When I was given the first one of all these books as a birthday present, I thought right away that it would be interesting, as I like cats and I'd heard some good things about the series. And I loved 'em.
In A World where feral cats live on their grounds of a forest, a conflict arises that a cat (or cats) chosen by StarClan, the cat's ancestors, to solve said conflict. This is mainly the basic plotline for most of the books, but in other stories, such as the manga editions, aren't based from a prophecy, and not all prophecies refer to specific cats. On the bright side, prophecies vary. There are various subplots including relationships (often forbidden), tensions/fighting between the Clans, and many secrets.
What I like about these books is that they are rather gripping as mentioned above. Every chapter seems to end at a point where you think "I gotta keep reading to find out what this leads to!". And while they can be predictable, some twists were out-of-the-blue, yet still done right and foreshadowed just enough for the reader to think "Hey, that's weird..."
What I'm not saying, however, is that the books are perfect. There are some definite faults- for example, at times, the plot can be slow-moving or bland, the characterization is sometimes weak, and the character's motivations may be confusing. To clarify on the first, it sometimes feels like nothing important happens. This reaction usually occurs during the Power of Three series, which had a good portion of Filler and very insignificant sub-plots. As for the characterization... as mentioned in another review, most of the cats have set personalities based on their gender, due to Loads And Loads Of Characters. Only the main characters usually get very defined personalities. When it comes to motivation- this isn't always a problem, but Alternate Character Interpretation is common. For example, why did Onestar start a war against kittypets in the Clans? Not to mention some blatant predictability- Hollyleaf and Leafpool's kits, anyone?
However, the books still contain many epic, heartwarming, emotional moments to make up for it. And either way, it's a creative universe, which just makes it the more fun.
So, in conclusion... Not the best book series ever, but they're worth giving a try.
Decent, flawed, well-done... YMMV.
When I was given the first one of all these books as a birthday present, I thought right away that it would be interesting, as I like cats and I'd heard some good things about the series. And I loved 'em.
In A World where feral cats live on their grounds of a forest, a conflict arises that a cat (or cats) chosen by StarClan, the cat's ancestors, to solve said conflict. This is mainly the basic plotline for most of the books, but in other stories, such as the manga editions, aren't based from a prophecy, and not all prophecies refer to specific cats. On the bright side, prophecies vary. There are various subplots including relationships (often forbidden), tensions/fighting between the Clans, and many secrets. What I like about these books is that they are rather gripping as mentioned above. Every chapter seems to end at a point where you think "I gotta keep reading to find out what this leads to!". And while they can be predictable, some twists were out-of-the-blue, yet still done right and foreshadowed just enough for the reader to think "Hey, that's weird..."
What I'm not saying, however, is that the books are perfect. There are some definite faults- for example, at times, the plot can be slow-moving or bland, the characterization is sometimes weak, and the character's motivations may be confusing. To clarify on the first, it sometimes feels like nothing important happens. This reaction usually occurs during the Power of Three series, which had a good portion of Filler and very insignificant sub-plots. As for the characterization... as mentioned in another review, most of the cats have set personalities based on their gender, due to Loads And Loads Of Characters. Only the main characters usually get very defined personalities. When it comes to motivation- this isn't always a problem, but Alternate Character Interpretation is common. For example, why did Onestar start a war against kittypets in the Clans? Not to mention some blatant predictability- Hollyleaf and Leafpool's kits, anyone?
However, the books still contain many epic, heartwarming, emotional moments to make up for it. And either way, it's a creative universe, which just makes it the more fun.
So, in conclusion... Not the best book series ever, but they're worth giving a try.