Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #5: Oath Breaker

Written by Michelle Paver

Narrated by Ian McKellen

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 2, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061765186

Michelle Paver

Michelle Paver was born in central Africa, but moved 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. Chronicles of Ancient Darkness arises from her lifelong passions for animals, anthropology, and the distant past. It was also inspired by her travels in Norway, Lapland, Iceland, and the Carpathian Mountains—and particularly by an encounter with a large bear in a remote valley in Southern California.

Reviews for Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #5

[kings7_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's exciting!

[spud2000 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This story is sad at the beginning, with Torak trying to hunt down the cause of the sadness.

[delenndax7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oath Breaker is about a boy who lived in prehistoric times and had to learn to survive on his own. His father has died and he has been outcast from any clan. When Torak's best friend is killed, he swears vengence and goes after the killer along with another best friend and her uncle. I loved how the author enabled us to see what life was like back then and to see how people saw and interpreted their world. It was fascinating how well they could communicate with the animals--both human and animal understood & befriended one another. But, at the same time, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that humans could actually learn and speak the audible language of animals. However, it was easy to believe you were actually there, in the wild, having to fight to survive. The names that the author used in the book were a bit confusing, at times. Was that a person's name? Was that the name of a Clan? Or was that the name of something in nature? But I eventually caught on to the system. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I'd recommend it to anyone who loves to read about prehistoric cultures. And even though I was able to understand everything in this book, I think reading the first four books would help you learn about the naming system and how the humans & animals could communicate, among other things about this culture.

[ajbraithwaite_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I like the language Michelle Paver uses: still water, fast water, bright beast and so on. Thought the story fairly predictable, but enjoyable. My daughter (aged eleven, for whom the book was bought) thought it was great. Neither of us have read the other books in the series, but didn't feel at a huge disadvantage in spite of that.

[imperfectcj · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

In my review of Outcast (or was it Soul Eater? They're all kind of mushing together in my head now), I said that I hoped the series would turn into more of a coming-of-age story. In Oath Breaker, it has---with a vengeance. Everyone is coming of age in this book---Torak, Renn, Wolf.

The plot in this one is a little less engaging (and a little more confusing) for me. Paver's descriptions of the forest are less vivid, and I didn't feel as much of a connection to the setting as I had in earlier books.

The characters' motives are a little flimsy, too. There was this whole vengeance-oath thing that felt pretty red-herringy, and I couldn't get a good feel for why anyone was doing anything they were doing. Some parts reminded me of the episode of The Simpsons in which the teachers (represented by Mrs. Krabappel) are trying to get more funding for the school and Principal Skinner is saying there's no money for it. When both spoke at a very well attended PTA meeting, the audience would get 100% behind Skinner when he was at the podium and then swing 100% to the other side when Krabappel stepped up to the microphone. The Aurochs and the Forest Horses seemed a lot like that in this book. "Let's fight each other!" "Let's fight the Open Forest!" "Let's fight the outsiders!" "Let's just go home!" I basically didn't connect with any of the characters really well.

There's also something vaguely sexual about spirit walking in this book, which I hadn't noticed in the previous books. Maybe it was played up here for the coming-of-age aspect, or maybe I'm just noticing it now and it was there all along. Or maybe it's all in my dirty mind and isn't in the books at all. Whatever it was, I didn't like it so much.

But I liked the ravens in this one (the bird ravens, not the Raven clan, who don't put in much of an appearance), and the wolf pups were pretty sweet. And Renn's kind of coming into her own, which is nice.

One more book to go, and I'm done with this series. I think I'll encourage my daughter to go for some Beverly Cleary books next and get a little break from vengeance and dismemberment and battles to the death. I've not read all of the Henry Huggins books, and I suppose there could be some of that in the later books---Ribsy does seem like a bit of a loose cannon---, but I would be surprised.

[Migman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Again you can't fault Ian McKellan's narration and the story is captivating and exciting. Yes, it is YA, but don't let that put older readers off. This is good adventure fiction set in a well researched historical context.