Book blurb:
For generations, four Clans of wild cats have shared the forest according to the laws laid down by their ancestors. But the warrior code has been threatened, and the ThunderClan cats are in grave danger. The sinister ShadowClan grows stronger every day. Noble warriors are dying–and some deaths are more mysterious than others.
In the midst of this turmoil appears an ordinary housecat named Rusty . . . who may turn out to be the bravest warrior of them all.
I started this book series last year and I am hooked. This book is aimed at older children (I believe around the 8-12 age range) but I am struck by how adult some of the themes within this book series are. There are currently 7 series of these books which focus on clans of feral cats, and each series contains 6 books per series. Each book will have its own subplots and key plot points throughout, but the series as a whole will focus on one main story arc, which starts with the first book and is finished by the final book, with the various subplots of each book usually spanning one or two books. As such, it is kind of hard to review the books individually, as the contents of each book can vary hugely – some books focus purely on the lore of the clans, whilst others set up a lot of conflicts that don’t actually come to fruition for another two books. There are also some books that are nothing but conflicts from start to finish, where major conflicts are introduced at chapter one and are then resolved by the final chapter of that book.
This book is the very first in the series and will introduce us to the main characters that we will follow throughout ‘The Prophecies Begins’ series. I will try to give away any major plot points just in case you guys do want to read these, but I will go over some of the basics so you know what to expect.
For the majority of this book and for this series, we follow the events from the viewpoint of one cat, whereas in later series there are multiple points of view given. The book starts with Rusty, who is a house cat who leaves his home to join the clan of feral cats who live in the forest outside of his garden. These books have a lot of lore to it – from how the cats in each clan are named, how each clan has its own territory and how these are maintained, how the cats all must adhere to the ‘warrior code’ and how the hierarchy in each clan is established. I think this first book does an excellent job of slowly showing Rusty learning all of these aspects of the lore, whilst also allowing us readers to be gradually introduced to the lore without the need for a massive information dump. The lore is also solid – it feels quite grounded in reality, whilst still allowing that little bit of wonderment for the lore as a whole.
The books, whilst they are meant for younger readers, do not shy away from the brutality of being a feral cat: it is made very clear to Firepaw from the beginning when he first joins the clan that there will be days where he will go without food, especially during the winter season, that there is little warm shelter unless he can build it, and that there will be other animals within the forest that wish to hurt him or kill him. There is also the conflict between the other clans: Firepaw joins Thunderclan – which is also the clan that we follow for most of the series that follow – but there are three other clans in the forest. Windclan, Riverclan and Shadowclan. There is also Starclan, which is the clan that every cat will join when they die, and Starclan act as the spiritual guides throughout the series, sending messages and signs to the cats throughout their adventures.
Rusty – who very early on in this book changes his name to a clan name, Firepaw – is a very relatable character. At the start of this book he is around 6 months old, and as a reader you can feel his need for adventure outside of his human home. The book explains that since he was born in a human home – or a ‘two leg nest’ as the clan cats say – he is viewed as a lesser cat by the clan cats. He is referred to as a ‘kitty-pet’ for most of this first book, and even in the later series it is still a phrase used to belittle a cat that is not a clan cat. As such, he is treated like an outsider by most of the other cats until he is able to prove himself worthy of being a clan cat. This progression also feels very organic, with many of the subplots throughout the first book focusing on Firepaw learning how to fight, hunt and live like a clan cat and how he slowly earns the trust of the cats around him.
This first book also introduces us to the key players of this series as it continues, most notably Bluestar (Thunderclan’s leader), Lionheart (Thunderclan’s deputy leader) and Tigerclaw (a Thunderclan warrior). The book begins with Bluestar taking a chance on Firepaw, allowing a ‘kitty-pet’ to join the clan, which has always been a forbidden action. This first book focuses a lot on what Firepaw’s arrival also means for the other clans, who are all at odds with one another to defend their territories within the forest and prove that they are the strongest of the clans. Again, I thought this was very well done, and it was also interesting to see how the various cats within the clans reacted to it. Some cats saw it as progress, that a cat’s worth was proven by their actions rather than where they were born, whilst other cats focused purely on what the Warrior Code would say and to break it was to go against everything that the clans stood for. Again, this book may be aimed for younger readers, but I feel it deals with a lot of very real world problems in a way that doesn’t diminish the problem or shy away from it. I for one think that this is necessary for all books, especially those aimed at younger audiences. Watering down very serious topics doesn’t help anyone, and I think younger audiences will be able to read these books and see these types of struggles in their everyday life.
This book is very much setting the scene for the rest of the series. There are a few big plot points that happen (again I won’t give spoilers) as part of the main climax of this book, but they very much set the wheels in motion for the larger conflict which covers the entire series. Again though this is all done in a very organic way, where we as the reader learn about backstories, lore and potential conflicts at the same time that Firepaw is learning them. I will however say that this book (and the entire Warriors series as a whole) does not shy away from character deaths. There can be numerous deaths per book, and in this first book I was very much shocked at one of the deaths. As I have said before, this book series does not shy away from the risks that surround feral cats, and as a result all of the cats are constantly at risk. But I also found that each death is given the gravity that it deserves, and whilst there are many deaths that are really quite sad (the death in this book is one of them), the deaths also carry meaning further into the series, and the ramifications of a death can sometimes come back to haunt a character later on in a series.
Taylor Talks Vegan 
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