The much-anticipated end to Warriors: A Starless Clan, Star released on November 5th of this year. While others might have found Star an underwhelming end of the arc, I disagree. I enjoyed the book’s fast-paced actions, cliffhanger chapters, and rounded character arcs. The fighting was well described and fun, while grief was handled exceptionally well. It was a good end to an arc that focused more on the characters and less on dramatics.
As with the fifth book, Wind, Star’s cover is glossy instead of matte. It’s unknown whether the main arc books from now on will always have these covers, but I find myself less annoyed now that there’s another. It isn’t a terrible change but I’m amused that the Warriors team made the change and never mentioned it.
In September, an exclusive excerpt of the prologue and first three chapters were released. Now that I have the physical book, I see that it was the first seventy pages, which is an insane chunk of a book that’s only 331 pages. Since I already reviewed this excerpt, I’ll focus on the remainder of the book for this review.
Major spoilers for the series and book ahead. This includes final names (though I’ll save that for the end of the review, so you can’t see them on accident) and how the villains end up!
With this being the end of Splashtail’s reign, I want to jump right into talking about him. In my review of Wind, I wrote about how his turn to an aggressor was surprising and cheap. While I still think it was mishandled in the fifth book, I was glad to see it explained in this sixth, final book. After the prologue showed how his sanity began to crack from visits of Curlfeather, the rest came together. His fear and manipulation tactics were perfect. I loved to see how terrified every cat was that he would legitimately harm or kill a kit. The return of kit-stealing, though unsuccessful, drove home that he was serious. When he held Troutkit down and snatched Floatkit, I was secretly cheering for him to actually hurt them. It’s not that I wanted any kittens harmed, but I was hoping it would heighten the stakes. I’m torn between liking how he never did anything beyond a couple of murders and wishing he’d done more.
I love how pathetic he was by the end when Frostpaw kills him. He’s constantly talking to a cat that isn’t there (Curlfeather) and he’s nonchalant about killing and death. It’s smart that instead of making him fully brute force, like a Tigerstar or Darktail type of villain, his threats are what held power. His delusional speech before his eyes lost their light made everything worth it. It was also insane to hear some of the most hardcore lines from Warriors in this book. For example, during the hold of ShadowClan, Splashtail says “‘Every scratch you inflict on my warriors will be carved into your kits'” (130). Then later, in the final fight between Splashtail and Frostpaw, it describes how “She sliced his heel, feeling her claws break flesh, carve muscles, tear sinew. Splashtail jerked around with a screech, but not before she sliced his other heels” (195). I still think he should have done more but he’s a great villain to me.
As for villains, my biggest dislike for Star was the wasted potential of Berryheart. I enjoyed her trickery in the preview chapters and was hoping for that to hype up more. However, unrealistically, she jumps at the chance to try and turn ShadowClan against Splashtail but on her side and not Tigerstar’s. Immediately, Splashtail gets wind of this and tells RiverClan to kill her. While I loved to see Sunbeam try and save her, and how Berryheart protects Sunbeam in the end, it felt too soon. I would’ve liked to see more out of Berryheart’s character. However, Sunbeam’s reaction to it all made it tolerable. Using her memories of kithood against Berryheart’s actions while Sunbeam is fully grown was genius. The funeral scene mixing others’ words with Sunbeam’s thoughts was a perfect encapsulation of loving and hating a family member. Trying to understand the good and bad in someone is such a human experience that was handled lovingly with both Sunbeam and Berryheart and Frostpaw and Curlfeather.
When Frostpaw was fighting for her life, I loved how she kept seeing Curlfeather. I LOVE that Curlfeather never apologizes and holds fast to her ideals. While both Berryheart and Curlfeather saved their daughters before their deaths, their actions in life still hurt them immensely. It doesn’t excuse anything, it only complicates their healing journeys. I also want to applaud the couple chapters that Frostpaw struggles to fight to return to the Clans. It is entirely reasonable that after everything she went through in this arc, she would want to go to StarClan. The fog representing her fatigue and escape was perfect. I wish she would’ve gotten more encouragement and reassurance instead of pressure to return, however, even if I’m glad she did choose to come back and finish her journey.
A small aspect I loved to see was a return to Clans’ uniqueness. Throughout all of the fight scenes, specified insults for Clan cats were used, like “fish-licker” (88), “frog-eaters” and “fish-hearted” (98), and “squirrel-chaser” (162). A lot of emphasis was put on RiverClan’s swimming, which I was very excited about. Frostpaw swimming across the lake was one of my favorite scenes, with her fear of the potential pikes and her struggle across the length. I’m glad they used them being swimmers as both positive and negative throughout the book, as an advantage to RiverClan being villains and Frostpaw trying to save the day. The mention of meditation being brought back to RiverClan makes me dream that uniqueness could return. I believe the Clans can work together and retain their separate traits!
I do still think that the Warriors universe has expanded too much to know and understand all the characters like readers could in old arcs. While it was nice to see Fognose and Breezeheart exiled, it didn’t have a great impact. These are characters we’ve barely seen or interacted with before now, so their being kicked out was a shrug. Similarly, while previous books in ASC harped greatly on side characters like Bayshine, Finchlight, and Sparkpelt, the quick actions of this book meant we barely saw them either. I was pleased to see Sunbeam interact with her family again, as well as Tawnypelt in the one scene. It just feels like the Clans are so big cats get lost.
Speaking of which, while I am ecstatic about Icewing becoming Icestar (called it), I am disappointed at her picking Owlnose for deputy. Except, I couldn’t tell you who I would’ve picked. Once it was clear Frostpaw would be staying as a medicine cat (and not become Froststar, which I wanted badly), the options for deputy dwindled. It wouldn’t be Duskfur because they tried that combination before and the only other notable cat, Podlight, was Splashtail’s right hand. Who else but Owlnose? It points to the bigger problem of too many mediocre characters.
By the end of the book, we get a name reveal for four characters: Frostpaw, Whistlepaw, Graypaw, and Mistpaw. While Graypaw and Mistpaw were originally named Graysludge and Mistslime by Splashtail, they were properly named by Icestar as Graysky and Mistpool. Their proper names are somewhat boring–frankly, I enjoyed their “terrible” names more–but I’m happy they finally became warriors. As for Whistlepaw, I wanted a better name than Whisperbreeze. I personally think that it should’ve been Whistlestorm after the events in Ivypool’s Heart, or Whistlesong, but it’s not terrible.
I am in love with Frostpaw’s name. I’m still attached to my guess Frostlight, after Harelight, yet Frostdawn holds so much beauty and meaning. I’m going to miss her character the most when the series moves on. I really wanted Frostdawn to become a warrior, especially because it seems like she’s always been pressured to be a medicine cat, but she was happy at the end, so I am too. I hope we get to see plenty of her as a full-fledged medicine cat in the future.
Even though I consider Frostdawn to be the most important protagonist in ASC, I understand why they ended the book in Nightheart’s POV. Showing that Sunbeam is expecting his kits gives a teaser for the next arc. Moonpaw, though not their kit, will likely be the same age. I’m assuming Moonpaw will be friends with one or more of Nightheart and Sunbeam’s kits. As much as I’ve disliked Nightheart through this arc, he was his most tolerable in Star and may have grown on me by that final paragraph. I love the premise of his character, to grow into your own, but I wish it had been executed better. Still, it was a nice note to leave off on, with lighthearted joking among them and his family.
With how much happens in this book, I have more to love and more to critique of Star, but I’m satisfied with what I managed to discuss. I can certainly count A Starless Clan among the arcs that I would reread. I happily conclude that it belongs in my fourth-place spot in my ranking of all the arcs.
As of right now, there are three books to expect next year in 2025. The first is the beginning of the ninth arc of Warriors, Changing Skies: The Elder’s Quest coming January 7th. Then the Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin #2 releases on April 8th and the colorized version of the Warriors: Tigerstar and Sasha manga releases on July 8th. I’m assuming that the second Changing Skies will be later in 2025, and I’m hoping we get another Super Edition soon.
Until then, there are plenty of teasers, previews, and merch to keep an eye out for from the Warriors team.
