|
''Chronicles of Ancient Darkness'' is a series of six historical fantasy novels by the British author Michelle Paver, her first books for children. The books chronicle the adventures of Torak, an adolescent boy from the Wolf Clan, and his friends Renn and Wolf. The main story arc revolves around Torak and his quest to defeat the Soul Eaters, a group of evil clan mages who seek out to destroy all life in the forest. Paver has called it simply "a single story: the tale of Torak's discovery of himself and his world."〔 Since the 30 May 2004 release of the first book in the series, ''Wolf Brother'', the series has gained critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide. ''Wolf Brother'' became a national bestseller in the United States, and the rights to the series were bought by 20th Century Fox to be made into major motion pictures. The books are set 6000 years ago in prehistoric Europe during the Stone Age. The main character, Torak, alone in the world, soon meets a lone wolf cub, Wolf, with whom he can communicate (having spent around three months in a wolf den as a baby). A girl named Renn, who is part of the Raven Clan, soon befriends them and supports them throughout the series. Torak's quest, along with Renn and Wolf, is to defeat the Soul Eaters, a group of former clan mages who have turned to evil, and who seek to control the forest. The story is told from three different third-person narratives: Torak, Renn and Wolf. For the concluding book ''Ghost Hunter'' (2009) she won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.〔〔 ==Main characters== Torak, the main character, begins the series as a native, defensive, and curious boy of twelve. Over the course of the novels, he acquires several spiritual titles, including "Spirit Walker", and "Soul Eater": this last title causes numerous difficulties. He is slow to mature emotionally, but from the fourth book on he is described as taller and brave, in sharp contrast to the short, scrawny boy portrayed in the first three books. He becomes protective of Renn in the later books as they grow closer: this often annoys and frustrates her. He has the power to vanquish the Soul-Eaters and at first despises his power: he eventually grows to accept it. Renn, the niece of the Raven Clan's leader, Fin-Kedinn. She a year younger than Torak. She is described as slim and small in the first few books. She is portrayed as tough, courageous and expert in archery. She has been forced into becoming a mage all her life because of her skill with magic. Torak, Wolf and Fin-Kedinn are her only true friends. Renn is often described through Torak's eyes as older and beautiful. She is often frustrated by his seeming thoughtlessness. Wolf, a wolf, is Torak's guide and adoptive brother. He grows from a wobbly cub to a young adult over the course of around a year, but stays with Torak and Renn throughout the series of books. As a cub he is grey, but he matures to a golden grey tinged with white, with gold about the shoulders. He has grey-green eyes. At first he hates Renn intensely, and in the chapters that written are from his point of view, he initially refers to her as the "female tailless" or "bad female tailless": as he develops affection to her, he begins to call her ''pack-sister''. The author gives him an unusual vocabulary that often describes exactly what things are: for example, he refers to fire as ''Bright Beast-that-Bites Hot''. Wolf eventually finds a female wolf called Darkfur, with whom he produces cubs. Fin-Kedinn is the wise leader of the Raven Clan, Renn's uncle and Torak's adopted father. In the past he was best friends with Torak's father and his brother Tenris, both of who were ambitious to become mages. Fin-Kedinn was in love with Torak's mother, but she loved Fa and followed him into exile when they fled the Soul-Eaters. Fin-Kedinn has won the respect of all the clans and even that of Wolf, who admire the 'lead wolf who smells of raven' because he has the habits of a wolf, such as only sleeping for short periods of time. Although impassive and refusing to show emotion, Fin-Kedinn cares deeply for both Renn and Torak. The Soul-Eaters are a group of mages who united to combine their powers for the good of all people calling themselves the healers, but became corrupted and now wish to have power over everyone, using a crystal called the Fire Opal to control demons to do their bidding. There were initially seven of them. Torak's late father, Fa, joined the group against his wife's advice, before rejecting their desire to take power. He summoned the seven together and shattered the Fire Opal into three pieces, causing a great fire that ripped across the forest. The Soul Eaters were scattered and Torak's father and mother went into exile. Torak's mother then gave birth to her son, and when she died shortly afterwards Fa continued his exile with his son for 12 years, before Fa's death at the beginning of the first novel. The seven mages were from the Otter (the Walker or Narrander), Seal (Tenris), Wolf (Torak's Fa), Bat (Nef), Viper (Sheshru), Oak (Thiazzi), and Eagle Owl (Eostra) clans. Fa is Torak's father, the former Mage of the Wolf Clan, and one of the seven Soul Eaters. Although he only appears briefly at the start of ''Wolf Brother'' when he is killed by the demon bear, his legacy is the driving force behind the whole of the books. Once a young man coming from the secretive Wolf Clan, Fa ambitionned to become a Mage and eventually succeeded, becoming the Wolf Clan Mage; in the words of the Clan Leader, Maheegun, Fa was the greatest Mage the clan ever had and succeeded in 'becoming wolf for a few heartbeats'. However, Fa was also naive and easily fooled in his youth and he blindly believed the promises and good intentions of the Soul Eaters. When they revealed their true natures, Fa tried to leave but they refused to let him. Determined to undo the evil he had unintentionally created, he summoned all of the Soul Eaters and tried to kill them all by fire before going into hiding with his mate. The World Spirit, angered by the Soul Eaters' crimes, decreed that, as penance for his crime, Fa's son would be the one to destroy them and he granted him the ancient power of the spirit walker to help him accomplish his task. Fa raised Torak away from the clans after his mate's death to prevent the Soul Eaters from finding out about him and, instead of teaching Magecraft, he taught hunting and tracking, skills that would prove invaluable in his quest to defeat the Soul Eaters. Hord is Renn's brother. He is killed in the end of the first book. You could call Hord a stubborn bully who often makes bad decisions. He fights Torak in the battle and thinks that the demon bear can only be killed if Torak's blood is spilled on the mountains. Bale is a young man from the Seal clan who is Torak's cousin, they initially get off to a bad start but become friends, he first appears in ''Spirit Walker''. He is killed in the beginning of ''Oath Breaker'' by Thiazzi. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chronicles of Ancient Darkness」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|