to improve, with Gilan being slightly better than Stig but slightly worse than Thorn, this fits in with previous titles and is what it should be, though how on earth this now fits in with Horace, God only knows.I suppose my biggest gripe as perviously stated is the fact that the world that the Herons inhabit has always been a "nicer" one in comparison to the Rangers apprentice one. The price of failure in their case is a lost Skandian treasure, a few slaves etc... In comparison, should the Rangers have fialed, it's the fall of Skandia to the Temujai, or Araluen being overrun by Morgorath/ an invasion from Picta. The qualit of enemies is entirely incomparable as well, expert warriors from Nihon-Ja compared with brigands and bandits. This isnt a criticism for the brotheband books as a whole, they just never seemed as serious which is fine. However, the crew of the Herons suddenly seemed to receive some magical upgrade between Slaves of Soccoro and this title, to have them on even footing with the likes of Gilan say and again, it just doesn't fit. To use some more bad analogies, it would be like having a marine be put in a unit with Navy Seals and have him suddenly perform at or above their level. Or to have St Kilda (think their bad this year?) beat Geelong by 200 points. It just doesn't make sense.Things like Hal not being surprised at all by thorn CATCHING A CROSSBOW BOLT..... I know he's a legendary warrior bla bla bla, but not even raised eyebrows. Who are these superheroes and what did they do with the Herons?Things, as I said, did get better, with Gilan getting his moments, though nothing on his hidden movement, still used the standard cloak, small things but still strange. Though I still felt he, and anyone else from the RA was hobbled in their ability, his tactical prowess never really shone through and he often times differed to Thorn, which once again, nonsensical. Each person has their roles, and tactics have always been a rangers strong point. Even in the last book, Gilan was making mistakes that didn't really add up in my head, he just wasn't on the pedestal that he was in RA books, which if anything should be set even higher given this "easier world" It just felt that Flanagan wanted the the characters from both books on at least the same level, if not having the BB crew slightly above, which, apologies for beating a dead horse, is just ridiculous, they have less experience and faced enemies no way close to the same calibre. This is all fine, but it never shone through in this book which really grated on me as any further collaboration between the two series needs to match the standard set here, which is a surprising and to me, illogical one. Hell even Lydia was practically placed on the same level as Gilan.... Her darts may be effective, but they will never be able to match the range of the longbow and even her skill seemed to match Gilan's years of experience with the longbow.... Furthermore, the Duncan scene comes to mind again and just how much of a change that was. We had a down to earth, intelligent and almost modern man, attempting to waive the law for Halt for commit treason by insulting him, then literally going off his nut because the Heron being smaller in size to regular Wolfships, even after having Gilan tell them how it's a fantastic it etc... Then Thorn, just as irrationally, doing the same thing. To top it off, now Thorn is a "confident" because of it. In every RA book to date, Duncan has always been a reasonable man and never once lost his temper like that. Last gripe, again back to stig and Horace, This was the first in the series where I felt that Stig was closely comparable to Horace. The entire character was identical to me, replace every "Stig" with "Horace" and I wouldn't have questioned it, which is annoying. Then we have stig killing rabbits by throwing stones at them.... Just out of the blue, dropped as a casual thing. Unless 10 years, steroids and bionic upgrades have occurred since the last book, then I don't know what to tell you, the Herons as a whole were just magically "better". Anyway, enough negatives, the book was good, humour was there, but the inconstancies came close to ruining it for me.Second TL;DR, The characters in this book seemed completely different from the characters in all previous works, with the characters from BB receiving a rather major upgrade out of the blue, while the charecters from RA seemed to receive a downgradeIf anyone is reading this, knows John Flanagan, the only thing I ask him to do is sit down with his editors and get a "ranking" straight to avoid these ridiculous scenarios in future titles, because at times I found myself having to put the book down in frustration with some of the inconsistencies. The characters from RA should be superior in almost every way, they are older, more experienced, and cracked far tougher nuts than anything the Herons have accomplished. Nothing wrong again, but it's like following the stories of a special forces soldier/member of the security services (pretty much what rangers are) and regular police etc... Just not operating on the same level. Please don't gimp my childhood heroes for the sake of your new ones John, they deserve better.Edit #2:Ok, So I'm not sure if this was directed at me, but another reviewer didn't agree with the differences in the degree of challenge between the RA characters and the BB characters, citing that because they are on a boat, the problems they could face are far more limited in scope. Now whether or not this was directed at me I feel the need to clarify my points as they may have been misunderstood.I have no problem with the BB world being "easier" than the RA world, and realistically, with there being only a dozen or so people on a ship the challenges that they could overcome will have to be smaller in some degree, I have no quarrel here. I begin to take issue, however, when the worlds begin to blend. We have characters from the RA beginning to blend in with the characters from the BB world, which is great. I just didn't feel they added up. I too am fine with the BB characters and enemies and I agree that the latest antagonists was the series best to date. My point is, as you yourself acknowledge, the challenges of the RA ARE more meaningful than that faced by the Herons, which again is fine, except when the characters from this more "difficult" world begin having just as much if not more trouble keeping up in an "easier" world.An analogy if you'll permit me. I compare it to a university/college student studying mathematics, they find it challenging, they may sometimes need help with certain problems, but eventually overcome them and graduate (like a story arc). Then to take this graduate and put them in a high school maths class, where they seeming struggle equally if not more with the high school level maths work and even keeping up with some of the "smarter" kids in the class. It just doesn't make sense. This is how I feel with this latest book, that characters like Gilan and Horace (the uni students in keeping with my terrible analogy) have trouble keeping up with characters from the BB (high school students) which I feel is a sever injustice to the RA series.Excuse any typos and spelling errors, I'm on mobile :)Thanks for reading

Suspenseful stories, while showing not only the human sides of the characters, but also their individual skills. I loved that the brother band were all scorned at first. They overcame!

have always enjoyed flanagan's writing. good set that goes along with both of his ranger sets.

Excellent condition! Like new! I was very impressed at the quality and care of this book. I would definitely order from this person again! Thank you!

In Scorpion Mountain, Hal and crew work to put an end to an assassination contract against princess Cassandra. By now I know to expect any John Flanagan book will be a 5-star book for me (after reading tons of them), and this one is no exception. The writing is top-notch, the characters continue to surprise me, and the plot is always non-stop action. This book has some very interesting developments with Wulf, Ulf, Thorn, and Lydia, not to mention a major life-altering change for Ingvar. And Ranger Gilan is a large part of this book, which is great for people who love the Ranger series. It is so easy to get immersed in this fantasy world and to feel like you are a part of the crew. The humor, comradery, cunning, and teamwork are all well done. It is always fun to see enemies underestimate the Heron crew. I really enjoyed this book and can't wait for future ones.

I started reading the Ranger's Apprentice series with my kids since they were 10, and enjoy it tremendously. I was a little sad when the series ended, but I picked up the Brotherband series and found myself enjoying it just as much. They are clearly written for younger teens, but the writing, the stories, the settings, the humor make them fascinating for adults as well. The same kind of appeals that draw readers in as Harry Potter, but lighter and more straight forward.This book is as good as any others in the series, but I think it's a little more special because it brings back familiar characters in the Ranger's Apprentice series. It still offers the usual witty humor with plenty of seafaring adventures, which is the element that sets it apart from the Ranger's Apprentice, but it also involves the old elements from the Ranger's Apprentice. The best of both world for fans of Flanagan.

Too many writers try to make their books revolutionary, unlike anything anyone's ever read before. John Flanagan doesn't have this problem he found a style of writing that works, very much like that of Brian Jacques in my opinion, a and he's stuck to it ever sinceWhen the Ranger's Apprentice series ended (the first time, after Lost Stories book) I found myself saddened. I didn't think that the Brotherband Chronicles could live up to Ranger's legacy, but it has. Familiar characters from the Ranger's series and constant references to Ranger's events make the Brotherband series seem like it is more of a spin-off than a completely separate series, in a good way. There are lots of great parts of the books, inventions, humor, and action are all abundant in the series so there's something for everyone. The Flanagan's novels are "recommended" for middle school to high school students, but really people of all ages can find something to enjoy in his writing.

This is my favorite of the Brotherband series so far!! I love that it brings the Brotherband characters into the Ranger's Apprentice World. It made me so happy because I miss Araluen and the Rangers, and the intersection of the two worlds was well executed. My only complaint about the Brotherband series is that it goes over too many details about the changing of sails, etc, every time. I don't mind it once in a while, but it starts to wear a little thin. That being said. I am really enjoying this series, too, as the mother of two boys who introduced her to the Ranger's Apprentice. RA is still by far my favorite of the two, but this one is fabulous in its own right.

This is a review of the whole series rather than just this one book. I have read and enjoyed the Apprentice series so I was a bit wary of reading this one in case it didn't match up but it did. It was different but in a good way and centred more on the team and how they grew and developed not just the main character. Yes it's a kids book and no I'm not a kid but it didn't stop me really enjoying it and wanting to know what happened next. The only slight misgiving is the hint of a love triangle, I really hope the author doesn't go that route I hate love triangle. I hope there is another installment very soon.

Hot on the heels of their triumphant victory at soccoro, Hal and his herons are given another tricky task by king Duncan!We meet Duncan, Crowley and Cassandra in this instalment, blurring the apprentice/Brotherband lines. Ingvar is aided by Hals ocular invention, bringing him to the fore in battle.If you've enjoyed the series so far? Then you'll enjoy this just as much!, overall an easy read with plenty of derring-do and battles to be fought.The scorpion cult is an interesting addition though.

Excellent story from start to finish …

My grandson, 14, love the Brotherband books. The stories are exciting and the characters have their own problems that encourage children to accept that even with a disability you can still be a hero.

John Flanagan does it again. My boys and I have loved both his brother band series and the Rangers apprentice series. Great characters, good plots and enjoyable to read. Highly recommended.