Book Review: Outcast by Michelle Paver (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #4)

 

We're well on our way to finishing the first six books in the series. So let's dive into book four! Spoilers ahead.

Torak's Soul Eater mark is discovered, causing him to be promptly cast out by all the clans. He must now fend for himself while also trying to get rid of his mark, survive, and of course face down the Soul Eater Seshru. Meanwhile, Renn, Bale and Wolf are always not far behind, ready to come to his aid when needed.

I honesty don't have that much to say about all these Chronicles of Ancient Darkness books past the first one. They're all just consistently really good so far. They each introduce a new conflict (or an older conflict gets expanded upon) and deal with it accordingly.

I do definitely see a bit of a formula in these books by now. A threat/plot point is introduced early on, Torak leaves his home clan behind to deal with it and Renn and Wolf tag along (plus Bale in this case), some new stuff and revelations usually happen, we see a new environment and after the conflict is dealt with we get a calm reflective ending scene that is usually a dialog between Torak and Fin Kedinn or another older clan member. 

Past book one all of the major conflicts have been Soul Eaters so far, in book three as a group but so far in book four and five individually. Since there's one Soul Eater left post-book five, I assume the last one will be dealing with them. This does get a bit repetitive, but at the same time I don't mind it all that much. When dealing with the Soul Eaters as a unit in Soul Eater, I honestly found it a bit hard to distinguish them individually and not see them as a single unit that just happened to consist of four relatively interchangeable people. But having each book focus on the last three honestly works because it develops them as individuals rather than a collective.

The same good stuff from the other books was in this one. Good characters and development, interesting new plot points and locations, a "new" intimidating threat and some revelations. I liked how we saw Torak really struggle with himself in this book, slowly becoming corrupted for a while and even casting Wolf aside. This then in turn resulted in Wolf becoming a lone wolf before joining up with his pack again. I really expected things to end up going the same way as the ending of book one, where they'd be apart for a long time, but it actually got resolved pretty quickly. Torak slowly starts to become himself again through raising a couple of young ravens, and eventually "joins" Wolf's pack. 

Then there's of course the big twist regarding Renn. In earlier books it was already hinted at that she had secrets and her own reasons for hating Magic, but this book finally clears up what this is all about: her mother is one of the Soul Eaters, Seshru herself in fact. Not only that, but Renn was actually supposed to be used in a ritual to create a tokoroth. Yikes man, imagine having to carry the burden of that secret all your young life. 

Overall, book four was yet another strong installment! I can't wait to read the last two "early" Chronicles of Ancient Darkness books. After that I'll probably think for a while before getting the newer books that are being released in the 2020s, since I want to consider which version I'm going to get if I want the others to match up with my editions, of course.

Rating: 4/5