Firestar's Quest

I haven't read a Warriors book for over 10 years, but my heart still belongs to Firestar.

My favorite bit of this book was how recruiting for a "new" clan sure came across an AWFUL lot like recruiting for a cult.

By far my favorite of the kitty books! Most of them bother me because of the cliff-hangers -- I understand that you want me to buy the next book, but I really appreciate some sense of resolution to a story in which I've gotten invested. And I also find most of the series too dark and upsetting -- not for kids, but for me. There's so much emphasis on fighting and death and starvation and destruction of the environment... it can be demoralizing. But Firestar's Quest had a much more cohesive plotline than the others, which (mercifully) focused on a pretty upbeat story which came to a satisfying conclusion! Yay kitties.

Firestar begins being haunted in his dreams by a long lost Clan, SkyClan, that he’s never heard of before now. After having these dreams many times he finally finds where he needs to go in order to learn what they mean, but what he finds is that he needs to go on a long, possibly perilous journey to find the remnants of SkyClan.

What I Liked

It was nice to see that once again, StarClan isn’t all-powerful and can’t always force things to happen, plus it shows in this book that they can make mistakes or keep dark secrets just like any living cat. It was also nice to see Smudge be useful to the plot, if only for a short time. I didn’t really get very invested in this book until the mid-way point though, at which point I started show more actually wanting to read it.

What I Didn’t Like

It took nearly one-fifth of the book (chapter 8) for Firestar to finally meet SkyClan’s leader. It felt like it took absolutely forever for it to move forward. Hattie was also introduced close to this time and she felt sort of pointless, though I guess it would make sense for Firestar’s former owners to get another cat after he ran away. She simply didn’t add much, if anything, to the plot. show less

I accidentally read this book after I finished Power of Three, so I was a bit confused when I had first read this. But after I read the first few books over again, and then on to this, I was able to understand it. I loved the epic battle, the confusion of love, the dramatic climax, the death and grief, and the huge twists in the story. All of it coming together makes it one of the best golden-cover books ever.

One of the best books yet in the Warriors series, Firestar's Quest is a satisfying book with a quest that drives the story along, and themes of lost faith and responsibility. See my review here:

http://www.wandsandworlds.com/blog1/2007/09/book-review-firestars-quest.html

Firestar, now leader of ThunderClan, must head out on a quest. StarClan has spoken to him. He must go and remake the long lost clan, SkyClan. Joined by his mate Sandstorm, Firestar leaves his clan to find and re-build SkyClan. He faces many challenges to do it. Will he suceed? Or die trying.

This was an awesome book. I finally know why Sandstorm and Firestar named their kit Squirrelkit and Leafkit. Leafkit for a cat they met on their journey. And Squirrelkit for her bushy, squirrel-like tail. I loved how Erin Hunter wrote this book. It was a very good read.

An enjoyable side novel set in between the first and second Warrior series.

The writing isn't that strong in the beginning and gets more tedious toward the middle, but then it picks up again and becomes very interesting and exciting.