First of Warriors: Changing Skies: The Elders’ Quest Review

Released this month on January 7th, Warriors: Changing Skies #1: The Elders’ Quest kicks off the ninth arc of the Warriors series. Don’t expect any quests yet though, as this first book is weirdly named when nobody leaves the territories (let alone any elders, since Tawnypelt and Leafstar aren’t yet).

I found the book interesting but unremarkable. It loosely breaks into the plots for each character, giving a slow approach like touching your nose to the Moonpool and not getting any visions. I wasn’t tearing through this noticeably shorter-than-usual book like I thought I might. Though to be fair, that can happen with the start of a new arc. I’m happy to see a new face (or two) with Moonpaw, and surprisingly, Leafstar and Tawnypelt’s chapters are good. As more books come out, I hope they’ll pick up in speed and interest.

I can’t answer yet if this arc will be worth it. It’s only the beginning. Heavy spoilers for The Elders’ Quest are below!

I’ve already shared the blurb before when they first announced The Elders’ Quest, but here it is again:

The launch of a brand-new arc in Erin Hunter’s #1 bestselling Warriors series find the Clans navigating an ominous prophecy that foreshadows the destruction of the Moonpool, and the end of the Cats’ connection to StarClan.

 

As Leafbare approaches, a new danger threatens the Clans. Twoleg construction has encroached on Clan territory, poisoning the stream and making prey especially scarce for SkyClan. Meanwhile, their leader, Leafstar, is struggling with a loss of vision while trying to maintain authority over a Clan that increasingly doubts her ability to lead.

 

In ShadowClan, Tawnypelt senses peril as the Twoleg construction threatens the Moonpool, but she can’t get anycat, especially her son, TigerStar, to listen. Frustrated with the younger cats who don’t respect her, she decides to take matters into her own paws.

 

In the midst of the chaos, Moonpaw, an apprentice struggling to understand the mysterious voice in her head, thinks that she might be having visions. But the voice becomes increasingly sinister, and Moonpaw wonders if it’s a sign of darkness on the horizon.

For starters, as I talked about in my article “Warriors: The Elders’ Quest Preview Chapters,” the allegiances previously had a couple of typos. I suppose that’s the perk of releasing the sneak peek since they caught and changed these before publication. Still, that doesn’t change the fact that I barely know the cats listed for each Clan. The magic of the Warriors books was always caring about the entirety of the Clans shown, or at least random characters from each. With the way of the new arcs, I find it difficult to throw any weight behind characters other than the main ones.

Changing Skies is starting the same way. Although we luckily have some characterization for cats connected to our three main POVs, Leafstar, Tawnypelt, and Moonpaw, it’s sparse. We barely get to see fellow apprentices with Moonpaw and her mentor, Sunbeam, was already used in the previous arc. The only cat close to Leafstar in the book is Hawkwing, who had his own Super Edition already (other than the biggest cat against Leafstar, Reedclaw, but she’s a typical grieving villain). The best characterization we get of a background character is Birchfeather, who is Tawnypelt’s grandson.

I loved the relationship between Tawnypelt and Birchfeather. Her endless and caring support of him, when his parents Tigerstar and Dovewing wouldn’t, was heart-warming. Since we never got to see her as a mother, seeing her as a grandmother is second best. Her chapters were weirdly some of my favorites in the arc, despite my excitement for Moonpaw’s character over old ones. I like her personality and determination. It’s refreshing to read about how lonely it can be to become older when many of your loved ones and peers are dead.

However, that whole situation points out a typical inconsistency of Warriors. The writers often change a cat’s personality when it suits them. Dovewing would never blame Birchfeather for leaving for love, considering she did the exact same thing. I could see some of this coming from Tigerstar, but since they’ve only ever been kind, selfless parents in the past, it’s out of nowhere for them to abandon Birchfeather because he goes to SkyClan. They’re allowed to be flawed, but I would’ve believed it better if they tried to persuade Birchfeather some other way.

Speaking of love, strangely enough, I didn’t mind how Tawnypelt begins to crush on Crowfeather. It makes perfect sense that she feels the loss of her mate, Rowanclaw while feeling isolated among the much younger ShadowClan cats. Though I was starting to get irritated with how many praises she spoke of Crowfeather (what is the authors’ obsession with this guy?), it was cute to see her get flustered about him. Throughout The Elders’ Quest, she mentions him six times about having a crush!

I don’t necessarily want them to end up together though. Crowfeather has had three mates already, two deceased and one never true love. If he got with Tawnypelt, this would be his third relationship out of WindClan and his fourth altogether. I’d love to see them find comfort in each other, but the circumstances of his love life are so iffy. It’d be more interesting to see Tawnypelt confess and Crowfeather let her down gently. OR, and this is one of my only predictions of the arc, this is a hint that the Clans will end up merging. If WindClan and ShadowClan merge, then Tawnypelt and Crowfeather wouldn’t have to choose where to go.

When it came to Leafstar’s chapters though, I was annoyed. It was nothing wrong with her and everything wrong with how she was being treated. Yes, she made some mistakes, and yes, she’s getting old. Instead of trying to help her or speak with her though, her Clan turns on her. Even her medicine cats! They should’ve approached her first and talked about her condition. The best part of her chapters was getting to see how Leafstar’s memories appeared and affected her. My heart hurt to see beloved cats long gone.

Also, SkyClan was much too focused on getting rid of Leafstar than they were about the actual threat of Twolegs on their borders. I am relieved that Leafstar took it upon herself to renounce her leadership, but she was forced into it. As she said, how can you continue to lead a Clan when they don’t want you?

Which brings me to our wildcard, Moonpaw. The back-and-forth of her being a warrior apprentice to medicine cat apprentice back to warrior apprentice was tiring. I dreaded her going to the medicine den but was excited at how good she was at it. Then she goes back to warrior training, and why? Because she has no StarClan connection? I’m beginning to think they need a new role for the Clans, healers who don’t deal with their ancestors. Why waste such good talent? Moonpaw begins to show real talent as a warrior’s apprentice too, but most of her chapters frustrated me since they went nowhere.

The voice in Moonpaw’s head, and its real-world interactions, are a good lure into the arc. The voice is whiny, mischievous, and insistent. I am surprised and a little disappointed to find out that Moonpaw’s sister was born and died early. My original prediction was that Moonpaw absorbed her twin in the womb, making her a chimera. Since this ginger tabby did exist at one point, I’m not sure what could be the truth now. Her sister is clearly not in StarClan or any place that we know of yet.

I cannot figure out how this will connect to the plot that Tawnypelt and Leafstar are dealing with. As relieved as I am to see we have a proper prophecy, or omen, given to Tawnypelt towards the end, I don’t know what the “two-faced cat with one paw in each world” (246) will affect. 

The constant mention of the Great Journey and how the Twoleg activity reminds old cats of the destruction of the forest territories can go one of two ways: one, it’s a fake out and the Clans won’t move; or two, it’s a not so subtle hint that the Clans will leave the lake. Since Changing Skies was mentioned, I’ve been clasping my hands together and praying to StarClan (ha) for them to leave the lake territories. We need something fresh for the series and have spent too much time in one place. Ever since SkyClan joined the lake, the space has felt tight. What else could “the end of an era” and a “new path” (245) mean?

I also found myself endlessly irritated by the lack of concern from other cats, especially when they saw how often Twolegs were around the Moonpool. It didn’t make that much sense either after their connection to StarClan was recently messed with in The Broken Code.

Other than the content, the grammar and writing continue to rub me the wrong way. As I mentioned in the chapter preview article, the semi-colons are frequent. Though they are used correctly, they’re typically unnecessary. You can’t go more than two or three pages without running into one. Here are a few choice examples:

Waving her tail, she beckoned Starling kit to approach the foot of the Tall rock; he bounced up enthusiastically and stood there quivering and purring with excitement (17).

Frecklewish and Fidgetflake emerged from their den and sat down just outside it; Leafstar couldn’t help noticing how they exchanged a glance; however much she squinted, she was unable to make out the expression in their eyes, but she was sure they were expecting more bad news (89-90).

The pale light of Dawn had taken on a golden tinge, casting deep shadows over the forest floor; the sun had risen. Cautiously Tawnypelt approached the ShadowClan border, aware that sooner or later a patrol would be coming this way. But the scent she drew in was stale; they weren’t here yet (229).

Flipclaw was in the lead, heading toward the old Thunderpath; he halted and turned as Moonpaw and Sunbeam emerged into the open (234).

That’s the whole book too. Most of the time, these sentences could easily be separated by a period instead. Every time I ran into a semi-colon, it distracted me from reading. I love semi-colons and I love commas; hell, I use them all the time. This was overkill, though. Where is the editor? Over half of these should’ve been taken out, especially if there’s more than one in a paragraph or sentence!

The Erin Hunter writers are lucky that I am still as obsessed with this series as ever and want to keep up to date in the fandom. If I wasn’t so attached, I wouldn’t be reading this new arc. With the lack of characterization of background characters, over saturation of cats,  reused and far-fetched plots, overused characters, and changing writing, Warriors has mostly lost its spark.

Many books still have great moments and some new characters have shot into fame with the fandom, but I can’t help missing the charm of the old books.

As for the end of The Elders’ Quest, it was appropriately sinister. I’ve never been good at theorizing, so figuring out these new mysteries isn’t my forte. I can’t predict what will happen next to Moonpaw and how her ginger tabby sister will play into losing StarClan’s connection. At the moment, I barely see anything beyond knowing the Clans must be leaving at some point.

So far, there’s no blurb or official release date for Changing Skies #2. Here’s the current list of books for the year and if they can be pre-ordered:

Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin #2: April 8, 2025

Tigerstar and Sasha graphic novel (full color): July 8, 2025

Warriors Super Edition 18: StormClan’s Folly: August 8, 2025

EDIT: Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin #3: September 30, 2025

Changing Skies #2: Tentatively set to release October 14, 2025