Chronicles of Ancient Darkness: Wolf Brother

Spending some time in the ward recently for the nose operation does award you with the abundance of time. To took some of the boredom away, I decide to finish up some books that I had purchased last year.

The first book will be the Wolf Brother.

The book had been written by Michelle Paver. It is the first of the 6-book adventure stories of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. The setup for the stories is a place 6000 years ago, in a place probably somewhere in north-west of Europe.

Readers don't have to wait for action in this book. The story start with one. The main protagonist, Torak was tending to his dying father, Fa after an attack from a bear.

Not from an ordinary bear apparently. Just before Fa urging Torak to left him behind, he asked Torak to promise to him to go to the Mountain of the Spirit World. 

The bear that had attacked them was a demon bear with the sole purpose of destroying the forest. It will become strongest in about one month time, when full moon. Torak must go to the mountain before it happens to destroy the bear.

With such very little detail that he had received, you can't help but feel sorry for Torak. Alone, without guidance and suddenly being entrusted with the responsibility of saving the forest. To top it off he was only 12.

To get to the mountain, he need a guide that will help him to get there. Not long after being separated from his father, he found the guide even though he didn't realized it in the beginning. It is a young wolf cub that its family had been wiped out by a recent flood.

Traveling together, Torak start to discover something about himself and the cub wolf. He could actually communicate to the wolf even though he can't understand why. He also starting to realize that the wolf is the guide that will help him to get to the mountain.

The men during that period lives as clans taking the animals as their guardian symbol. The animals that they took as their guardian animal are animals that survived alongside the human in their everyday lives. It was one of the clan that Torak and Wolf encountered during their travel that alter their course.

It was the Raven Clan.

Captured, he was brought to the Raven Clan Leader - Fin-Kedinn. And it was during this time also Torak another of his friend - Renn, a girl from the Raven Clan. Actually Renn was in the hunting group that met Torak and captured him.

The meeting with Fin-Kedinn clears up some of the information in Torak's quest. The demon bear had rampaged throughout the forest. Men were killed. Animals beginning to disappear. Food becoming scarce. Torak need to collect the Nanuak - three charms for the Spirit World, in his quest to destroy the bear. 

Deepest of all, the drowned sight.
Oldest of all, the stone bite.
Coldest of all, the darkest light.

From there onwards, it seems that the quest of Torak becoming like a point to point adventure. Collecting the Nanuaks, getting to the Spirit Mountain, and lastly destroying the bear.

I quite relived that I still got it, speed reading that is. Even though that the book is meant for young adult and it is only 240 pages, I found it is quite satisfying that I could finished it by a day. Most of the time nowadays, I could only read the books halfway before being distracted by work.

This book is no Harry Potter, but it is still an engaging story. The writer based her research on the living of the hunter gatherer tribes that still exist nowadays to write the story. Every time the book mentioned the animals, the clothes and their weapons, I could just imagine the struggle that men facing during that time. Even though I struggled when the book mentioned some of the animals that already extinct nowadays such as the aurochs.

The story of Torak continues with the second book the Spirit Walker, which already by my side by the time I finished this book.