Having constantly seen these books in the book store and hearing how good they were I really wanted to read some of them. That being said when I got the first book in the series I didn't realize I was getting the first book in the second series. So I never read the first 6 book in the Warriors series and my first Erin Hunter book is actually the second series about the Warrior Clans. Strangely enough I did read that Erin Hunter is not an actual person but is the pen-name for a group of 3-4 women who all write for this series; I just thought that was interesting. Anyway, on to the book review.
This was an engaging, suspenseful, and fun to read book. It is about the four Warrior Clans of cats (introduced in the Warriors series). The story focuses on Brambleclaw who has a dream about salt water accompanied by a warning about a horrible storm that will come to the home of the Clans. When Brambleclaw finds that Warriors in the other Clans are also having similar dreams, he groups up with them and they go off on a quest to find the salt water in hopes that this will reveal the storm that is supposed to overtake their home.
The book is well written; not anything spectacular but it is good reading. The cat's personalities are somewhat stereotyped but still well developed. This book reminded me very strongly of Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams. If you like this series I would definitely recommend you read Tailchaser's Song; it is a wonderful book if a bit darker than these books. There is quite a bit of action in this story; it is definitely a fantasy adventure type of story. The book kept me interested and pulled me right through the story. I am starting the second book as we speak because (although the main objective of the book is concluded) the events surrounding the main goal of the cats in this book are not concluded and you are kind of left hanging.
My biggest complaint with this book is that in the first few chapters you have a billion names thrown at you and they are all similar so it is very hard to keep everyone straight. I think maybe I would have had an easier time with this if I had read the 6 books in the first series. Hunter does try to help you out by throwing an index in the front of the book with all of the Clans and all of the cats in the Clans; unfortunately that information didn't mean squat to me until I had struggled through the first few chapters. I decided to relax and just go with it; hoping that it would be easier to keep everyone straight when the cats took off on their quest. Ends up I was right, when the cats took off on their quest things got much better and I was much less confused. I still get the feeling though that Hunter didn't really need to introduce all those different Warrior cats in the first few chapters. Most of them don't play any role in the story; at least not yet. If not for the first few chapters I would have given this book more like 4.5 stars.
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