The Brotherband Chronicles (Full Series Review)

Long Review

This is the companion series to the critically acclaimed Ranger’s Apprentice. I should be starting with that series, but I’ve just finished reading the final Brotherband books currently published, so it’s fresh on my mind.

The Brotherband Chronicles and Ranger’s Apprentice are both set in a near-Earthen history. Araluen, the country that hosts the Rangers, is a loose copy of England, and Skandia, home to the Brotherbands, are their world’s version of Vikings. At least, they were… But that’s another story for another time.

Brotherband Chronicles began with The Outcasts. It follows Hal, a half-Araluen boy who’s starting Brotherband Training (the time when young men learn to be warriors). As a half-Araluen, his fellow countrymen treat him with scorn and disdain. His best friend, a short-tempered boy name Stig, is likewise pushed to the side. When the boys of the town are split into their various teams, Hal is put in charge of all the boys that no one wanted on their team.

There are eight boys in total, which is a lot of characters to work with in one book. However, Flanagan does this masterfully. By the end, you know each character’s individuality. Each has their own facet of skill and flaw. I’ll get more into it in the Technical Notes, but it’s definitely a key point there.

The series now has nine books, starting from The Outcasts and running to The Stern Chase. The first three books (Outcasts, Invaders, Hunters) are a complete trilogy. After this, the books are, for the most part, standalone, though definitely consecutive. Flanagan does this well, but I’ve found that first three-book arc to be the best of them all. For readers who just want more of the characters and their adventures, though, the books are still well-written and cohesive.

The Herons (as the Brotherband is named), range across the world, engaging in exciting adventures and escapades. They grow together and become a steadfast unit and team. There are a lot of life lessons that are taught without making explicit morals, which is a point that I’ve always appreciated.

At the end of the day, The Brotherband Chronicles stands next to Redwall as a stalwart fantasy-lite adventure series, perfect for tweens and teens alike. Maybe, even, for an increasingly older guy who loves to relive his childhood adventures, running through the backwoods and fighting the bad guys that only he could see.

But that might just be me.

Technical Notes

Let’s face it. Making eight in-depth, detailed characters that readers will cheer for (and argue about who’s their favorite) is not something you do before breakfast. So how does Flanagan do it?

I want to preface this by saying that, while I have read the first few books innumerable times, I have only just jumped back into the final books that I hadn’t finished yet, so I am drawing on my memories of the semi-distant past to write these notes.

But! Onward!

In the first book especially, Flanagan makes his character’s personalities and oddities the basis of the plot itself. For example, Hal is a brilliant inventor, but, especially in the beginning, he forgets crucial points that lead to his projects failing. Likewise, hot-headed Stig is always making problems for himself by blowing off at the handle.

As the boys need to rally together in order to win the Brotherband challenges, it’s up to Hal, and his mentor, Thorn, to figure out how to pull this rough band of outcasts into a cohesive group.

Some edges are smoothed. Others are worsened. Some characters change. Others become more themselves. But throughout the book, Flanagan highlights personalities by building them into the plot. This has two effects.

First, it makes the overall premise even more interesting. Now, instead of just needing to win the Brotherband competition, they need to learn to trust and rely on each other. Secondly, it allows Flanagan to really explore different characters, and make action-tense scenes become character interaction-tense, too. At the end, it leaves the audience able to see characters like Jesper, the former thief, and Stefan, who’d rather complain than work, in the best light, and cheer for them.

This method of using character’s personalities dwindles as the series goes, which makes sense. The characters have gotten used to each other – they don’t need to struggle to mesh as much.

Some things become reoccurring jokes. For example, the identical twins Ulf and Wulf argue about everything, even when they agree. They are also identical in every way imaginable.

A quick anecdote about this. In one book, one of them is injured, and receives a nasty scar as a result. Hal comments that, at least, he’ll be able to tell them apart. This causes the other twin to reveal an identical scar. How he got it is never explained, nor does it have to; they are just that similar.

Readers Beware

There’s violence and some cold-hearted moments from the villains of the story, but for readers of fantasy/medieval fiction, it’s typical.

Final Thoughts

Like I said initially, the first ‘trilogy’ of books is my favorite. It feels like the books begin to degrade as the go, as if Flanagan is looking to get books out, instead of crafting well-compiled stories.

From the final three, which were the ones I read before writing this review, I found books seven and eight less than impressive. They were good stories, but both felt like they relied more on convenient plot points to make the action move forward.

Fortunately, the ninth book, The Stern Chase, felt like a classic Flanagan novel. For one, the pacing of the book was better, with more breath between action, as well as a timeline that made more sense in my head. Secondly, the dialogue between the crew felt a little more natural and more like those first three books.

It’s also shorter than the other books, which I think is a testament to Flanagan allowing his focus go to crafting a story and not writing to hit a certain length novel. It was not a long read, but it was much more enjoyable than the other two.

As a whole, if you’re looking for a new young adult series to sink your teeth into, Brotherband Chronicles should be on your list!