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Warriors Box Set: Volumes 1 to 6

Today's shopping tips: "Be wise in purchasing ..... find best value one"

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Manufacturer: HarperCollins
List Price: $36.99
Our Price: $19.63
You Save: $ 17.36 ( 47% )
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The first story arc in the #1 nationally bestselling epic warror cat series is now available in a beautiful box set.

DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780061477935
ISBN: 0061477931
Label: HarperCollins
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
Number Of Items: 1
Publication Date: 2007-10-01
Publisher: HarperCollins
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Release Date: 2007-10-09
Studio: HarperCollins


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• Warriors: The New Prophecy Box Set: Volumes 1 to 6
• Warriors Field Guide: Secrets of the Clans
• Warriors: Power of Three #1: The Sight
• Dark River (Warriors: Power of Three, No. 2)
• Warriors: Power of Three #3: Outcast


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Cat Books
Comment: It took some time to receive these books. The books are interesting and one leads you right into the next one. Good books for cat lovers and children 10 to 12 yrs old.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Fabulous and creative series!
Comment: My 11 year old son's friends kept telling him about this great series and they were playing games on the playground with clans, apprentices, and warriors. He reads his own books but we also read books together so I decided that I would read these with him. I love cats so I was intrigued. These books gave these cats not only human feelings and personalities but kept true to what you would think a cat would do in many situations also. The stories were well thought out and kept us at the edge of our seats throughout. We loved Firestars characters evolution from kitty pet to clan leader as well as many others - including the "love to hate him" character of Tigerstar. We already got the Warrior Prophecy series and look forward to reading those next.

Customer Rating:
Summary: great series
Comment: These are not the best quality books, but they hold up to avid young readers. The series is very captivating and well written. Highly recommended.

Customer Rating:
Summary: A real review from a cat hater!
Comment: To begin with I am not one of those idiots that think review means synopsis. I am not going to write the story over again like some people feel they must. This is a real review to help you decide on a purchase.

Now I will get down from my soapbox.

I HATE cats. They are stupid, nasty and a total waste of fur and oxygen. However, my granddaughter (10 years old) told me that "Warriors" was her favorite series and asked me to read it. What do you do when a grandchild wants you to do something? Why you do it, of course.

I started this series with great trepidation. I did not start it with an open mind. I didn't want to read something that I had already decided I would not like. I was soooo wrong! This series is excellent and before I go any farther I will not hesitate to recommend it to anyone. I am now into the sixth book of "The New Prophecy" and find that I can not put it down.

In other reviews I read that there are some continuity errors and that is true. (Eye colors change, the sun rises and in the next paragraph it is so dark that it is hard to see, etc...) But if you overlook these trivialities you will be entranced. You will enter a fictional world that will have you looking forward, not only to the next page or next book but to the next series. I wish I could read faster but find myself terrified that I will read too quickly and it will all be over too soon.

The series has political intrigue, adventure, romance, suspense, and any other words of which you can think. The authors do not hesitate to kill off a major character and, sometimes, very violently. However, it is not too violent for children and I feel as if it will help some of them accept death in the real world.

Don't get me wrong. I still hate cats but this series is very good and you will not go wrong buying it for a gift for a child or for something to read to a child at bed time.

Oh yeah, adults will love it too!

Customer Rating:
Summary: A Watership Down Start....But an Apocalypse Now End
Comment: This book series tells the saga of a domestic cat named Rusty (a kittypet) who choses to join the hidden, heroic world of the Forest Clans; wild cats who follow a "warrior code" of honor and loyalty to clan. This is the tale (tail?) as Rusty journeys from being a soft "kittypet" to being the fierce, just, wise, and loyal warrior known as Fireheart. And its almost, almost a fantastic series. But...

And if you are a young reader, well this is a review by an old grumpy Elder Cat who complains how Apprentices always caught fatter rabbits back when he was a Warrior! And I might give some plot away below, though I try not to. So maybe you should stop reading this review, young Apprentice, and go patrol the Clan Borders instead!

So the positive:
First the storyline is about clans of wild cats and their fierce but honorable warrior code, so I'm hooked. And the concept of the cats is very well done. These are thinking feeling cats, and not people in cat bodies. The characters act and think and behave (mostly) in cat-believable ways. Fighting is by tooth and claw; talking is by meows and purrs, growls and hisses; affection is rubbing shoulders, touching noses, and shared grooming. These are cats! The created world, and virtually all the characters, are quite believable, and for that the authors should be praised. Also, there is often quite a bit of emotional nuance to the relationships between the cats, and the authors often do a fine job of portraying love, and loss, and conflicted emotions, with nuance and grace. So there is much to be praised here.

But:
Given the books are for a fairly young audience, I'd argue they start out great and appropriate, but by the final book or so are far too violent and dismal. The final book of the series, "The Darkest Hour" is filled with scenes literally straight out of Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now. I keep expecting the main antagonist to slowly rub his head and say to the hero, Fireheart, "you're just an errand boy sent by grocers to collect a bill." Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of slaughter-em-up (I'll challenge anyone to a Jason-vs-Freddy viewathon!), but I thought that by the last third of the series, the authors couldn't seem to find a way to heighten plot tension other than by upping the body/kitty count every few pages.

Finally, I would have written a completely different final book and a half to the series, and feel the series took some plot twists with an additional villain (or two or three or..) that just wasn't necessary, wasn't particularly believable, and detracted from the story arc. But I'm not the author(s), so the final books are as they are.

But given the final book that was written, it simply ends too abruptly. Imagine reading Tolkien, and having the book end with Frodo and Sam sitting on the rock in the middle of the lava field. Sure the destruction of the One Ring is the logical culmination of Lord of the rings, so who cares about the tiny details of who actually lives or dies. The One Ring is gone, and the individual lives of Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Pippin, the Elves, all just trivia, so no need to weave the last threads, right? Wrong. One needs those final chapters. Or imagine Star Wars ending when Luke blows up the Death Star. Leia, Chewy, Han, dead or alive, doesn't matter, death star is gone! Roll Credits. In general, one needs and expects those last few chapters or scenes to sort out the consequences of a story's Epic Battle.

But after 1800 pages of The Warriors(6 books, 300 pages each), the authors fail to deliver the final "Consequences" scene. There is of course the required Epic Battle at the end. But the aftermath is just not written beyond a few brief lines. One more chapter, a mere 5 -10 pages, could have salvaged the entire series.

Ah well. I'd like to recommend the books. The first 3 or 4 books, I'd easily give 4 stars. And on my rating scale, a 2 isn't terrible, and even then this is a high 2, almost 3. There's tons positive about the series and other reviews show that young readers are very enthusiastic about the books. But in the end I'd think twice about recommending this series to my child. Too much kitty carnage, not enough thought as to why.

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