Book Review: Spirit Walker by Michelle Paver (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #2)

It's been a while since I took a look at the first book in this series, but I'm not finally here to tackle the second! I actually own the entire series now, so expect more reviews of Chronicles of Ancient Darkness soon! Spoilers ahead.

Some months have passed since the defeat of the demon bear. Torak has joined the Raven Tribe, while Wolf ended up joining a northern wolf pack. However, mysterious things are happening around the the tribe. People are getting sick and going mad, and Torak sees supernatural creatures that seem to play a part in all this. He, joined later by Renn and Wolf, sets out on a journey to find a cure to this mysterious disease, and ends up finding out more about himself and his past along the way.

This was just a really solid follow-up, I honestly don't have that much to say about it. It's not at strong as the first book, but I still really enjoyed it. 

I still love our characters. While not the most interesting fantasy protagonists out there, they really do carry the story a lot for me. I genuinely care about Torak, Wolf and Renn a lot.

Another thing that still really works for me is the world building. I really liked how this time we visited a different part of this world. We've already been in the forest and a small part of the north in the first book, so this one went in a different direction by taking us to the coast and some islands. An interesting change in setting. I also liked the tribes we met in Spirit Walker, such as the Seals. It's interesting to see how their culture contrasts that of the wood-based tribes. 

We also learn some stuff about Torak's past. So it turns out that Tenris is not only a Soul Eater, but also Torak's uncle. Also, Torak has been born with the mysterious ability to shift his soul into other beings, a gift he didn't discover until now. I'm kind of mixed on him being this person with legendary gifts. I don't hate it, don't get me wrong, but how much I'll end up liking it as a whole depends on how future books will handle it. It didn't happen too often in this book and was mostly accidental, which made it interesting. I'm just a bit anxious that future books will start relying too heavily on this ability as a way to solve problems. No barriers to this ability have been set up yet, so does that mean that (with the proper training) Torak could just shift into other human beings to get out of situations by controlling their actions. He has a tendency to get in trouble with other tribes, so this would be a really easy way to get out of this. It'd also make him quite overpowered and possibly unlikable because it doesn't really feel right that our protagonist could just take away any person's agency whenever he wanted. Again, I wouldn't be having these complaints if they established some kind of limit to the powers, but so far we have none which makes me believe it's possible if he hones his skills. However, if this proves false, I'll of course retract this statement. 

That said, I still immensely enjoyed this book and think it's a worthy sequel to Wolf Brother! The mysteries continue and I can't wait to return to Torak's world in book three!

Rating: 4/5