Set 6,000 years ago in Northern Europe, after the end of the last ice age, the novels take place along a forested coastline — there are maps in the endpapers of each volume — inhabited by nomadic clans whose cultures revolve around totemic animals or trees: the Raven Clan, the Wolf Clan, the Willow Clan and so on. Although the central character is Torak, who is (as youthful saviors are supposed to be) alternately headstrong and self-doubting, with the power to “spirit walk,” or inhabit the souls of animals, Paver alternates his point of view with those of his two best friends: Renn, a girl from the Raven Clan who is a mage, or shaman, in training and who is close to Torak’s equal in skill, bravery and impetuousness; and Wolf, who is a wolf, and who has considered Torak his “pack brother” ever since they were both orphaned in the opening chapters of the first book in the series. The skillful crosscutting among these three, as they take turns rescuing one another from one disaster after another.