Before anything else is told...I must say...the cover is gourious!!! Beautiful cover!!! And...well...I don't really like what happen in The Lost Stories...and why is that? Because that means the series is going to be over!!! No!!! I need this series! According to the author, the series will be 12 books, and now, the 11th book contains all short stories...I have no idea what will happen to the 12th book. I can only have my best hope that everything will turn out right...and perhaps we'll have a happily ever after. (Although I keep complaining that most books have a happy ending...I find myself couldn't resist a happily ever after.) 
 No...that's years after they died!!! Ah!!!! Will, Halt, Alyss, Horace and Evanlyn should live forever!!! No!!!! (Sigh...but people all died...right?) So, let's back to story then. This book contains nine short stories: Death of a Hero, The Inkwell and the Dagger, The Roamers, Purple Prose, Dinner for Five, The Bridal Dance, The Hibernian, The Wolf, And About Time, Too... There are also foreword and the fragment, afterword too, and the fragment will be the future connection of Brotherband series, which is a series about a half Araluen, half Skandian boy who struggle to survive in the world fall of warrior, along with all the outcast kids. But...that's all afterword, and I might as well write review about Brotherband series...yet not now, not when I haven't finish Ranger's Apprentice series and the first book of The Early Years series book one: The Tournament at Gorlan. 
 So, the Death of a Hero is about Will's father. We all know that Will used to picture his father as a braved knight, but it turned out that he was a soldier, a very brave one. Above all, he saved Halt's life. In return, Halt promised his mother to take care of Will and that his mother was died because of giving birth. But now, we were about to heard the long lost story about Will's birth parent ,how Halt and is father met, and what lies behind the true death of his mother. (Well...yes, his mother died of giving birth was a lied...that usually happened in fairy tales.) 
 Then the second story, The Inkwell and the Dagger. It was about Gilan. Most of you might remember what I wrote in The Icebound Land, when Halt insulted the King and made himself banish to rescue Will. By then, Halt was meant to caught the fellow of Morgarath, and when he was about to leave, Gilan and Horace both wanted to follow him. But Halt knew how painful it is to be stripped position from the rangers, so he asked Gilan to finish his task and protect the kingdom. Now, this story was happened when Gilan went after the Foldar. (Yeah, he was the troublemaker.) 
 The third one is about Ebony, Will's little puppy. The Roamers was about what happened after Will and Halt came back from one mission, since the puppy wasn't well trained enough, Will left her with Alyss. However, Alyss went on a meeting in the castle, and Ebony was missing. Then the problem pointed directly to the roamers, they were like travelers, but in group. They camped outside, and where they left often had things missing, what's worst, they trained dogs for fighting, and if Will and Alyss didn't hurry their rescue...Ebony might change. 
 And the following three stories: Purple Prose, Dinner for Five, The Bridal Dance were all connected, well...they were different, but all happened when Horace and Cassandra were about to marry!!! Finally!!! Remember the proposal in The Emperor of Nihon? Hahaha!!! Purple Prose happened when Will was preparing for the speech, since he was the best man...and then he was out a mission with Halt. But then Will had trouble with the words because everyone loved his speech when Halt and Pauline married so much that he felt a lot of stress, and since Horace and Evanlyn were his best friend, and he wanted it to be special. To be well prepared, Will wrote down the words and asked for advice. But then...even Lady Pauline didn't quite approve his words...so he kept preparing during the task. And then...Boom! The fire was on... and you must find all of them yourselves!!! I wouldn't possibility tell you what the purple prose was, right? 
 Next, what's going on was Dinner for Five... Oh wait! It had nothing to do with the wedding, I'm sorry guys... This was about Jenny and Gilan, as you might now, Jenny opened her own restaurant and was very popular. She and Gilan was in love, and once, when Gilan and Jenny was going to have a romantic dinner, terrible thing happened. Thieves was planned to rob Jenny's house, however, what they didn't expected was that they broke into the house when Jenny was preparing for the two people dinner, which she should normally in the restaurant. So now...she was in danger, and so was Gilan...and all must be solved by Jenny's cleverness. 
 The Bridal Dance, which I supposed that you all know who the bridal is. But before the wedding, Will found something strange when he visit the castle...and yes, Cassandra decided to have her wedding held in Redmont, not in the capital. But as for the reason...find it yourselves. Back to the story then, Will afraid that someone will want to hurt the Royal during the wedding...and that's all! Nothing happen... (I'm kidding myself too...) 
 The Hibernian was set before Will, Horace, Alyss and Cassandra were born...which was the story of how Halt and Crowley, when the King was still a prince, and Morgarath wasn't died. 
 And the The Wolf is about Tug, one of John Flanagan's readers asked him about the age of the ranger horse. So in order to solve the problem, the author wrote the story to explain...but that was an unfortunate thing for Tug...which means... The last story, And About Time, Too was not an adventure, trouble, but a rather sweet story, and I'm not going to talk about it!!! Since it will be the last time you saw... (Sobbing hardly...) I wished for the best that the best moment will always be in our heart. (Does that count a spoiler...?) 
 Well...this was definitely a short story book that you mustn't leave out, or you'll be sure to regret! Go grab the book from your nearest bookstore and start reading it right away!!! I love this book!!! Everything is perfect!!! 
 This is post originally on my blog 
 Vivian's Book Pavilion 
 http://viviansbookpavilion.blogspot.com/