The Outcasts

Hal Mikkelson is the son of an Araluen mother and a Skandian father. In Skandia, that makes him an outsider in a culture that does not forgive outsiders. His year to train as a warrior arrives — the Brotherband year — and Hal is assigned to the group nobody else wants. What he does with that group, and with the ship he designs for them, is the subject of the book.

The Outcasts is the series opener — a self-contained training-year story that establishes Hal, his crew (the Herons), their Skandian mentor, and the tactical rhythms Brotherband returns to for the next eight books. Events run parallel to the later books of Ranger’s Apprentice; this is the same world, seen from the sea.