Into the Wild
Erin Hunter
NOTE: While the series is officially called “Warriors,” it was introduced to me as “Warrior Cats,” and that is what I call it.
You’re off the edge of the map, mate. Here there be spoilers. Other reviews in this series can be found here.
I bless and curse my Kindle Girl Facebook group. Bless because my fellow members provide a constant stream of cozy photos, recommendations, and all-around good vibes; curse because they have also suckered me into a number of things I would never have thought of on my own, such as a second Kindle, decorative case inserts, and this insane series that kind of reads like Redwall if the Abbeymice were all living in scattered tribes, ate only raw meat, and hated each other’s guts. (That really hits a bit different when I say it like that.)
This is why you never read post comments: I learned about these books from a comment that happened to mention that the Paperwhite Kids had a Warrior Cats-themed cover option, and I had never heard of Warrior Cats so naturally I had to look it up, and then I downloaded the first book on KU and I got hooked, goddammit. It wasn’t even my own post. This is annoying because there isn’t a Warrior Cats series so much as a Warrior Cats universe, and as it happens there are eight sub-series and three novellas within said universe. Long story short, I now own the six novels that make up the original series, and I’ve apparently got my work cut out for me. As for that Warrior Cats Paperwhite, I came thisclose to ordering it in lieu of the regular Paperwhite, but thankfully found out in time that the kids’ Kindles will start showing ads if you turn off the kid-friendly settings.
Unlike the Redwall and Shady Hollow series, which also feature all-animal casts, the Warrior Cats universe is set firmly in our world, presumably in the present day. However, that world – along with its human inhabitants, referred to as “Twolegs” – serves as a backdrop to the realm of the cats, who rule the non-Twoleg-infested parts according to their own rigid code. The cats are of course aware of the Twolegs, whose heavily trafficked Thunderpath bisects the cats’ range, but typically have little contact with them. At present, the majority of the cats are divided into four main tribes called ThunderClan, RiverClan, WindClan, and ShadowClan. Within the Clans, there are further subdivisions: a single leader, whose name is suffixed with the word “star,” and their deputy; a dedicated medicine cat; warriors and their apprentices, who defend the Clan’s territory and hunt for the fresh-kill upon which every cat depends; queens, female warriors who are granted a sort of maternity leave when they are expecting or nursing kits; and elders, who have reduced duties and are supported by the Clan. Outside of the Clans, there is a handful of “loners,” cats who live independently of the clans but do not belong to the Twolegs either, and at the very bottom of the unwritten hierarchy are the pampered house cats, scornfully referred to as “kittypets.”
In addition to the wild cats’ prejudices against both loners and kittypets, the four Clans hate each other and fight constantly over their respective hunting grounds and general territories, though ShadowClan is regarded as the main villain by the other three. Nevertheless, the four Clans regularly gather in a neutral spot for a peaceful meeting, or they did until ShadowClan unceremoniously ran the WindClan cats out of their own territory. What with the constant tensions between the Clans, together with a hard winter, a late spring, and a declining population, times have been rough lately, particularly for ThunderClan. Prey has been relatively scarce in their section of the forest, and, unlike RiverClan, they do not have access to a steady supply of fish when other prey are harder to find. Hoping for answers, ThunderClan leader Bluestar consults with StarClan (the spirits of deceased Clan warriors), but gets little guidance despite a vague prediction from her medicine cat, Spottedleaf, that fire will save their Clan. ThunderClan’s luck takes another hit when the apprentice Ravenpaw brings the news that Redtail, Bluestar’s deputy, has been killed by Oakheart, deputy of RiverClan, though the warrior Tigerclaw claims to have taken Oakheart’s life in revenge.
At the edge of this gathering storm is Rusty, an orange tabby kitten who was born in captivity and is currently the beloved pet of the Twolegs whose property (“Twolegplace”) happens to abut the woods occupied by the Clans. Though his physical needs are well met, Rusty is restless and frequently fantasizes about hunting for himself like a proper cat. His wildest dreams seem to come true all at once when he is befriended by Graypaw, a warrior apprentice about his own age. One thing leads to another, and Rusty is quickly accepted as a ThunderClan apprentice and given the name Firepaw. Normally the Clans would never stoop to recruiting kittypets, who are reputedly too soft to survive in the wild, but the reduced population has forced Bluestar to cast a wider net. For his part, Firepaw accepts Bluestar’s invitation partly out of fear of the “cutter,” and joins the Clan before he is old enough to be neutered. His chances of making it as a respected warrior seem to go down the drain when he makes the kittenish blunder of showing kindness to Yellowfang, a battered ShadowClan runaway, but – to everyone’s surprise, including his own – Bluestar welcomes Yellowfang as an honored guest and takes Firepaw under her wing as her personal apprentice. (This isn’t to say that he’s not in trouble; as punishment for his misjudgment, he is placed in charge of Yellowfang’s well-being.)
Not everyone approves of Bluestar’s decisions: apprentices Sandpaw and Dustpaw are scornful, and Tigerclaw vehemently opposes Firepaw’s recruitment. This becomes especially troublesome when Bluestar elevates Tigerclaw to the role of deputy, and more troublesome still when Firepaw learns from Ravenpaw that Tigerclaw murdered Redtail. As the sole witness to Tigerclaw’s treachery, Ravenpaw is now in serious danger; likewise Yellowfang, who – though she has softened towards Firepaw as he has cared for her – is distrusted by most of the Clan. Though Firepaw tries to tell Bluestar what he has learned, he never gets the chance, and his efforts seem to come to nothing when a number of ThunderClan kits suddenly go missing, and Yellowfang disappears. With time running out for the kits, Ravenpaw, and Yellowfang, Firepaw removes Ravenpaw from the camp for his own safety, dropping him off with a friendly loner named Barley before he and Graypaw track Yellowfang back into ShadowClan territory.
Here they learn that Yellowfang, far from harboring malicious intentions, has in fact ventured back into her old territory to retrieve the kits, who she knows were taken on the orders of Brokenstar, the brutal, conniving leader of ShadowClan. Having murdered his own father, Brokenstar has all but destroyed his Clan, pushing the ShadowClan kits so hard that most of them have died during warrior training. To make up for their loss, his small core of loyalists have been catnapping kits from other Clans and training them up as warriors. The rank and file ShadowClan cats have thus far been too afraid to openly oppose Brokenstar, but they get the boost they need when a posse of ThunderClan warriors – including Firepaw and Graypaw – agree to drive Brokenstar out in exchange for the return of their kits.
After a vicious battle, Brokenstar retreats in defeat as his Clan turns on him; the ThunderClan warriors promise the surviving ShadowClan cats a month of peace, and they part ways amicably. Back in ThunderClan territory, Bluestar offers Yellowfang a permanent position as the Clan’s new medicine cat, then promotes Firepaw and Graypaw to the rank of warrior, granting them the names Fireheart and Graystripe. Meanwhile, Ravenpaw – who is presumably much happier living a simpler life with Barley – is thought to be dead, and is mourned briefly before the Clan moves on. Despite his joy at his friend’s safety and his own elevation, Fireheart enters his new role knowing that Tigerclaw cannot be trusted, and accepts that their enmity will eventually lead to violence.
This book started out a little confusing, what with all the kitty names that get wantonly hurled around during the opening battle between RiverClan and ThunderClan, but I promise everything starts to make sense fairly quickly. This is a very solid first installment; I would even call it addicting, after a certain point. The authors don’t waste much time getting down to business, which I appreciate. Even if I was neutral on it in the beginning, I quickly got hooked the more I read. I liked the characters I was supposed to like and hated the ones I was supposed to hate, which is always a win. Unfortunately I happened to catch a glimpse of the synopsis for book four, which starts with “Tigerclaw has been vanquished,” to which I say, IT TAKES THEM THREE BOOKS TO GET RID OF HIM?!?!?! I want that sweet little Ravenpaw back NOW. I don’t know why he gives me such a strong Sejanus vibe – perhaps it’s the sweet, well-meaning, easily frazzled innocence of him – but whatever it is, it makes me want to protect him at all costs. I never did trust Tigerclaw, especially as he spent so much of the book bullying and terrorizing poor Ravenpaw, who 100% did not deserve any kind of abuse. I realize Tigerclaw is Fireheart’s problem to deal with, but I wouldn’t object if he and Brokenstar just sort of killed each other, two cats with one stone, right?
As for Fireheart, the heart and soul of the book, he really grew on me. He starts as this pampered little house kitten (nothing wrong with that, I’m just saying), but he is fierce and determined and eager to learn. He earns his place, and he earns his rank. I look forward to seeing how he will grow over the rest of the series. I really appreciate his complete humility: he has his pride, yes, but he is also smart enough to know when to defer to higher-ranked cats. He isn’t defiant for the sake of defiance. If he disagrees with directives from on high – for instance, Tigerclaw’s vicious anti-Ravenclaw campaign – he finds a way around it. I especially love his relationship with Yellowfang, who taunts him as a kittypet but comes to respect and even care for him. I also love Graystripe, who is a cheerful, adorable lummox, and Yellowfang of course is a cat after my own heart. I’d even go so far as to say that she and Whiska would absolutely be BFFles, and that is high praise indeed. I am sorry for the circumstances that drove Yellowfang from her home, but I am so happy that she has found a new place for herself. I think ThunderClan will be good for her, and vice versa. I want her and Fireheart to have a long and happy friendship. If the next book opens with her dying, I will be having words with the authors.
As far as the arc of the series goes, I can’t say I see the story trajectory at the moment, though obviously the hostility between Fireheart and Tigerclaw is going to be important for at least the next few books; but, given that Fireheart has been personally trained by Bluestar, and given that Bluestar has just recently lost her seventh life (the leaders are granted nine lives upon ascending to the heads of their Clans), I have no doubt that there will be a Firestar somewhere in our future. In fact, as I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the name Firestar in relation to other books, I’m all but convinced of it. I am certain that Bluestar means to groom him for command, and I must say I completely agree with her. His strength and his compassion will make him a leader worth following. Tigerclaw on the other hand deserves nothing, fuck that guy, he deserves to rot, death to traitors. I don’t know if he means to actually kill Bluestar or if he’s just planning to wait until she dies of natural causes, but either way he’s got my hackles raised. I can’t wait till Fireheart gets rid of him.
Yet as much as I loved the characters (the good ones, anyway) and the story, it’s the world that’s really got me good. Whatever else I or anyone else may think of it, this is a book that was written by people who love cats. “Erin Hunter” is a pseudonym representing six different writers, though you’d never know it from the writing; the narration is seamless. At no point was I able to discern one writer from another. I would have thought that herding six writers would be worse than herding cats, but they seem to have made it work. And I am 99.99999999% sure that every single one of them has had, or at least known, at least one cat over the course of their lives. Even as a relatively new cat mom, I can look at the cats in this book and know that they are, in fact, cats. There are so many itsy-bitsy nerdy worldbuilding details that I love, from the mutual grooming rituals (referred to as “sharing tongues”; admittedly I wish they’d come up with a better name for that) to just the day-to-day hissings and bappings that go on between the Clan cats. Poor Ravenpaw almost gets his head knocked off by an angry queen who thinks he’s out to get her kits, and, while I feel sorry for him, I can also perfectly picture that scene.
Though this is only the first installment, I can see this series going on to become one of my all-time favorites. Certainly it has contributed to my personal vocabulary; I have been addressing Circe sporadically as “kittypet,” with the greatest affection, of course. If all goes well, I will most likely go through the rest of the Warrior Cat books, I mean, there’s only 42 primary novels and 21 novellas after the introductory sub-series. Seven hells, I’m getting tired just thinking about that. All that’s in the future, however, and right now I’ve got plenty to go on. Here’s hoping Tigerclaw will get at least just a little bit of comeuppance in the next book.
