Cami's Reviews > Wind

I continue to adore this story arc. I really feared that it would go downhill in the second half (books four through six), but so far, I am loving every moment. The first couple of chapters, which covered the Gathering, were the height of entertainment for me. I kept thinking, "Go, Frostpaw, choose the most dramatic route!" and then she did!

I also like how Splashtail is biding his time and building his power in this book, hopefully leading to a climactic confrontation in the sixth and final installment. Having a prologue about him and Curlfeather was great, and I appreciate how it introduced a new dimension to his character: He does not plan on accepting extra lives from StarClan. I was half-expecting that he would go back on this declaration and grab the extra lives while he could. But the fact that he's taking a stand against StarClan and defining his leadership through a single life fascinates me. It'll also make it easier to take him down in the sixth book, which I don't mind at all.

Another detail in this book (and in this story arc more broadly) that I enjoy is the characterization of side characters, such as Whistlepaw, the park cats Wasp and Waffle, and Spotfur's three kittens. I remember how Stormcloud's character had a promising start in "Bramblestar's Storm," with a unique backstory that involved kittypet origins. I've been disappointed to see him treated like an invisible background character, mostly there to fill space in ThunderClan. Similarly, I feel like hordes of kittens have grown up without me getting a feel for their characters and personalities. Lionblaze's many children are a good example of this, but there are plenty of other litters that I can barely tell apart.

Thankfully, Wasp and Waffle both have interesting character motivations, and their personalities and goals are relatively distinct. I like how they play principal roles in this book, and I look forward to seeing them grow even more. As a side note, I only just learned that Waffle is named after a fan's cat, and that fan made a PMV for Frostpaw and Curlfeather that's on YouTube. It's called "The Worm," and I love it a lot!

Spotfur's three kittens are also fairly important characters, being apprenticed to a group of warriors that I've grown very attached to: Bayshine, Finchlight, and Nightheart. (And Molewhisker is there, too, I guess.) We got to see them during Sunbeam's trials in the previous book, and now we get to see them grow up even more, and I finally feel like I'm starting to get oriented in modern ThunderClan.

Whistlepaw, too, continues to be characterized well, in my opinion, and I'm very attached to her now. I love how many relationships between characters are being established and developed: Frostpaw and Whistlepaw; Nightheart and Waffle; Sunbeam and Finchlight; Nightheart and Frostpaw; Sunbeam and all of Spotfur's kittens. I'm a big fan of non-romantic relationships being given time and attention, and that makes Nightheart and Sunbeam's romance easier to enjoy. Their lives seem much more balanced now, and I have a deeper sense of who they are as individuals rather than who they define themselves to be as a couple.

Something else that made me smile a lot while listening to this audiobook was how many conversations seemed to anticipate what I was thinking. There was Frostpaw making things as dramatic as possible during the Gathering, which I mentioned earlier. Then, there was the moment during the new apprentices' training session when the young cats were talking about how smelly all of the other Clans were, and I thought, "This again?" only to have Finchlight lecture them about how it's rude to call other Clans smelly; they're not stinky, just different.

There were also several points where a cat would say something like, "This has never happened before!" only for another cat to cite, at the same moment that I was thinking it, a time that it happened in an earlier Warrior cats book. For example, there seemed to be a widespread idea that StarClan would refuse Splashtail his nine lives if he were a murderer. But what about Brokenstar? What about Tigerstar? The only time I took issue with these in-text reminders was when it seemed as though the writers forgot the chronology of Mothwing specifically. She seemed to say that she remembered the first Tigerstar's reign; but she was sheltered by her mother and didn't live within the Clans until after his death.

I bet there were more mistakes in this book that I didn't catch. I already heard someone mention a moment in which Waffle was referred to as "her," which is hilarious. Surely, it was a typo, but I will accept he/she Waffle as canon now. Still, there weren't any glaring errors that impeded my appreciation of the story (like the double apprentice ceremony of Featherpaw and Stormpaw in "Leopardstar's Honor" or Mistystar and Stonefur being swapped with Feathertail and Stormfur as Graystripe's children in his super-edition; it's as if the Erins target Feathertail specifically to irritate me). The story felt well-constructed and decently edited, although I'm sure that listening to an audiobook (where I have to strain my attention more to catch each word) allows me to miss various inconsistencies.

Overall, I loved this book, and I love "A Starless Clan." It's the first story arc for Warrior cats that I've been caught up for, and I adore looking forward to the new releases. Here's hoping that the release of "Star" later this year lives up to the joy that I've felt while listening to the rest of this series.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Before I conclude this review, I want to share a brief story that happened while I was listening to the final chapter of the audiobook. Splashtail was acting hostile to Harelight, and he mentioned that Harelight knows how RiverClan used to be run. I thought, "Wait, how old is Harelight?" So I pulled up his wiki page (with the audiobook still running in the background) and was surprised to see that he's only three and a half years old. He seemed much older, both in terms of personality and in terms of how the other cats treat him. Then I noticed that the wiki said "at death" and saw Harelight's cause of death listed: "killed by Splashtail." Sure enough, barely a minute later, Splashtail murdered the guy in my audiobook. It wasn't a big surprise; I kind of figured that would happen. But it was still amusing to be spoiled a split-second before it occurred. RIP Harelight. I liked you a lot, and now Harestar of WindClan will never get a RiverClan leader of the same name.