Wolf Brother
Series: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, Book 1
By: Michelle Paver / Narrated By: Ian McKellen
Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
LOVED IT! LOVED Sir Ian! …but whazzis…? Where is Book Twooooo…?!
It is with great and heavy heart, and no small amount of fierce peevishness, that I must say that, after getting into Wolf Brother, after starting this, the “Chronicles of Ancient Darkness” series, after loving Ian McKellen’s MASTERFUL narration, I must tell y’all that I canNOT find Book 2 to save m’ life.
And that sooooo ticks me off!
Can I, in all sincerity of heart, recommend this audiobook to you, knowing that you’ll probably be wanting to hit the next in the series, find out: AND THEN WHAT?! only to have your longings dashed cuz tain’t no Audiobook 2, Audiobook 3, to be found?
Oh good golly gosh, I feel bad about it all, truly I do, but I MUST say that this is an absoLUTEly MARvelous story!
The story starts with a huge whizBANG with 12-year Torak wounded, and his father mortally wounded by a fierce bear with demonic eyes. Torak’s father tells him to save himself, to run, run, run to the north mountain to fulfill a task… or die trying. Don’t hate me when you learn more about what I’m saying, he tells Torak. Don’t hate me for what I’ve kept from you. And whatever you do, he says: Remember to ALWAYS look behind you as you keep forgetting to do that!
The beast of a bear comes back as Torak is away getting his father some water, what Torak realizes was a ploy to get the boy away a safe distance, and Torak will be haunted by the mauling and shrieking that is cut short after some thrashing.
Alas, Torak, in his numbness, in his fear, has left without most supplies, only with his father’s knife, but without any food. When Torak comes upon a lone wolf pup (He sees the pup’s family bloated and drowned in an eddy of swirling water), he believes he’s found dinner. No such thing, as for some reason, he can understand the lonely wolf pup, can speak to him, and the two become friends.
They’re caught by another Clan, the Raven Clan, and all heck breaks loose as it’s discovered that Torak just miiiiiiight be the fulfiller of a prophecy. The Ravens are MOST willing to use Torak and sacrifice his heart’s blood in an effort to stop the demonic bear, end its savage rampaging killing sprees, and only Torak’s wits and some lucky breaks allow Torak to hotfoot it outta the camp.
Going back to save Wolf (He’d abandoned him as it was his only option at the time… but he simply can’t leave his best friend), he stumbles onto Renn, a precocious young girl whose loyalties to her adopted Raven Clan leave Torak feeling uneasy. Soon, however, the trio, Torak, Wolf, Renn, are working together to find objects that will be needed to be used to fulfill the prophecy, to defeat the bear.
There are no wasted words in this story, it’s action, action, action, and beautiful writing whereby the landscape and Nature are characters in their own right. Sometimes Nature is kind, sometimes it’s ominous and vengeful. And ALWAYS it must be respected.
And oh GOSH!!! Ian McKellen makes this a fanTAStic listening experience. What a grand performer he is, throwing his heart and soul (And his extraordinary acting abilities!) into the telling of this story. Whether it’s from Torak’s perspective, or it’s from young Wolf’s eye-view as he watches his “brother” Torak, known to Wolf as Tall Tailless, McKellen reeeeeally and oh so vividly brings all these characters to life. I did NOT jack up my listening speed from x1.2 even tho’ I was DYING to know what was going to happen (As you know, I flunked the Marshmallow Test and have a desperately difficult time with delaying gratification!) because the narration of such a beautifully crafted story was drop-dead mesmerizing. And as the action picked up (Even MORE!) speed at the end, McKellen hammers the pace home, gasps, bellows, relays terror and anguish.
All ends with a promise to come, which is gosh almighty DANG it and ALAS, NOT to be forthcoming from a Book 2 that is NOT on Audible, NOT on Chirpbooks, NOT on Audiobooks.com, NOT on Kobo—it’s NOWHERE that I can find, and I’ve been Googling the beJESus outta the place trying to find it.
So I dunno what to tell you except that it is indeeeeed a worthy story, with plenty of pulse-pounding moments, a monstrous foe to cause shivers of fear and apprehension, characters that make you cheer, make you hiss and boo, and narration to absoLUTEly die for. There’s such a wonderful respect for animals, exceeeept that part where the bear keeps slaughtering them willy nilly. There’s such a wonderful respect between growing friendships, exceeeeept when Torak and Renn wanna bean each other. And there’s such a drop-dead gorgeous relationship between Torak and Wolf, exceeeeept when we get to the heartbreaker bits that’ll make you want to weep your eyes out.
More, I want more! Because, who knows? Maaaaaybe in Book 2, Book 3? Maaaaaybe Torak will FINALLY remember to look behind his freaking back?! Seriously, this book was so delightful, so relentless, I was shouting THAT at my phone, several, several, several times throughout.
It’s always a grand thing when you find yourself shouting at your listening device, isn’t it…?
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