The Royal Ranger: The Missing Prince

Ranger's Apprentice, Book 4

By: John F. Flanagan

Narrated by: John Keating

Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

International best-selling author John Flanagan returns to world of Ranger's Apprentice in the fourth installment of the Royal Ranger series starring Maddie, Will Treaty's fearless young apprentice.

Will Treaty and his apprentice, Maddie, have been urgently summoned to Castle Araluen. When they arrive they learn a shocking truth: the Prince of Gallica is missing - and the King of Gallica has asked for help. All reports suggest that the young prince has been taken prisoner by the dangerous and powerful Baron Joubert de Lassigny. King Duncan knows that sending troops to Gallica to rescue the prince could start a war, as could openly helping Gallica resolve internal convict. But there's another way to save the prince: the Ranger Corps. 

Soon, Will and Maddie are on the road to rescue the missing prince, disguised as father and daughter jongleurs. Maddie will have to use her knife-throwing skills to keep up her disguise, and her ranger's apprentice training to complete the mission. But going undercover is dangerous - and the road presents its own hazards. Can she and Will use all their talents to save the prince, or will the arrogant Baron uncover their plans and put their lives, and their kingdom, at risk? 

Internationally best-selling author of the Ranger's Apprentice and Brotherband series, John Flanagan returns in the captivating next installment of the Royal Ranger series: The Royal Ranger: The Missing Prince. Perfect for fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, Brian Jacques's Redwall, and George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones! 

Praise for The Missing Prince:

"Flanagan builds suspense with well-practiced skill.... Tension increases right up to the last page." (Booklist)

©2020 John F. Flanagan (P)2020 Listening Library

Fantastic!!!!

This is such a great book and I definitely recommend it. I am an eleven year old girl and I have read every book in the Rangers Apprentice series and even though this one is not my favorite it is , as always, funny. I must comment that Will is not has sarcastic and grim as he was in The Royal Ranger. That being said, it did have Halt, Commandant Gilan, Sir Horace, King Duncan, and Princess Cassandra in the beginning. This is a very clean series with nothing inappropriate or in modest in it. Not the most violent book so far. All in all this is a fantastic series and I definitely recommend it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has it's shortcomings, but it's still awesome!

The past Royal Ranger books have been thoroughly critiqued by the RA fandom, and not without valid reason. They're all good books, don't get me wrong, however they aren't as good as some of the older ones. The Sorcerer of the North & Siege of Macindaw come to mind, in my opinion they are better than this 'spiritual' successor. Nevertheless, I feel that this is a great story worth your time and an improvement on the past Royal Ranger stories. The chemistry between Will and Maddie really shines through with their idle conversations, especially where Will talks about the significance of last names to him. Their journey through Gallica as well, and when they finally have an audience with the king. Their interaction is great and the characters of the King and Prince are fantastic. Flanagan does what he does best here and he did it very well. Nothing feels dry or played out. All the characters we meet are interesting, not cliche or unrealistic/flat. There are some flaws though. The reasoning behind Will and Maddie going to Gallica is a little lackluster, and the explanation only comes when they reach they speak to the Gallic King around halfway through the book. King Duncan doesn't like lending Ranger's out as mercenaries but does so anyway. Only half way through the story does Will explain that they aren't going to tell the Gallic King they are Rangers, rather that they are just ordinary spies. If that had been explained at the start the plot would have felt much more convincing.

As good as can be expected from the Royal Ranger

The Rangers Aprentice books are some of my most favorite of all time, but the Royal Ranger books fall drastically short. I keep listening to each new book, hoping that something unexpected will happen and am always disappointed. This book is no exception and reminds me of Ranger's Apprentice: The Icebound Land, two people traveling throughout Gallica not really doing anything worth mentioning. There was nothing tense until the vary end. The "Black Vultures" and "Bear Killers" were, in one word, pathetic, and they didn't even flow with the rest of the book. I would highly recommend not reading the latest three Royal Ranger books if any of them. My feeling is that John Flanagan's target audience is beginning to be a younger age group. This does not strike me as a good idea because the people who read his books in middle school will now not be entertained by his new books meant for mid-elementary age kids. Either this is the case or he must be running out of ideas. Or maybe the former is true because of the latter.

Entertaining, but not Flannagan's best

Good, but certainly not his best work. Performance was excellent from the narrator, as usual on this series, but the story was not as tight and robust as his other works.

Slow and too detailed in descriptions

At least Halt's arrival at this juncture would have plucked things up a bit.

ONLY 50% OF A STORY

DON'T GET THIS BOOK IF YOU WANT A WHOLE STORY wait for the next book

It’s great, but can’t the books be longer?

Sure would love to see longer story arcs or less time between releases! Love all the series, hard to wait for the next one.

Captures your attention

This is a really good book! I have been seeing bad reviews about it being boring, true there is not a lot of action, but I really enjoyed the story. I can not wait for the next one to come out!!!

Cliff hangers be the bane of our existance

While I will try not to spoil the book itself, which is amazing. It only gets 3 stars from me because it ends in the middle of the overall tale. I highly recommend that everyone wait for book 5 to buy anything. With the average length of good books here being 10-16 hours, leaving off with at least 4 hours of story to tell, or more, is just blatant profiteering. I plan to down rate any book that doesn't finish it's title topic in one installment from here on out. I find this extra disappointing to see come from an author that doesn't typically employ these tactics to secure future readers. I mean I read these books because they are amazing, and I rush to get the next one because they are amazing. So I am hoping that John won't do this to us in the future.

Dull

I really love John Flanagans writing. The language and grammar is terrific. The story lines and action have been good in the other books as well, but this book was extremely boring and slow. Nothing really at all happens.