Book five of the first arc! I can't believe I'm so close to finishing this arc, I never even intended on reading it originally (like, years ago, I mean) but I really liked it so far. So let's have a look at this one. Spoilers ahead.
Now again re-united, the four bear cubs set out on exploring the seemingly endless ice for their journey in order to save the wilderness. However, the journey proves once again very difficult, to the point Lusa and Toklo are eventually forced to go back. Difficulties arise when Lusa gets captured by humans, and Kallik, Toklo and Ujurak will have to come to her aid.
Out of all of the first arc...this one I think is the weakest so far. Which sucks because I loved the past few books. Even book two, arguably my other least favorite, was pretty memorable with the bears gathering at Great Bear Lake. But meanwhile there are so little standout moments here. The bears are struggling to survive and journeying? We've been seeing that for the past four books now, the only difference being they're on ice this time. One of them gets kidnapped by the humans and they have to rescue the other? That's literally the exact plot of the latter half of book four, except it was Ujurak instead of Lusa there.
Also...what does this book accomplish? We don't really seem to be any closer to "saving the wilderness" than in the last book. Heck, we still don't even know what the goal of the travel on the ice was. We just know that they have to make the journey because of some spiritual goings-ons. Which I'm fine with, but I wish our journey was more defined. Five books in and we still don't know how the heck these four bears are supposed to save the wilderness, or what that even entails.
I'd assume it means stopping global warming and the drilling for oil, but we're still not any closer to even figuring out how they could possibly do that than in the last few books. I'd like to see a more defined goal or at least some hints as to what the exact goal of the journey of these four bears is. "Saving the wilderness" is just so vague and all we've had for the past five books is just the bears traveling from location to location with the occasional obstacle along their way. It's starting to feel old, especially since we don't have a clear goal to work towards yet and this book put us no closer to solving the oil-drilling problem than the last. Just a whole lot of characters traveling and bickering, which isn't fun to read especially when it sounds like it's repeating the last book again conflict-wise.
Overall I don't hate this book, but I just think it's the weakest in the arc and I dislike it more the more I think about it. It's not horrible but it feels subpar compared to the rest, even book two. Not memorable, too much recycling from previous books and the endless bickering between the characters over what they're supposed to do is getting stale.
The only thing I thought was rather noteworthy is that we finally get some kind of revelation regarding Ujurak's powers and origins: he's the son of Silaluk/Arcturus/Ursa Major, aka the spirit that most bear species worship in one form or another. Which is a pretty cool revelation and it also finally answers Ujurak's question as to what he is even supposed to be. Despite him being in his (brown) bear form mainly throughout the books, he has always kept wondering if he's even truly a bear due to not knowing his origins. But by now he knows that he's not just a bear but he's essentially the son of their god/spirit. Pretty cool revelation to his arc and it also answers the question of why only he can shapeshift and hear Silaluk's voice in his head sometimes.
But that aside I still think this is the weakest installment. Cool character revelations don't make for a good overall story. This book felt mostly like recycled filler from the last few with the exception that it now takes place on the ice. I hope that the final book in this arc sticks the landing much more than this one.
Rating: 3/5
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