A little under two months until Warriors: A Starless Clan book 6, Star, publishes, a prologue and three chapters have been released in an exclusive. Lately, the Warriors team gives sneak peeks into the books before their physical release, making this exclusive typical behavior. I was quick to read this preview into what I assume is going to be an epic finale for ASC and share my thoughts below.
This article contains spoilers for the entirety of the Warriors series, but particularly for A Starless Clan arc and Ivypool’s Heart. Please read at your own risk!
To get my negatives out of the way first, since reading Ivypool’s Heart, I’ve been hypervigilant of the language and terms used in the newer books. In this one, the fanfiction-y/roleplay language is abundant too, like Harelight “winking” at Splashtail. I know Warriors are humanized cat books, but in the past, they’ve made a bigger attempt not to give too many humanized traits and actions to the cats.
I also noticed a lot of skipping around in these chapters; instead of showing the main characters traveling through the territory, they went from one important moment to the next. I hope this means the book is jam-packed with more important scenes, causing unnecessary in-between sequences to be cut. It did feel a little disjointed though and unlike other Warriors books where they’d usually give some vague descriptions of the cats racing through the territory or whatnot.
Possibly my biggest annoyance for these previews is how I knew the grand scheme of what would happen for basically two and a half chapters. It’s revealed in Ivypool’s Heart that Frostpaw, Sunbeam, and Nightheart locate Mothwing, Duskfur, and Icewing and bring them to ShadowClan for safety. When Icewing hears about Whistlepaw’s dream and the Clans’ mission, she joins them in Ivypool’s Super Edition and tells them the bare bones of what happened. While I didn’t know exactly how the three exiled RiverClan cats were helped, I knew they would be and where they’d be going. The anticipation made Nightheart, Sunbeam, and some of Frostpaw’s chapters drag, especially when they talked in circles about whether they’d take them to ShadowClan or ThunderClan.
I loved seeing the prologue in Splashtail/star’s point-of-view again. I’m surprised they haven’t used the villain’s POV in more books in the past, and I love the shift to include them as prologues in the newer books. I was surprised to see how gory Curlfeather was described, with her wounds from the dogs on full display. This feels like another example of the more fanfiction or roleplay language, but I didn’t dislike it. It also brought up the question of whether Splashtail was really seeing Curlfeather as a Dark Forest cat or whether she was a figment of his guilt and fear. I’d believe that the information Curlfeather is giving him was simply things he subconsciously knows, but I’d just as easily believe she was messing with him from the afterlife. The only problem the latter causes is that DF cats have never been described with their wounds present or fresh, so that’d be another change to usual Warriors lore.
As for the biggest part of the preview, I loved how well done the short battle was. It was spooky to see the trickery that Berryheart and Brackenpelt pulled to get Tigerstar, Frostpaw, Puddleshine, and ShadowClan warriors away from their camp to “help” RiverClan, even going so far as to appear injured themselves. The RiverClan cats coming up out of the water to pull down and attack the ShadowClan warriors on the tree-bridge was perfect too. It showed RiverClan’s special skills as the water-based Clan and made for a frightening start to Splashtail’s aggressive reign spreading outwards. I am hopeful this means Berryheart will be a real villain now too, with no mediocre redemption arc.
The last, smallest positive I have from this preview is Frostpaw’s character. She has consistently been my favorite through A Starless Clan and that’s no different in the sneak peak. I love how raw her frustration and anger is. After watching Harelight be killed, possibly one of the only cats she felt close to in RiverClan, she blames herself even more than before. Her anger is perfect, seeing as how disbelief in her story about Curlfeather and Splashtail is what landed RiverClan in this mess. I’m glad to see a protagonist responding so realistically to a situation.
I’m looking forward to reading the rest of Star and have high hopes for what they accomplish in the finale. At this point, I’m not sure I have any predictions on what will happen, since my previous predictions for this arc haven’t been close to the truth. My only wish is the book won’t run in circles like they have been doing lately whenever problems come up across the Clans. Using constant arguments as filler when they don’t know what other action will get them to an ending is the most frustrating aspect of the newer Warriors books.
Star releases on November 5th and can be pre-ordered on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or other major retailers.
