Even after being published for a few years, the Ranger's Apprentice series is still getting good reviews.  At the time of my review I see 67 5-Star or 4-Star reviews.  Nothing below that.  I can believe it.  I just finished reading the 4th book in this series and I was very impressed.  Somehow John writes a story for young adults but does not sugar-coat it, and makes it very readable for adults like me (over 50+ yrs).  The characters are well developed and the author makes sure each character has his or her fair share of "prime time".  By not sugar-coating the story, I mean this story features many fighting scenes, and a well detailed battle.  People fight and die on both sides of the battle.  Remember the A-Team TV show?  Bullets zipping all over the place, explosions, and cars crashing and flipping over and yet, no one ever died!  Not even hurt too bad.  Talk about watered down violence!  John manages to walk a fine line here, he does not write the battle scenes too easy or too gory.  I am very much a Die Hard type of reader/movie viewer, but I am very much in the storyline and characters of the Ranger's Apprentice.  I would love to see a movie version of this series.