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RanVan #2
Ranvan : A Worthy Opponent
RanVan, teenage knight-in-training, confronts his most challenging adversary yet in the paper-mill town of Thunder Bay, when a fellow video-game player draws him into a dangerous contest of wits and skill. Reprint.
- GenresYoung Adult
184 pages, Library Binding
First published September 16, 1995
About the author
Diana Wieler
11 books4 followersDiana Wieler was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1961. She moved to Calgary as a teenager and, after high school, took the Television, Stage, and Radio Arts Program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. Working in radio in Calgary, and then for a newspaper in Saskatoon, proved to be valuable training for a writing career, which she now pursues full time.
Diana's first published short stories: A Dog On His Own, (Prairie Publishing Company), To the Mountains by Morning, was published in a third grade reader (Nelson Canada) and was the winner of the CBC Literary Competition in 1984; The Boy Who Walked Backwards (Coteau Books) was published in the Prairie Jungle Anthology and won the Vickey Metcalf Award in 1985; The Finder, (Houghton Mifflin) and The Scream were both published in The Canadian Children's Annual.
Diana's most recent works include Last Chance Summer (Western Producer, Parie Books), a winner of the Ebel Memorial Reward; Bad Boy is the winner of the Governor General's Literary Reward for Children's Literature in 1989 and the Ruth Schwartz Foundation Reward for Excellence, the Canadian Library Association for Young Adult Book of the Year in 1990 and also optioned for Canadian Film Rights; Ran Van the Defender, which won the Mr. Christie's Book Award; and Ran Van: A Worthy Opponent, which were published by Groundwood Books.
She has also ventured into screenwriting and is working on the script of Ran Van: the Defender for O'Meara Productions Ltd. A picture book edition of her story To the Mountains by Morning was published by Groundwood books in October 1995.
Diana Wieler is currently living in Winnipeg, Canada, with her husband and her son, Ben.
Diana's first published short stories: A Dog On His Own, (Prairie Publishing Company), To the Mountains by Morning, was published in a third grade reader (Nelson Canada) and was the winner of the CBC Literary Competition in 1984; The Boy Who Walked Backwards (Coteau Books) was published in the Prairie Jungle Anthology and won the Vickey Metcalf Award in 1985; The Finder, (Houghton Mifflin) and The Scream were both published in The Canadian Children's Annual.
Diana's most recent works include Last Chance Summer (Western Producer, Parie Books), a winner of the Ebel Memorial Reward; Bad Boy is the winner of the Governor General's Literary Reward for Children's Literature in 1989 and the Ruth Schwartz Foundation Reward for Excellence, the Canadian Library Association for Young Adult Book of the Year in 1990 and also optioned for Canadian Film Rights; Ran Van the Defender, which won the Mr. Christie's Book Award; and Ran Van: A Worthy Opponent, which were published by Groundwood Books.
She has also ventured into screenwriting and is working on the script of Ran Van: the Defender for O'Meara Productions Ltd. A picture book edition of her story To the Mountains by Morning was published by Groundwood books in October 1995.
Diana Wieler is currently living in Winnipeg, Canada, with her husband and her son, Ben.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 7, 2013
Why do some books and series take off, while others languish? This is the middle book of the best urban/video game-based fantasy trilogy you have (probably) never read. The series as a whole merits five stars, easily, and this book comes very close. As a middle volume, it doesn't - quite - stand alone. But it has a lot of substance and it's extremely well crafted. What I love most about this series is the reality and depth of the characters, but everything - character, theme and setting - comes together in a coherent whole. Warning - some spoilers follow
The three books take a teenage boy from the end of his freshman year in high school to his first year in university. In this second book, Rhan Van has just turned 16. He and his beloved Gran, who's raised him since he was five, have to move to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and live with Gran's sister Zoe. That's difficult on a lot of levels. In the first book, Rhan discovered that he was a knight. It's his goal to protect the innocent and defeat evil - but how on earth can he do that stuck in a crummy motel in a paper town? Rhan has a lot to learn - he knows that - but he doesn't yet know that the worst evil of all is the one that's after his Gran. And he still doesn't know what his mission is, and he hasn't found his weapon-
A few quotes for you. This is a conversation from chapter six. Rhan has just gotten a job pumping gas. He's thrilled. The women are not.
..."I've checked out my classes. . .this school is a joke!"
"You haven't given me nothing to laugh about lately."
"Look, I can keep up..."
"That's not good enough," Gran said angrily. "What about university? You won't get there by 'keeping up'."
"Well, he's not going to get there without money," Zoe cut in.
"Maybe I don't want to get there at all," Rhan blurted.....
For a second, no one spoke. Then Zoe looked at Gran.
"Lucy, I think anyone who hasn't made an educational decision yet should work at a gas station for awhile."
Gran became strangely calm.
"Zoe, girl, you're absolutely right." (from pages 55 and 56 of the American hardcover edition.
It's this strong sense of reality, and these characters whom you might meet at your own neighborhood motel or gas station, that ground the fantasy. I adore Rhan's grandmother, and empathize with the boy's anger and confusion. What's especially great about the series, IMHO, is this: there are genuinely strong women in it who aren't ersatz men, and Rhan is a decent (if hot-headed and confused) young man who's capable of learning and who pretty consistently tries to do the right thing - when and if he stops to think about it. It's a wonderful series. It should be a whole lot more popular than it is. There are not enough fantasies - heck, there aren't enough BOOKS - about ordinary, working-class people coping with superpowers!
My two cents!
The three books take a teenage boy from the end of his freshman year in high school to his first year in university. In this second book, Rhan Van has just turned 16. He and his beloved Gran, who's raised him since he was five, have to move to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and live with Gran's sister Zoe. That's difficult on a lot of levels. In the first book, Rhan discovered that he was a knight. It's his goal to protect the innocent and defeat evil - but how on earth can he do that stuck in a crummy motel in a paper town? Rhan has a lot to learn - he knows that - but he doesn't yet know that the worst evil of all is the one that's after his Gran. And he still doesn't know what his mission is, and he hasn't found his weapon-
A few quotes for you. This is a conversation from chapter six. Rhan has just gotten a job pumping gas. He's thrilled. The women are not.
..."I've checked out my classes. . .this school is a joke!"
"You haven't given me nothing to laugh about lately."
"Look, I can keep up..."
"That's not good enough," Gran said angrily. "What about university? You won't get there by 'keeping up'."
"Well, he's not going to get there without money," Zoe cut in.
"Maybe I don't want to get there at all," Rhan blurted.....
For a second, no one spoke. Then Zoe looked at Gran.
"Lucy, I think anyone who hasn't made an educational decision yet should work at a gas station for awhile."
Gran became strangely calm.
"Zoe, girl, you're absolutely right." (from pages 55 and 56 of the American hardcover edition.
It's this strong sense of reality, and these characters whom you might meet at your own neighborhood motel or gas station, that ground the fantasy. I adore Rhan's grandmother, and empathize with the boy's anger and confusion. What's especially great about the series, IMHO, is this: there are genuinely strong women in it who aren't ersatz men, and Rhan is a decent (if hot-headed and confused) young man who's capable of learning and who pretty consistently tries to do the right thing - when and if he stops to think about it. It's a wonderful series. It should be a whole lot more popular than it is. There are not enough fantasies - heck, there aren't enough BOOKS - about ordinary, working-class people coping with superpowers!
My two cents!
Displaying 1 of 1 review