The final book in the first arc. I don't know when I'll get to the second, as that's a slight issue. See, I've been reading arc one by borrowing them all from the library in Dutch, however the second arc of Seekers has never been translated into this language, and it probably will not be in the future. So this mean that I'll have to go about buying them all which I'm totally fine with, but generally does take me longer to review the books like this.
Anyways, let's dive in. Spoilers ahead.
The four bears arrive at Star Island, an island far north with a local polar bear population that is facing trouble and sickness with the arrival of humans to the island. Our main four now see it as their duty to help these bears and eventually put an end to the humans' ruining the island by destroying their polluting constructions.
It's a fine conclusion to the series. I kind of was really into this series around the book three-four point, but then book five kind of killed a lot of the mojo I had for it. Book six was definitely better than book five, but it's also not a return to form to the quality of books three and four if you ask me.
But that said, there are a lot of things I like in this book. The four bears finally arriving at their destination and deciding to stick around until they've fulfilled their goal. Them deciding to help the local polar bears despite how hostile some of them are. Ujurak getting a bit more grip on his shapeshifting powers. Them discovering the cave where it was foretold that the four bears would save the island one day. Lusa being some kind of prophesied hero among the polar bears as well, and being the first to discover what was wrong with the seals. The bears deciding to stick together after all is over. And, of course, Ujurak's death.
I like the fact that they were bold here and didn't shy away from killing off one of the main heroes. Even if (relatively) Ujurak had the fewest POV-chapters and isn't depicted on a lot of the book covers, he really is just a part of the protagonist squad, at least to me. And he definitely deserved more POVs and especially being featured on more covers. But I'm also glad that his arc got a satisfactory conclusion here, even if it does end sadly with him dying.
From the moment we met him as a tiny cub he was very frightened and uncertain about himself. Who was he, what was he, where did he come from, what happened to his family, and why did he have unique shapeshifting powers? Gradually throughout the arc we get to see him come to terms with all of this, and by book six he has pretty much mastered his powers (though he does always have a remaining fear that he'll forget who he is when using them) and accepted the fact that he is the son of Ursa, a spiritual bear character. Just very neat stuff to see and I liked it a lot. He's probably the most well-developed character out of our main for
As for the other characters, I still like them but I didn't find their arcs as interesting this book. Toklo has by now become the squad's main protector and I do like that a lot. Kallik is developing maternal feelings towards an orphaned polar bear cub, and also may or may not have fallen for another one of the polar bears on Star Island. As for Lusa, I liked her arc the most here. She's very determined to help the sick polar bears regardless of how hostile some of them are. They're still good characters, but I was just personally more invested in Ujurak this book, and I feel his arc had the most satisfying (yet depressing) conclusion.
I will also admit that honestly I was more interested in the first half of the book, where the main bears help the polar bears, rather than the second half where once again we're dealing with humans. It's not bad, don't get me wrong, but it does feel a bit preachy at times. I get it, be kind to nature and the environment, but to call Seekers' environmental message subtle is just wrong. I personally would've liked the message to not have been so in your face and on the nose as it is presented in this arc. Again, a good message and I would still consider the first Seekers arc to be good overall. It's just not at all subtle at all and it does get a bit repetitive with a lot of scenes of animals suffering because of oil, polluted nature or being captured/killed by humans in the last few books.
So I do like this conclusion to the first arc overall. Will I read the second? Like said before, yes, it just may take me some time to get to it due to them not being available at my library. I'm glad that, after over a decade of putting things off, I've finally given Seekers a chance.
Rating: 3.5/5
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