Of the book(s) themselves - I read The Ruins of Gorlan and the sequel, The Burning Bridge in a night - I have very few complaints. The other rewiewers are correct. These are juvenile books, intended for younger boys, and I found the pace and tone of them to be highly appropriate for that age-range.
The core of the first book - a coming of age tale - may be a bit slow for modern impatient boys, as the action and suspense don't pick up til nearly the end of the book. The focus is on Will, who realizes that he doesn't have to be a knight to be a good person, and a good warrior. As he grows, he learns more about his history, his kingdom, and his character. Because it is a character focus, there isn't much action/adventure for most of the book. Despite this, it is a strong introduction, and was very similar to the feel of C.S. Lewis' intro, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Both stories contain little actual action, but feel interesting and full.
The second book has more action, and develops a few more characters. I read these two, and I am reminded highly of the old "serial" novels which were released as magazine articles in the past centuries. These stories have that same highly structured, episodic feel. Excellent for reading aloud over a series of nights, a bit repetitive for an older lady devouring two books in an evening. Despite the style, the author writes very well, refusing to tone down his language or historical details to make the story easier to read. The second tale quite definitively rids the world of the overarching threat which has been the tension of the story thus far, but events create a more personal threat to our growing hero and his friends, and the story ends on a cliffhanger similar to the Lemony Snicket Unfortunate Events tales.
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