ALA Booklist (Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2005)

A giant bear possessed by a demon fatally wounds Torak's father, who makes his son swear that he will find the Mountain of the World Spirit, many daywalks from where they have been hunting in the forest. The spirit, his father says, offers the only hope to defeat the bear, which will become invincible if not stopped. So begins Torak's desperate quest, undertaken in the company of an orphaned wolf cub, Torak's guide. After members of the Raven Clan capture the boy and wolf, Torak learns that he is the Listener, prophesied to crush the Shadow, the overriding evil that is trying to take over the land. There's one minor discrepancy that kids are likely to spot (if there's a second printing, it will be corrected), but that won't spoil the excitement in the first book in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series. This is fantasy adventure on a grand scale, with a wealth of wilderness lore and convincing characterizations.

Horn Book (Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2005)

In this first in a six-book saga, a boy with special powers, the wolf he loves like a brother, and a skeptic who becomes their greatest ally embark on a quest to protect their prehistoric clan of hunter/gatherers. After slogging through the opening chapters, readers will be rewarded with deftly paced suspense and plenty of action.

Kirkus Reviews

<p>Grandiose series title aside, this first of a projected six episodes makes a muddled but strong start, pitting its young stone-age protagonist against a ravening, ensorcelled bear. Having learned of an oblique prophecy that describes him as the only one who can take on the unnatural bear who orphaned hima"and is wantonly killing the great forest's denizensa"Torak sets out to find three pieces of the Nanuak, or World Soul, that will allow him to enlist the help of the World Spirit. Accompanied by Wolf, an orphaned cub with eldritch knowledge, and Renn, spirited niece of a local clan leader, Torak survives a host of vividly envisioned dangers while displaying outstanding survival skills. Ultimately, he discovers that the bear (probably dispatched in a climactic encounter) had been created by one of a band of evil magesa"each of whom will doubtless appear in a subsequent adventure. By the end, readers will have a real feeling for what life in the wild must have been like, and will be looking forward to Torak's further exploits. (Fiction. 11-13)</p>

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9-Set 6000 years ago, this fast-paced adventure delves into a world of spirits and mysticism not often seen in children's literature. Torak, 12, witnesses his father's brutal attack by a giant, demon-possessed bear and promises to find his way to the Mountain of the World Spirit. Before dying, his father instructs him to avoid other men and tells him that his guide will find him. Sure enough, Torak is soon adopted by a wolf cub, also recently orphaned, with whom he is able to communicate. The bear continues to terrorize the forest, but Torak is able to avoid it with Wolf's help. They are captured by the Wolf clan, who believes that Torak is the Listener, and will rid the forest of the bear when he fulfills a prophecy by delivering three lost artifacts to the mountain. He must solve an obscure riddle to find the artifacts and traverse dangerous lands, all the while evading the evil bear. Paver's depth of research into the spiritual world of primitive peoples makes this impressive British import, slated to be the first in a six-book series, intriguing and believable.-Karen T. Bilton, Somerset County Library, Bridgewater, NJ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.