WARRIORS GRAPHIC NOVEL

Fireheart struggles with new responsibilities as treachery and natural disasters threaten ThunderClan in this second volume of the graphic recasting of the initial Warriors series.

Encompassing events from middle volumes Forest of Secrets (2003) and Rising Storm (2004), this episode features flood, fire, learning opportunities, and a treacherous coup attempt as Fireheart advances up ThunderClan’s hierarchy while taking his kittypet sister Princess’s first born, Cloudkit, away from the Twolegplace to train as a warrior. Fireheart is easy enough to pick out in the illustrations because he has a distinctive mark on his brow, but even readers who’ve read and reread the original novels may have trouble keeping the rest of the characters in the teeming feline cast apart—particularly since the illustrators admit to adding a few extras to fill out crowd scenes. Still, the switch to a graphic format from the original prose allows the wordless training and action sequences to speed the plot along. The artwork also offers vivid visual renditions of pouncing on crunchy fresh-kill and gory, savage battles with other cats that underscore the feral violence of life in the wild—not to mention packing cats, cats, and more cats into the panels. The fetching interplay between irrepressible Cloudkit and his patient, serious mentor stands out, as does the heroic protagonist’s progress toward coming into his own.

The expert, artful transition of the classic series to a new format continues.