The Traitor's Son

Path of the Ranger, Book 1

By: Pedro Urvi

Narrated by: John Banks

Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

A kingdom in danger, a great betrayal, a boy seeking to redeem his father's honor. Will he succeed in exonerating him and saving the realm from an enemy in the shadows before it’s too late?

Lasgol is the son of the traitor; the man who betrayed the kingdom and tried to kill the king. At the age of 15, he has endured a hard childhood. In his small village in the North, where he’s cornered and hated, his only companions are the mountains and ever-present snow. Yet he refuses to believe that his father is guilty, even though the king himself was a witness to the betrayal.

Lasgol is determined to clear his father's name, and to do this, he has only one option: attend the School of Rangers, a secret place where the respected and feared defenders of the lands of the kingdom are trained for four years. Going there is insane: Hate and death await him. But as the son of a Ranger, he's entitled to attend.

At the Camp he will find himself involved in political intrigues, disloyalties, and fights. He will encounter hatred and fearsome enemies, but also a handful of friends; other novices who are out of place like himself, determined to do whatever is necessary to make it through the first year alive.

©2020 Pedro Urvi (P)2020 Podium Audio

Plot holes abound

The quality of the writing is good and some of the characters are great. But the world building and the logic of the world are terrible. Everyone is terrified of magic but tons of people use magic so basically everyone is a whiny scared pathetic hypocrite. It’s like the author started writing one story then switched it half way into a different story and it happens so fast it gives you whiplash, the personalities of most of the side characters switch on a dime in the most unrealistic way and it’s just brushed off like it’s normal.

Strong narration for weak story

Clean — no sex or swearing. The narrator is quite good. The story is just barely okay, in my opinion. Too bad, because I sometimes like this genre. Here we have simplistic and superficial characters, inconsistent plot, and lame dialogue. Humor is attempted frequently but alas....it feels fake and silly (sticking out tongue, tripping over your own feet, etc.). The mean-spiritedness of the instructors, fellow villagers, and ranger initiates was over the top. Specific scenes focused on developing ranger skills primarily involve running laps and term test sessions.

The hatchling creature has potential, though. And the story ends on a hopeful note.

I much prefer the Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan. Highly recommended.

Scratches the itch “battlemage” left me

The book was good but it does have its flaws. But first off, the narrator was great. Nothing kills an audiobook faster than a bad narrator. Secondly, after the exposition, the book flowed well. Too many fantasy authors like to flex their flowery vocabulary which ends up slowing the pace to a crawl and ultimately doesn’t advance the plot.

The book also did a good job introducing concepts so that when certain events happened down the road, it didn’t feel like it was pulled out of thin air. On that note, there’s a decent bit of questionable logic. SPOILERS

Turns out dominator mages was a thing and the MCs dad was dominated. The king had found many agents with the same runes and everything. They knew about dominator mages and yet they didn’t even think about investigating this possibility before hopping on the traitor train. In fact the king is a king and should have had access to lots of resources to investigate the runes. Instead it took an unrealistic monologue from the corrupt mage for them to figure out which was stupid imo. A smart person would have kept quiet about the domination so the agents could sow paranoia into the king. He wouldn’t know who was good or bad but now the king knows that those controlled were innocent.

Aside from that I can safely say that I’m continuing with the series.

Good Start Coming of Age Fantasy

This was a good book.
I generally enjoy books where the characters are sent to some sort of academy to learn magic/how to fight, so this was quite a nice little read.
The main character is a likeable youth who was often bullied for his father's betrayal.
I think that the only complaint I had about this book was that the main character did not have more ranger-like skills. His father was one of the best, after all, so it is unrealistic that he did not teach his son any other skills. He did have some - he could track game well, but he was a poor shot with the bow, and was not a very compitent hunter.
This is still a 5 out of 5 for me. I can't wait for book2.

fabulous read. entertaining.

Couldn't stop listening. Very fun. Loved the characters and story. As engaging as Harry Potter.

more like 4.5 stars

solid coming of age story. good characters. good atort. some good twists.
my only complaint. about 2/3 through there is an event that happens that kinda breaks immersion. but it resolves soon enough.
worth the credit.

really good

Awesome. totally recommend. I would not buy for 25 dollars. you can get 3 credits for $33 way better

Enjoyable...

No doubt there are similarities with Ranger's Apprentice, Botherband and even Harry Potter stories. I see is as if Skandia (cold lands) now had their own Rangers, and had a special school for their apprentice like in Brotherband and Hogwarts with different master instructors and houses (teams).
With that being said...its kinda the same but totally different. There is a bigger plot that involves the whole kingdom and the rangers seem to be the first line of defense for the king. I did find this story and (book 2) as fun and fresh. Just my knowledge of the other books mentioned gives me a better understand of how things work. I would not say its a bad thing being similar to the others.

Good read

Loved the book good narrator to. Great plot I can’t wait tell the next books come out.

Great read

Great story, character build up and narration. It definitely has left me ready for book 2.

Wonderful Story.

I enjoyed every minute of this audio book. The story is good and well developed as well as very creative. The narrator brings the book to life - better than many other books I have heard. I really am looking forward to the other books in this series.

when ulis the next one out

This book reminded me of the Rangers Apprentice but more adult themed in the sense that he didn't come across as as a early teens book

Amazing

The story line is fantastic and caught my breath. It reminds me of the series of rangers apprentice by John Flanagan. Overall I LOVE IT 😁

hooked

been hooked from the beginning found this series a 5 days ago and now on the 5th book already

Very Entertaing

I enjoyed this despite the slightly unoriginal premise of reclaiming family honour. The thing that saved this book for me was the interesting characters our hero becomes involved with. I will certainly for now continue to follow The Path of The Ranger"