Ranger's Apprentice: Book 3 - The Icebound Land

     Kidnapped and taken to a frozen land after the fierce battle with Lord Morgarath, Will and Evanlyn are bound for Skandia as captives aboard a fearsome wolf-ship. Halt has sword to rescue his yound apprentice, and he will do anything to keep his promise - even defy his King.
     Expelled from the Rangers he had served so loyally, Halt is joined by Will's friend Horace as he travels toward Skandia. On their way, they are challenged again and again by freelance knights - but Horace knows a thing or two about combat. Soon his skills begin to attract the attention of knights and warlords for miles around. But will he and Halt be on time to rescue Will from a lifetime of slavery?







Language
Seven misuses of the Lord's name, all in varying formats. 'Damn' is used 12 or 13 times (I can't read my little marks...) 'Hell' is used 4 times. Halt, in order to be released from his duties as Ranger - in order to find Will - begins insulting the king. He calls him "A poltroon. A coward. And a fool." and goes on to say that he is the "son of a drunken privy cleaner." or, alternately, "The result of his father's fascination with a traveling hatcha-hatcha dancer". In Halt's defense, since I have a fondness for Rangers, he wouldn't have said such things if he wasn't stone drunk.

Sexual Content
I wish I didn't have to add this category. While Horace and Halt are traveling, they run across some girls in short skirts. Horace is looking at them, and they start laughing. Halt tells him that they are messengers, who have to run, hence the need to have free moving legs, as a joke at first, then later because "Horace had plenty of time to learn about the seamier side of life, he thought. He could retain his innocence for a little while longer." We get the impression that they have...'reputations'.


Violence
Horace fights knights, but he never kills them. The only knight killed deserved it, in my opinion.


Other Negative Elements
Since you've probably already gathered that Will and Evanlyn spend some time in slavery, so I'll just tell you. The slaves have a Committee. This Committee uses a drug called 'warmweed' to control the underlings. 'Warmweed' takes over the mind, leaving the person completely submissive and looking only for their next fix. [spoiler warning] Will comes under the influence of this drug, a horribly sad thing, and Evanlyn has to nurse him out of it.

This was a good book. I wish it didn't have the sexual content or as much language, but it's a far cry from many things I've seen.
For those of you wondering what happened to the review of book two, I was not able to obtain it from the library (Arwen has it [see other blog]) so I read this one. It made sense, I was able to put the pieces together. I rate this a PG for language, some drug content and slight innuendo.
Notice: To those of you going to load up: Book Seven, Erak's Ransom should be read after Book Four, The Battle for Skandia.