Ranger’s Apprentice (Book 8) The Kings of Clonmel by John Flanagan

Rating: Needs Strong Parent Supervision (Religious Cults, Disregard for Wholehearted, Personal Relationship with God)

Reading Level: High School

**Parents, alert! This book needs serious parent supervision!**

Will and Horrace help their mentor, Halt, fight against a treacherous religious cult surfacing in Halt’s homeland. The back-story of Halt is super fun, but conversations around the cult and around religion are in severe need of parent supervision.

Why it’s dangerous for young readers: Frankly, there are some aspects of the cult that are similar to Christianity! I had to stop a few times and think, “OK, how is this twisting the truth?!!” Also, the main characters’ lack of religion shows up when they fight the cult by faking a legendary “Sunrise Warrior.”

I highly recommend reading this one **with** your child, or at least chatting about my Discussion Questions (far below) with your reader.

About the cult: The villains of the story pretend to worship “The Great Golden God Alseus.” They initially claim to be a friendly, amicable group & they don’t assert that everyone must worship Alseus. Their strategy is to move into a community and build relationships and gain trust. But then the cult leaders arrange bandits to attack. The cult leaders promise that if the people turn to Alseus, the bandits will be defeated. If the people don’t turn to Alseus, the bandits do harm, and continue to do so until the people turn or are destroyed as an example. The cult either takes gold or power from each community, and gains a following of people who have witnessed “Alseus” saving them from attack.

Serious Concerns (Spoiler Alert!):

• A Religious Cult. Discussion of a false “Golden God Alseus” and his evil opponent god. The way they talk about the God being kind to everyone, even those who don’t worship him. Then they arrange attacks with bandits to scare the people into seeking the protection of their god. The people don’t know they’re behind the attacks.

• “Sacred Trial by Combat.” The problem of whose god is true is solved by combat in an arena. This seems to me to be a dangerous approach to determining whose god is real. However, there are possible connections to Elijah on Mount Carmel—see discussion questions.
• False teaching about what God wants from us. A conversation with an old woman (around chapter 30). She says she didn’t join the cult because she doesn’t believe in a god who only promises goodness. She says, “A God who promises only goodness wants too much from you.” She says she believes in a god who gives good and bad. That kind of god, she reasons, “won’t ask too much of you—” maybe a few prayers here and there. So she basically teaches that it is better to follow a god who gives good and bad because he won’t ask much of you. So this woman, who is viewed as very wise, is uplifted for her choice to follow a god who is content to have what I would call Christmas & Easter & Sundays only religion. The woman misses the point of having a personal, intimate relationship with God, and moreover, Christians believe that God asks ALL of us! The image is below. I have suggested discussion questions below to address this.

• Family Treachery. A brother tries to murder his twin to be the king.

• Peril. Sword fights, arrows, punches to the jaw, knives, poisoning, prisoners, etc.

Discussion Questions:

• The cult members claim their god, Alseus, is the one true god. That is the same as what we claim about the God of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob. What are some key differences between their cult and Christianity? Possible answers: (1)The cult made up their god; our God is true (2) their god is new & nobody has ever heard of him before now while ours has been there since the beginning of time and has been worshipped by humans for thousands of years (3) They use their religion to gain power; our leader Jesus gave up power and his life (4) they arrange harm in those who don’t follow their god while Christians bless those who persecute them. (5) They lie about how they use the gold while health Christian churches are transparent about fund allocation.
• The old “wise” woman says, “A God who promises only goodness wants too much from you.” She says she believes in a god who gives good and bad. That kind of god, she reasons, “won’t ask too much of you—” maybe a few prayers here and there. So she basically teaches that it is better to follow a god who gives good and bad because he won’t ask much of you. What do you want to say to this woman? What do you think our God thinks about her approach to religion? Do you know anyone who keeps God at arm’s length because they don’t want to give much back? Possible Answers: Jesus died so that we can be with him in relationship. When he died he bought us. It brings God pleasure when we use our freedom to honor Him. He is worthy of our whole lives. The woman misses the point. God wants children, not tribute payers.
• Holt and his crew demand for the prophet to “show us his god.” What should you say to someone who demands that of you? Possible answer: If you want to see God, look at Jesus. In modern day, our God reveals himself through creation and through His word and through His Holy Spirit and through His Devine Providence. However, on Mt. Carmel Elijah showed God’s power by burning the wet sacrifice in 1 Kings 18.
• Is a trial by combat appropriate today? Possible answers: No, God has already shown His glory; Jesus said that no sign will be given to this generation except the sign of Jonah; Jesus quoted Deuteronomy when he said we shall not put the Lord to the test.
• The crowd is easily swayed by combat and false teaching. How can we avoid being like the crowd? Possible Answers: Read the Bible, learn to listen to God’s voice, surround yourself with like-minded thinkers…
• The false prophet of Alseus arranges for bandits to act overpowered by worship music when they sing to their god. Jesus says there will be wolves in sheep’s clothing, which means false prophets. When have you seen false prophets faking physical responses, perhaps even from Christian leaders? How should we respond? How can we discern what is true and what is false? Possible answers: Prophets on TV faking stuff… Pray and ask God for discernment; Check that their teaching correlates with the bible; if they ask for a lot of money that’s a bad sign, we will know a tree by it’s fruit.

Definitely read the books in order. Here are links to my reviews of Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4, Book 5, Book 6, Book 7, and Book 8.