We're officially past the halfway point of this arc! Let's move on to this book! Spoiler ahead.
The four bears have finally arrived at their journey's destination, however not everything is as perfect as it initially seemed. The prophecy that says the bears need to "save the wilderness" weighs heavily on Lusa and Ujurak, and Toklo is yearning to go his own way again, leaving the others behind. Things get even more complicated, however, when Ujurak is kidnapped by humans while in a human form.
Overall I liked this book quite a bit. Not as much as the last, which was an absolute favorite of mine, but still good. The character's decisions and arcs all make sense and work. I like how Toklo seems to want to go his own way now that the journey is over. Of course, we all knew he would come back, but it worked very well for his established character so far. Lusa is still faithful as ever, as is Kallik. And Ujurak takes really center stage here as the last third or so is fully dedicated to saving him multiple times. It's also revealed that the voice he's hearing in his head is Ursa Major (or whatever their bear equivalent to it is). So he's a really interesting character in this book and I like that we actually got to read a decent portion from his POV in this book. Shame he hasn't been featured on any of the covers yet that I know of.
The plot was also interesting. We finally know what "saving the wilderness" means; saving the Last Wilderness from human oil drilling. Don't ask me how four bears are going to stop this, but I'm sure they'll figure it out. It makes for an interesting conflict and while I'm not the biggest fan of preachy "protect nature" stories I think it works in this context since this nature is literally their home and one of the only places a bear can still live in semi-peace. I was even more invested in the conflict of getting Ujurak back, however. The shapeshifter first almost chokes on a fishhook and is helped by the human natives of the area, before being kidnapped by government officials and taken to a town near the oil rigs. Getting him back was a neat conflict and I'm glad they succeeded. I also like how this book elaborates on Ujurak's abilities and connection to Ursa Major.
Overall this was yet another thrilling installment in this arc. Not the greatest, but definitely pretty dang strong.
Rating: 4/5
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