I have mixed feelings. It was somewhat enjoyable, but it felt very different from other ranger's apprentice books,
The whole supernatural element made it seem odd, being the first time it was ever introduced. I feel like we need a lot of elaboration on this topic and having magic in the Flanagan world, having magic completely changes the world created. It just felt quite random and out of place among the other books
It also didn't really let the character's develop, and the plot felt flawed - why did they never get backup? It seemed kind of obvious that they would succeed, and after the magic was introduced, the plot seemed rather linear, and it just wasn't as interesting as the previous books
We just don't get to see their personalities. There is no mention of Maddie's ranger training, and I completely agree that we just aren't seeing any character development, or emotion from them
I think this would have been better as a short story