• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Stance on AI
    • Contact
    • Friends of FFA
  • Blog
    • Reviews
      • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
      • Comics/Graphic Novels
      • Fantasy
        • Alt History
        • Coming of Age
        • Epic Fantasy
        • Fairy Tales
        • Grimdark
        • Heroic Fantasy
        • LitRPG
        • Paranormal Fantasy
        • Romantic Fantasy
        • Steampunk
        • Superheroes
        • Sword and Sorcery
        • Urban Fantasy
      • Historical Fiction
      • Science Fiction
        • Aliens
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Alt History
        • Cyberpunk
        • Dystopian
        • Hard SciFi
        • Mechs/Robots
        • Military SF
        • Space Opera
        • Steampunk
        • Time Travel
      • Thriller
    • Guest Posts
    • Lists
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Why You Should Read…
    • Interviews
      • Book Tube
      • Authorly Writing Advice
  • Fear For All
    • Demons
    • Ghosts
    • Gothic
    • Lovecraftian
    • Monsters
    • Occult
    • Psychological
    • Slasher
    • Vampires
    • Werewolves
    • Witches
    • Zombies
  • SFF Addicts
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2025
    • TBRCon2024
    • TBRCon2023
    • TBRCon2022
  • FFA Book Club
  • FFA TBR Toppers
    • Advertise Your Book on FFA!
  • Writer Resources
    • Artists
    • Cartographers
    • Editing/Formatting/Proofing

Review: The Last Ranger (Ranger of the Titan Wilds #1) by J.D.L. Rosell

November 18, 2024 by chilcottharry Leave a Comment

Rating: 9/10

Synopsis

Betrayed. Hunted. Left for dead. But not even death itself can keep the last ranger from vengeance.

Leiyn “Firebrand” is no stranger to a fight. A brash ranger of the Titan Wilds, she takes up her bow to ward against the colossal spirit creatures known as titans, ever a threat to the colonies she has sworn to protect.

But no amount of skill can guard against treachery.

When tragedy strikes the rangers’ lodge, Leiyn vows to avenge the fallen. But if she is to succeed, she must embrace a power within her she has long denied.

Power to move mountains and rivers.

Power over life and death.

She did not choose this path, but Leiyn knows her duty. For if she fails, the legacy of the rangers dies with her—and all the Titan Wilds will fall into shadow.

Review

Welcome to my review of The Last Ranger by J.D.L Rosell, book one of the Ranger of The Titan Wilds series! Before we begin, I need to get one thing off my chest…

LOOK AT THAT COVER ART BY FELIX ORTIZ! LOOK AT IT! HERE IT IS IN BANNER FORM:

NOW HERE IT IS AGAIN WITHOUT THE COVER TEXT!

ISN’T IT PRETTY???!!!

Anyway, now that I got that off my chest, The Last Ranger by J.D.L Rosell, author of the Legend of Tal and The Runewar Saga amongst many other great books, is a new series set on the continent of the Veiled Lands, a place that’s not unlike a mixture of the American colonies during the Spanish conquest. These lands are wild, untamed, full of mystery & nature still untapped. We have creatures, big, small, and some potentially spiritual, that inhabit these lands, alongside the native people, known as the Gast, and the colonisers – who, if you imagine as the Spanish Conquistadors, you’ll get the idea. Of course, whilst this series is set in a fictional land, it does emulate a period of time in our own history, namely Europe (particularly the Spanish) conquering and ultimately colonising the Southern Americas, particularly the earlier period of this era, roughly 1500-1600’s. I find this time in human history fascinating, as tumultuous and, frankly, often appalling as it is, however, it is still interesting. The setting for this series does a great job of tackling the issues of these times, including the treatment of the Native people, the surrounding nature, and the greed of the powerful. Whilst these are all background themes, Rosell works these in deftly to the characterisations of our protagonist (more on her shortly) and those that she interacts with. It creates a believable world (ultimately, the main focus of this story is Leiyn), with a depth that’s more than just set dressing.

Now, onto the main aim of this book, and our main focus as readers. We follow Leiyn, a young Ranger who patrols the Titan Wilds, a massive forest that covers a large portion of the Veiled Lands. When betrayal strikes the Ranger’s Lodge, a place she has called home for many years, she goes on a quest of revenge, to track down those that have wronged her – and then promptly stick them full of arrows! Leiyn is a brilliant character, and the opening few chapters are great at showcasing Rosell’s ability to create vivid characters to live in his world. She is a fully trained Ranger, with all the skills & knowledge to survive out in the wild, however she is young. She is passionate, loyal, frustratingly stubborn at times, prone to acting first then thinking about it later. I really liked following her, and Rosell stays firmly in her head throughout the roughly 460 page runtime. I will say, she did start to grate on me at about the 80% mark when she began to be constantly abrasive with the team she ended up with, and I do wish she hadn’t been a little less self-absorbed, considering those around her had also been through equally shitty times. But I’ll let her off once the ending event happened, she was cool again!

The side characters are also very human, three dimensional and believable. Annoyingly, I feel like if I name any of them it would be minor spoilers (due to what happens at the beginning), so trust me, some of these characters you’ll understand very quickly why Leiyn would die for them. Rosell’s prose and writing is both easy to get into but also contains moments of beauty, which reflects the beauty of the land scarred by invasive forces. This book is also packed with heart pounding action. I constantly felt like our characters were in actual danger, which makes these moments even more sweat inducing.

Overall, this is a fantastic start to a wonderful series. I was immediately gripped by the plot, draw in by the mystery and wild beauty of the world, but ultimately stayed for the cast of characters that felt real. An awesome adventure!

I want to thank Josiah for sending me the first books currently out in the Ranger of the Titan Wilds series as part of a giveaway he ran earlier this year. Sorry it’s taken so long to shout out about this book!

Filed Under: Action & Adventure, Adventure Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Books, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, J.D.L. Rosell, Ranger of the Titan Wilds, Self Published, The Last Ranger

About chilcottharry

Born and raised somewhere in the South West of England by a pack of goblins, Harry learnt hunting & tracking skills unrivalled by any other human. He also likes to make things up about himself and is a little bit silly. Some of his favourite authors include Joe Abecrombie, John Gwynne, Robin Hobb, Pierce Brown, Evan Winter, Anna Stephens and Stephen King. Epic fantasy is his go to, although Harry is open to reading just about anything. He is not a fan of edgelord main characters and subversions of tropes for the sake of it.

Other Reviews You Might Like

Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam

Review: Anji Kills A King (The Rising Tide #1) by Evan Leikam

Review: The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt

Review: The Vengeance (The Vampires of Dumas #1) by Emma Newman

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

FFA Newsletter!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Author Hub

Read A.J. Calvin
Read Andy Peloquin
Read C.J. Daily
Read C.M. Caplan
Read D.A. Smith
Read DB Rook
Read Francisca Liliana
Read Frasier Armitage
Read Josh Hanson
Read Krystle Matar
Read M.J. Kuhn

Recent Reviews

Anji Kills a King by Evan Leikam

Recent Comments

  1. Mark Matthews on COVER REVEAL: To Those Willing to Drown by Mark MatthewsJanuary 7, 2025
  2. Basra Myeba on Worth reading Jack Reacher books by Lee Child?January 5, 2025
  3. Ali on Review: Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav BarsukovJanuary 5, 2025
  4. Carter on So you want to start reading Warhammer 40,000? Here’s where to start!January 4, 2025
  5. M. Zaugg on Bender’s Best LitRPG reads of 2024January 3, 2025

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In