The Ruins of Gorlan

Novel by John Flanagan

The Ruins of Gorlan is the first novel in the Ranger's Apprentice series written by Australian author John Flanagan. It was first released in Australia on 1 November 2004, and in the United States on 16 June 2005. Flanagan first conceived the world of the novel in a series of short stories he wrote for his son to incite his interest in reading. Ten years later, he decided to turn them into The Ruins of Gorlan, the first book in the Ranger's Apprentice series.

The Ruins of Gorlan was originally a set of short stories written by author John Flanagan for his son Michael to encourage him to read. Flanagan wrote one story each week for thirty weeks. About ten years later, Flanagan returned to these stories and decided to write them into a full length novel. The character Horace was based on Michael's friend Jeremy, but in the original short stories Flanagan made Horace the villain. In the stories, Horace disappears after Will saves his life on the boar hunt, while in the novel, Flanagan was able to make Morgarath the main villain and "rehabilitate" Horace to keep him as a main character. Flanagan thought that the idea of a bully being bullied was a strong concept that was not in the original stories and was later incorporated into the novel. He planned this parallel storyline in Battleschool to develop and show how Horace could help Will through his "linear thinking". Flanagan was careful to make the distinction that Horace was not stupid, since he was, in fact, a straight thinker which helped balance Will's wild thinking. Will was based on Michael, and shared some of his physical attributes, including his small stature and agile movement. Most importantly, Flanagan wanted to show his son that there was an advantage to being small and that not all heroes have to be tall and strong. Carolyn Phelan from Booklist praised how Will is a normal hero without any magical skills making him a very original and believable character. Phelan also recognised the setting as "a colorful place, threatened by an evil warlord and his fierce minions, but it's the details of everyday living and the true to life emotions that are memorable". Kirkus Reviews found that "Flanagan does nothing to boost his typecast characters, familiar themes or conventional, video game plot above the general run, but readers with a taste for quickly paced adventure with tidy, predictable resolutions (Kalkara and bullies vanquished, Will and Horace become heroes and buddies) won't be disappointed".

The Ruins of Gorlan received an Aurealis Award in 2004 and was chosen as the Children's Book Council of Australia Notable Book in 2005. In 2008, the book was nominated for the Grand Canyon Reader Award.

As of 7 January 2008, Warner Bros. Pictures has obtained the film rights for The Ruins of Gorlan and is in discussion with Canadian director Paul Haggis. Although the film exhausted its funding not long after the original time the project began, author John Flanagan has confirmed that as of December 2014, the group had re acquired the necessary funds, and were to start production summer 2015. In January 2024 it was announced Skydance had picked up the rights to the franchise and was planning on adapting the first two Ranger’s Apprentice novels into a movie.