The story of a young boy during the Middle Stone Age, thrown into a journey he didn’t want, in order to discover who he really is and why he can talk to a wolf.

This book is the first of a series and is set up perfectly for that. The story rounds off the quest well, but also leaves enough space for the next book without the usual suddenly imposed cliffhanger. Throughout the last few chapters, it is gently eased into the story that finishing this quest will not mean the end of his journey, but simply an great first achievement along the way.

The book is wonderfully gripping. Although I didn’t get into the setting as much as I had hoped, I still needed to know what would happen. The rise and fall of tension and humour was perfectly handled, with great chapters that centred around the immediate danger, full of edge-of-seat action, and the mysterious backstory, that pulled the reader into the prophecy itself.

The small sections of narrative by Wolf were my favourite! The voice the author managed to establish for a magical young cub was endearing and well thought through. He quickly became a favourite character and although I won’t spoil the ending, the relationship I had with Wolf is definitely one of the most important parts of why the ending worked so well for me.

I would definitely recommend this book as a teacher and just in general. It is a good balance or historical, mythological and fantastical which caters to anyone who may assume they solely prefer only one of those genres.

However, the real test in my mind for a book of a series is if it makes me want to pickup the next book immediately... which is where it doesn’t really succeed. As much as I enjoyed it, I’m happy to move on to another book and maybe return to pick up the second instalment another time.