Orphan boy with special powers fights evil mages called Soul Eaters, with assistance of clever girl friend, over the course of six books. No, we're not talking about Mr Potter here - besides, Harry and Hermione fight Death Eaters over seven books.
I started thinking about Soul Eater and some small similarities between its series and Harry Potter after I wrote the post about Eragon-Star Wars. I suppose there are recurrent themes in any particular literary genre. And the best writers make you forget that you've ever encountered anything similar before.
Anyway, about Soul Eater:
Soul Eater is the third book of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series by Michelle Paver. (The first two books are Wolf Brother and Spirit Walker.) This series is absolutely brilliant. The writing transports the reader to a vividly-imagined prehistoric world, full of spirits and mysticism, peopled by hunter-gatherer tribes. I particularly like the descriptions from Wolf's point of view - I always imagined my beloved pet dogs had such thoughts running through their brains.
Except, of course, they wouldn't have had to worry about expelling demons and suchlike.
I finished the book in one uninterrupted afternoon reading session. I'm going to go read it again right now. Ok, maybe not right now, but definitely tomorrow.
NB - the text illustrations for the Ancient Darkness series are by Geoff Taylor, a very accomplished fantasy illustrator who did the covers for the David Eddings series, The Belgariad and The Mallorean, which I used to enjoy when I was too young to know any better. The illustrations wear well and still look very impressive. One can't say the same for the writing.
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