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Warriors (novel series)

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Warriors Box Set - Books 1-3
File:Warriors (box set 1-3).jpg
AuthorErin Hunter
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's, Fantasy, Animals
PublisherHarperCollins
Publication date
2003
Publication placeEngland

Warriors is a series of fantasy novels written by Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry and their newly recruited third author, Tui Sutherland (who used to be their U.S. editor), with their storyline writer Victoria Holmes, under the pen name Erin Hunter.[1] The series follows the adventures of Clans of wild cats trying to survive in their forest homes. The series is divided up into three miniseries with six books in each series. The first of these miniseries was published in 2003, beginning with the book Into the Wild. The second series was written under the title Warriors: The New Prophecy and published in 2005, the first book being called Midnight. The first book of the third series Warriors: Power of Three, The Sight, was added to shelves on April 24, 2007.[2] Other books have been released to supplement the main series, including a special edition,[3] manga volumes,[4] and a field guide about the universe of the cats.[5]

The series was written at the request of the publisher HarperCollins.[1] Today, the series has been released in several formats[6][7] and languages.[8][9] Despite mixed reviews from critics,[10] one book has won an award.[8] Warriors has appeared in a play and an online video,[11] but the possibility of a movie is questionable.[12] The authors have named several themes in their books, the most notable being religions interacting, good and evil in a character, and nature versus nurture.[12] Influencing the series are authors, poets, and even a physician[1] and locations.[13]

Books

Origins and writing

The entire series originally came about when HarperCollins asked Holmes to write a story about wild cats, which she was not enthusiastic about. Once the storyline for the first book was finished, Kate Cary wrote the story. Cherith Baldry was invited to write Forest of Secrets because of her writing skills and love of cats. Tui Sutherland has recently joined the group, formerly their US editor. Over time, the storyline stretched into what it is now.[1] Victoria Holmes decided to use human issues, like starting at a new school (Firestar joining ThunderClan), falling in love when you shouldn't (Graystripe and Silverstream) and being bullied by someone who you should look up to (Firepaw being bullied by Tigerstar) and even knowing a deep secret that you only tell your friends (Ravenpaw knowing about Tigerstar's crimes). This helped her overlook the fact that it was a fantasy, and let the characters flow through.[11] The authors wanted their books to be together on bookshelves, not spread out because of their different names. Because of this, they chose a pen name.[14] The authors wanted their books to be close to the similar Redwall series by Brian Jacques, so their surname had to begin with an H, I, or K. "Hunter" was chosen because it seemed to match cats, and "Erin" simply because Holmes liked it.[12]

Victoria Holmes makes up the storylines, which takes a month.[15] Then Cary and Baldry take turns writing the book. Holmes then edits the book to make sure it is consistent.[14][8] The first manuscript's editing takes about a week, while the second version takes longer. The third draft edits very quickly.[15] As of yet, Cary and Baldry have not met.[1]

Main series

Warriors

The first series follows the adventures of Rusty, a young house cat, who decides to become a ThunderClan apprentice, with the new name Firepaw, because his pelt is the color of fire.As the series progresses, Firepaw becomes a warrior and receives yet another new name, Fireheart.[16] As a warrior, Fireheart defends his Clan while trying to help the other Clans.Fireheart also has a friend named Graypaw who later on becomes Graystripe. He discovers a traitor in his Clan, Tigerclaw, who becomes the antagonist of the story.[17] By The Darkest Hour, Firestar has become the leader of ThunderClan. This series centers around the prophecy "Fire alone can save our Clan."[18]

Warriors: The New Prophecy

The second series, called Warriors: The New Prophecy, centers around seven cats from the four different Clans: the ThunderClan representative Brambleclaw, the ShadowClan representative Tawnypelt (Brambleclaw's sister), the WindClan representative Crowpaw, the RiverClan representative Feathertail, Feathertail's brother Stormfur, the ThunderClan cat Squirrelpaw, and her sister, Leafpaw.[19]

Warriors: Power of Three

Warriors: Power of Three is the third series, following three young cats named Hollypaw, Jaypaw, and Lionpaw. They are the grandchildren of both Firestar and Tigerstar and children of Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw. Jaypaw is blind, and is often looked upon differently by his Clan, but he discovers he has a power only he possesses. He is currently training to be a medicine cat. Lionpaw and Hollypaw are training to become warriors. It has been revealed by the authors that one of the kits will become evil.[15] The series centers around the prophecy: There will be three, kin of your kin, who hold the power of the stars in their paws.[20] Currently, Book 1, The Sight, Book 2, Dark River, and Book 3, Outcast, are released.[21]

Other Warriors books

Super Editions

Firestar's Quest, a larger-than-normal sized book, was released on August 21, 2007. It covers the year between The Darkest Hour and Midnight, and answers many questions as to what happened in between the books, such as Longtail's blindness and Willowpelt's death. The plot follows Firestar and Sandstorm, who leave on a quest after Firestar receives messages from an ancient fifth Clan. This Clan, named SkyClan, was forced out of the forest by the other four clans when the twolegs built their houses over their camp. Firestar and Sandstorm then begin to restore SkyClan, as its ancient leader told Firestar to do.[3]

Three other books are to be released under the Super Edition name. The first will center around the life of former ThunderClan leader Bluestar before Firestar's arrival to the forest, the second will feature the early days of the Clans, and the third will feature the modern-day SkyClan. It has been revealed through the fourth Wands and Worlds Erin Hunter chat that the Bluestar Super Edition will be released on August 2009 and the Modern SkyClan Super Edition in 2010.[1] The release date for the Early Clan Days Super Edition is as of yet unknown.

Field Guides

Secrets of the Clans was the first field guide to be released for Warriors. This book gives more details about the Clans never written down in the books.[5] Cats of the Clans, featuring illustrations of the cats and expected to be released on June 24, 2008,[23] and Code of the Clans, expected to be released in 2009, are future field guides.[1]

  • Secrets of the Clans
  • Cats of the Clans
  • Code of the Clans

Manga

Graystripe's Trilogy

There is a three volume original English-language manga series based on what happened to Graystripe between the time that he was taken by Twolegs in Dawn until he returned to ThunderClan in The Sight. It has been published as the first part of a partnership between TOKYOPOP and HarperCollins.[4] The final volume was published on April 22, 2008.[24]

The Rise of Scourge

As revealed by Vicky Holmes during her October 2007 tour of the United States, a future original English-language manga volume will focus on the BloodClan leader Scourge. The title, The Rise of Scourge, was confirmed on the Library of Congress website.[25] It is expected to be released on June 24, 2008.[26]

Tigerstar and Sasha's Trilogy

There will also be a trilogy about Tigerstar and Sasha.[1] The first volume is called Into the Woods, and is expected to be released on September 2, 2008.[27]

  • Book 1: Into the Woods
Ravenpaw's Trilogy

The third original English-language manga trilogy will focus on Ravenpaw after he leaves ThunderClan to live with Barley. This was confirmed in an AuthorTracker email.[11]

Setting

In the forest the cats call home, there are four Clans. Each Clan has a leader, given nine lives by StarClan. StarClan is a group made up of the Clans' spiritual ancestors and gives guidance and even prophecies to the Clans. The leader appoints a deputy who will later succeed him or her as leader. Every Clan has a medicine cat, who communicates with StarClan and heals injured or sick cats. Most of Clan is made up of warriors, the cats who fight in battles and patrol the borders, while following the warrior code. Warriors train apprentices to become new warriors. Old or impaired warriors become elders. When a female warrior has kits, she becomes what is called a queen. Kits can not become apprentices until they are six moons old (six months).[16]

The forest the cats live in is together with the world of humans. This allows interaction between the two species. One notable example of this is when humans, called "Twolegs" by the cats, began constructing a new road and new houses, the four Clans were forced to leave and find a new home. Beyond the Clans' territories lies a mountain range, inhabited by the Tribe of Rushing Water. The Tribe was shown to be similar to the Clans, yet it follows a different set of ancestors, the Tribe of Endless Hunting.[19] In a town near the Clans' old home lived a vicious group of cats called BloodClan, led by a cat called Scourge.[18] Also living in the surrounding area are cats without owners or Clans, known as loners, and house cats, called kittypets.[17]

Critical reception

Into the Wild, the first Warriors book, received mostly positive reviews.[28] Critics called it "spine tingling" and "suspenseful".[29] However, as the series progressed, more negative reviews focusing on the writing and plot appeared.[10][30] One critic called the story "flat" and "repetitious".[31] Violence in the books has been another issue reviewers have noted.[9] Despite the negative reviews, the manga and Super edition have both been praised by critics,[32][33] and the books have made the New York Times bestseller list.[13] Into the Wild was also nominated for the 2006 YRCA Awards,[34] in which it got third place.[8] The Sight is a current nomination for the Best Book of 2007 on Amazon.com,[35] and the Warriors series as a whole is a nomination for the Children's Choice Book Awards.[36]


Themes

One prominent theme featured in the novel is the reactions different faith have when meeting each other. This was inspired by the events of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks. To show this, the Tribe of Rushing Water was introduced in Moonrise. In an author chat, Holmes explained that the books never say that the Clans or the Tribe of Rushing Water are right about faith, because both are "equally valid". This leads to fear and suspicion between them because they are afraid of things they don't understand. Holmes finally said that "Ignorance is a very scary thing!"[12] Non-belief is also featured in the storylines.[9] Another theme shown in the books shows how characters can be a fix of good and evil. Holmes has said she is fascinated by these "shades of gray" in personalities. Her example of this was when Bluestar, a "lovely" cat, gave up her kits for her ambition. A third major theme, called nature versus nurture, relates to whether a person is born a he or she will be, or if other things shape that. This theme ties into the "shades of gray" theme. Other themes that have been pointed out include family, loss and death, loyalty, and following rules.[12]

Inspirations and influences

New Forest, which became the base for the forest the cats live in.

Authors

The authors have named several other authors as a source of inspiration when writing the novels. In an online author chat, Cherith Baldry, listed the authors that inspire her as including Tolkien, Ursula le Guin, and Shakespeare. In the same chat, Victoria Holmes stated that Jacqueline Wilson, Kathy Reichs and J. K. Rowling are some of the authors that inspire her. Currently, she is also working on a new series called "The Seekers". It is in close relation to warriors in terms of format but it is not affiliated.[1]

Other

There are some other influencing factors in the series. New Forest, a forest in southern England, became the base for the forest where the story took place.[13] Other influencing locations include Scottish Highlands and the Forest of Dean.[8] Nicholas Culpeper, a physician who used materials occurred in the natural world, has also had an influence on the Warriors series. His book, Culpeper's Herbal, is used as a source by the authors for the herbal remedies that the cats use in the books.[1]

Editions

Other formats

All of the Warriors books in the main series have been published as a hardcover, and several have been published as paperbacks. The manga volumes have only been released as paperbacks, while all other new releases are hardcover.[37] Starlight, Twilight, and Sunset are in an audiobook format,[6] spoken by Nanette Savard, whose performance has been praised.[38] It is unknown if any other Warriors books will be available in audiobook format. The books in the main series have also been released in an eBook format.[7]

Foreign editions

File:Japan-DPath.jpg
The Japanese cover of A Dangerous Path.

The Warriors books were first published in USA, then the United Kingdom.[13] Warriors is also sold in Canada.[39] Translations from English into other languages have been published more recently. Translations for languages such as Czech, Lithuanian, and Japanese have appeared,[8] as well as French, Russian, and Korean.[9] The Korean publisher, Kim-yeoung-sa, has only published the first six books.[1] Fandom even exists in Trinidad[8] and Singapore.[40]

Other media

Movie

There are currently no planned Warriors movies or plans to make any, despite common rumors that have spread across the Warriors community. As her answer to the main question of a movie possibility, Victoria Holmes replied: [12]

"Okay, this is a really important issue to clear up. I'm sorry to say that there are NO plans for a Warriors movie, even though we have had lots and lots of discussions with major film companies about this. This isn't to say that there will NEVER be a Warriors movie, but please don't get your hopes up! The reason for this is that the animated movies around at the moment tend to be larger-than-life, laugh-out-loud family films that adults can laugh at as well as kids - think Shrek or Cars. A Warriors movie would be much more serious, dealing with big issues like death and loyalty, which doesn't translate well to conventional animation just now. It might fit with a manga-style approach, but there isn't a mainstream market for this in the film world just yet. So we'll have to keep our fingers crossed!"

More recently, Holmes has stated there would be more news about the possibility of a movie by the end of 2008.[1]

Video

HarperCollins created a video. It was made available on the Warriors website.[11]

Play

Written by Victoria Holmes for a tour, a play entitled After Sunset: We Need to Talk was first premiered on April 28, 2007 at the Secret Garden bookstore in Seattle, Washington. It details a meeting between Leafpool of ThunderClan and Crowfeather of WindClan after the events of Sunset. The script was released to the public at the official site for the Warriors series.[11]

Screen saver

A Warriors screen saver is available on the website. It has a cover photo for each book in the first miniseries. E-cards and messages are also available.[11]

Short story

A short story called "Spottedleaf's Honest Answer" was released on the Reading Warriors website. It is about Spottedleaf talking about her love for Firestar. It gives information on what has happened in the Warriors series from Into the Wild to Firestar's Quest.[41]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Erin Hunter Chat #4 Transcript - January 19, 2008". Wands and Worlds. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
  2. ^ "The Sight (Warriors: Power of Three, Book 1)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
  3. ^ a b "Warriors Super Edition: Firestar's Quest (Warriors)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  4. ^ a b "Tokyopop and HarperCollins Set to Bring Erin Hunter's Bestselling Children's Series to Manga Format". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
  5. ^ a b "Warriors Field Guide: Secrets of the Clans (Warriors)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  6. ^ a b "Warriors: Enter the World of Warriors: The New Prophecy". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
  7. ^ a b "Ebooks written by Erin Hunter". Mobipocket. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "Warriors Gossip". The Guttersnipe. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  9. ^ a b c d "Erin Hunter Chat #3 Transcript - part 2". Wands and Worlds. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  10. ^ a b "Fire and Ice (Warriors Series #2)". Barnes&Noble.com. Retrieved 2008-01-02.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g "Warriors". www.warriorcats.com.
  12. ^ a b c d e f "Transcript of the Second Erin Hunter Chat". Wands and Worlds. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  13. ^ a b c d "Transcript Of Erin Hunter Chat". Wands and Worlds. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  14. ^ a b "Author biography:Erin Hunter". 2008-03-16.
  15. ^ a b c "Erin Hunter Chat #3 Transcript - part 1". Wands and Worlds. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
  16. ^ a b Hunter, Erin (2003). Into the Wild. HarperCollins. ISBN 0060000023.
  17. ^ a b Hunter, Erin (2003). Forest of Secrets. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060525590.
  18. ^ a b Hunter, Erin (2004). The Darkest Hour. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060000073.
  19. ^ a b Hunter, Erin (2005). Dawn. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060744571.
  20. ^ Hunter, Erin (2007). The Sight. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060892012.
  21. ^ "Warriors: Power of Three #3: Outcast (Warriors: Power of Three) (Hardcover)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
  22. ^ "Warriors: Power of Three #4: Eclipse (Warriors: Power of Three) (Hardcover)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
  23. ^ "Warriors: Cats of the Clans (Warriors)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  24. ^ "Warriors: Warrior's Return (Warriors)". Amazon.com.
  25. ^ "The Library of Congress' entry on The Rise of Scourge". The Library of Congress.
  26. ^ "Warriors: The Rise of Scourge (Warriors)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
  27. ^ "Warriors: Tigerstar and Sasha #1: Into the Woods". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  28. ^ "Into the Wild (Warriors Series #1)". Barnes & Noble.com. Retrieved 2008-01-02.
  29. ^ "Warriors Series: Into the Wild (Warriors #01)". Powell's Books. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
  30. ^ "The Darkest Hour (Warriors Series #6)". Barnes & Noble.com. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  31. ^ "Warriors Series: Fire and Ice (Warriors #02)". Powell's Books. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
  32. ^ "The Lost Warrior (Warriors)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  33. ^ "Firestar's Quest (Warriors Super Edition)". Barnes & Noble.com. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  34. ^ "YRCA 2006 nominees". Pacific Northwest Library Association. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  35. ^ "Best Books of 2007". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  36. ^ "Children's Choice Book Awards". Children's Book Week. Retrieved 2008-04-19.
  37. ^ "Warriors: Enter the World of Warriors". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
  38. ^ "Sunset (Warriors: The New Prophecy, Book 6) (Audio CD)". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
  39. ^ "Warriors: Power of Three, Book 2: Dark River (Hardcover)". Amazon.ca. Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  40. ^ "INTERVIEW: Erin Hunter". Writers Unboxed. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
  41. ^ "Spottedleaf's Honest Answer" (PDF). Reading Warriors. Retrieved 2008-04-22.
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