Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #3: Soul Eater - Hardcover

Michelle Paver was born in central Africa but went to England as a child. After earning a degree in biochemistry from Oxford University, she became a partner in a London law firm but eventually gave that up to write full-time.

The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series came from Michelle's lifelong passions for animals, anthropology, and the distant past—as well as an encounter with a large bear in a remote valley in Southern California. To research the books, Michelle has traveled to Finland, Greenland, Sweden, Norway, Arctic Canada, and the Carpathian Mountains. She has slept on reindeer skins, swum with wild killer whales, and gotten nose to nose with polar bears—and, of course, wolves. The first four books have been made into widely acclaimed audiobooks, read by Ian McKellen.

Grade 5-8–In the third volume of this fantasy set in northern Europe 6000 years ago–just after the end of the Ice Ages–Torak and Renn, a 13-year-old boy and girl of unusual talent and skill, along with Torak's wolf-pack brother, are out hunting when Wolf disappears. Soon the pair discover evidence that he has been captured. Could the Soul-Eaters, the mages who killed Torak's father, have taken him to work some evil magic? Using his talents as a Spirit Walker, Torak inhabits the body of a raven and discovers that the Soul-Eaters have injured Wolf, bound his muzzle, and are carrying him into the far North. Torak and Renn must go after him immediately, although they are unprepared for the frigid terrain's inhospitality. Paver describes how much labor and constant attention go into simply surviving in a world so hostile to humanity, and readers will be kept on the edge of their chairs as they follow the struggle of characters who risk their lives every day trying to accomplish a task that seems certain to lead to their death. This is a stirring and thrilling sequel to Wolf Brother and Spirit Walker (both HarperCollins, 2005).–Walter Minkel, New York Public Library
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