Passage From Ranger's Apprentice

The Passage

   

Horace cast the oilskin cover aside, coming forward onto one knee to inspect the parcel more closely. Inside was a sword. His sword, in a finely oiled leather scabbard. The plain steel cross piece, the brass pommel and the leather binding of the hilt were all familiar.

    “But. . .this is my sword!” he said in amazement. The sword had plunged into a deep ravine, with a rushing torrent at its bottom. He couldn’t conceive how it could have been recovered.

    “Look more closely,” Shigeru told him and when he did, he noted that the leather binding on the hilt was fresh and new, unstained with the perspiration of a score of encounters and hundreds of practice drills. He went to draw it from its scabbard, then remembered that this was a gross breach of protocol in the Emperor’s presence. But Shigeru gestured for him to go ahead.

    The blade zzzzinged clear of the scabbard and Horace held it aloft, a little confused. The balance was perfect--just as he remembered. It could have been his old sword. But now he could see the blade itself, slightly blued, showed a repeating pattern of half circles beaten into the steel that appeared as a series of wavy lines.     It caught the dim light and gleamed as his old sword had never done.

(from Ranger’s Apprentice: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja  By: John Flanagan  Pg. 295)

 

 

Why I Like

I like this part of the book because I feel positive when I know that Horace has gotten a weapon that he used and trusted. I was always worried that Horace was going to get injured after losing his own sword at the ravine because he had been using a katana, which felt strange and unfamiliar to him. But now that he has an even better version of his old sword because of the harder steel of the blade, I feel relieved that Horace is going to be safe. (I get so absorbed in the book that I think I’m one of the characters in the story.)

         Another reason why I like this part of the story is because it uses many descriptive adjectives and vivid verbs to describe the sword presented to Horace. These words let me picture exactly what the blade looks like, “finely oiled leather scabbard,” “brass pommel,” “plain steel crosspiece,”  “slightly blued,” and “beaten into steel,” and “caught the dim light and gleamed.”

         This passage also gives an excellent example of onomatopoeia, zzzzinged,” which (I can almost hear in my mind). This tells me that the sword is a very deadly weapon and is not to be messed around with. 

          I am also induced by the awesome vocabulary in the passage, such as "pommel," and "hilt". And the italics for "his sword" is a great way to emphasize intonation, which I can feel the pride inside the author.

          Plus,  I love the last sentence the most, “It caught the dim light and gleamed as his old sword had never done.” In this way the author not only describes the sword as better than Horace’s old  one, but also deliberately hides more surprises for the rest of the story and inspires me to read on.