Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
May. 26th, 2008 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Torak is alone ... wounded, terrified, and on the run. An outcast like his father, he has avoided all contact with the clans. But now his father lies dead: slaughtered by a demon in the form of a great bear.
Somehow, Torak must keep going. His only ally is an orphaned wolf cub ...
At its heart, this book has all the components of a standard children's fantasy - a 'chosen one's' quest for specific objects which, when put together, can defeat a great evil. What sets it apart however is the period setting. Michelle Paver does an incredible job in showing stone age life for her hero, Torak, and heroine, Renn. A great deal of research has evidently been carried out in order to find out how people hunted, what medicines they used, how they dressed and how their societies may have been formed. The world of the clans is particularly believable and it's interesting that Paver does not shy from the harshities of what life must have been like then.
Torak is an interesting character - living apart from the clans with his father, he has no real knowledge of his personal history and his father is brutally taken from him before he has a chance to learn. What he does have however are survival skills and an ability to communicate with wolves, which manifests itself when he comes across an orphaned wolf club in the forest. The relationship between Torak and the cub is nicely portrayed (albeit at times, the wolf's perspective seems a little too simplistic, even considering its young age). Torak is frequently placed in peril and it's refreshing to see that the female character, Renn, is at least as pragmatic as he is when it comes to the difficult task of just staying alive.
For me, the quest element was somewhat perfunctory. In particular, Renn and Torak seemed to find the required objects a little too easily and I would have liked to see more time given to developing the adversarial character of Hord, Renn's ambitious brother who believes that he, not Torak, should be the one to defeat the demon-possessed bear. That said, the story is exciting and fast-paced and Paver does an excellent job at showing the effect that the bear has on the wider forest and why it's so important to all the clans that it be stopped.
The Verdict:
Very nicely done and I'm interested in knowing where Paver will take the series. Definitely a book that children will enjoy.
Torak is alone ... wounded, terrified, and on the run. An outcast like his father, he has avoided all contact with the clans. But now his father lies dead: slaughtered by a demon in the form of a great bear.
Somehow, Torak must keep going. His only ally is an orphaned wolf cub ...
At its heart, this book has all the components of a standard children's fantasy - a 'chosen one's' quest for specific objects which, when put together, can defeat a great evil. What sets it apart however is the period setting. Michelle Paver does an incredible job in showing stone age life for her hero, Torak, and heroine, Renn. A great deal of research has evidently been carried out in order to find out how people hunted, what medicines they used, how they dressed and how their societies may have been formed. The world of the clans is particularly believable and it's interesting that Paver does not shy from the harshities of what life must have been like then.
Torak is an interesting character - living apart from the clans with his father, he has no real knowledge of his personal history and his father is brutally taken from him before he has a chance to learn. What he does have however are survival skills and an ability to communicate with wolves, which manifests itself when he comes across an orphaned wolf club in the forest. The relationship between Torak and the cub is nicely portrayed (albeit at times, the wolf's perspective seems a little too simplistic, even considering its young age). Torak is frequently placed in peril and it's refreshing to see that the female character, Renn, is at least as pragmatic as he is when it comes to the difficult task of just staying alive.
For me, the quest element was somewhat perfunctory. In particular, Renn and Torak seemed to find the required objects a little too easily and I would have liked to see more time given to developing the adversarial character of Hord, Renn's ambitious brother who believes that he, not Torak, should be the one to defeat the demon-possessed bear. That said, the story is exciting and fast-paced and Paver does an excellent job at showing the effect that the bear has on the wider forest and why it's so important to all the clans that it be stopped.
The Verdict:
Very nicely done and I'm interested in knowing where Paver will take the series. Definitely a book that children will enjoy.
