John Flanagan Books in Order

John Flanagan is an Australian novelist who has spent the last twenty years building one of the most-loved middle-grade and young-adult fantasy universes in print. The world he calls Araluen began as a set of short stories he wrote for his son Michael to encourage him to read; those stories grew into The Ruins of Gorlan in 2004, the first book of Ranger’s Apprentice.

Across four interconnected series — Ranger’s Apprentice, its Early Years prequels, the Brotherband Chronicles, and the Royal Ranger spinoff — Flanagan has written about Rangers who live by wit and a longbow rather than brute force, Skandian sea-wolves whose idea of a plan is “sail there and see,” and the next generation of apprentices who inherit the fight. The books are quiet about their craft — the world-building is character-first, and the tactics feel like they were thought about by someone who actually wanted them to work.

Flanagan was born in Sydney in 1944 and spent his career in advertising before turning to fiction full-time. He still lives in Sydney with his wife.