The Outcasts

by John Flanagan

Welcome back to Readascopic.  To find out more about the blog click here.  I am writing on my favourite book yet.

Skandian battle equipment

Book 1 Brotherband series

Rating
***** 

The Outcasts is part of a series called Brotherband which is by the same author as the Ranger's Apprentice series and is set about five years after the first Ranger's Apprentice book, which I have already blogged about.

This book is about a group of Skandians who are pretty similar to Vikings.  Two young friends have to work together in a brotherband to overcome two rival brotherbands and win the contest to become warriors.

Brotherbands are a training program that teaches boys to become warriors.  They have to work together to master sailing a wolf ship which is like a longboat.  They must also become ferocious fighters.

Brotherband training is tough, painful and tiring; the trainees must work together and as individuals.

The main characters, Hal and Stig become very close friends and we follow them through the series.  They have to guard a precious jewel and then everything goes wrong.  The book ends on a very big cliff hanger.  Read books two and three to complete the rest of the adventure!

I enjoyed this book because it is interesting fun and sometimes amusing.  

I thoroughly recommend John Flanagan!        

Eragon

by Christopher Paolini

This time Readascopic looks at a book about magic written by the genius young author Christopher Paolinin who was only 15 when he wrote this gripping book.  To find out more about the Readascopic blog click here.

Stone that Eragon found

Rating
*****
This is a book full of magic and dragons.  It is absolutely gripping from start to finish. You may think it's starting to sound a bit like "Harry Potter" but trust me, it's way better.  The magic is definitely more practical because it's not unlimited, so you have to have other weapons.

A young boy called Eragon finds an odd stone whilst hunting deer in a forest.  This peculiar stone launches him into a magical adventure packed with fun and excitement.  He learns to ride a dragon, fight with a sword and he studies the arts of magic.

Eragon starts off living on a farm near a group of mountains in a village called Carvahall.  He lived with his uncle and cousin but he didn't know who his mum or dad were. Other people in the village are Brom, Sloan and Horst.  Sloan is the village butcher and he hates Eragon and Horst is the blacksmith and is friendly to Eragon.

Eragon has to Find the Varden to help kill an evil king and he has to beat monsters made to kill men.

As you may have noticed from my other posts, I like the medieval era.  So this is a great book for me and it is full of visual descriptions of characters, places and objects.  This makes you feel in the action instead of just reading a book.  

Click here to go to the publisher's website and you can read more about this author's books. 

Hope you enjoy reading this book.
Look out for the next post!

The Reada