Torak circled the fire and Thiazzi came after him: slowly, cracking his whip, playing with his prey as a lynx plays with a lemming. Torak was exhausted. He wasn't going to last much longer.
When he was outcast, Torak was the hunted one. Nine moons later he becomes the hunter, when he vows to avenge the killing of one of his closest friends.
Racked by guilt and grief, he follows the killer into the Deep Forest, where the World Spirit stalks the hidden valleys as a tall man with the antlers of a stag. But there is a rottenness at the heart of the Forest, for its clans have succumbed to the lies of the Soul-Eaters. Here Torak must face fire, war, and overwhelming evil.
The fifth book in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, Oath Breaker is a story about keeping promises and the true cost of vengeance.
[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review of OUTCAST and OATH BREAKER.]--The fourth installment (OUTCAST) of Paver's prehistoric saga finds Torak marked as a soul eater, cast out from the clans, and succumbing to a soul sickness that robs him of his ability to distinguish good from evil and his powers to survive. As in the first three tales, Ian McKellen's opulent, melodic voice beckons listeners into Torak's world. Vengeance and change are the themes of the fifth episode (OATH BREAKER), and, once more, this richly imagined world is animated by McKellen's unvoiced reading, unfolding with sumptuous intonation and perfectly measured pacing. As Torak, Renn, and Wolf seek to avenge the death of a friend, McKellen draws us into their struggles by using his voice like a musical instrument, heightening the drama of warring clans and evil mages and softening his tones to spine-tingling effect when crisis is at hand. These are masterful performances. S.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
About the Author
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.
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