leonajasmin's review
4.0
Hawkwing ended up being a really enjoyable character for me. While I wasn't particularly invested in SkyClan in its previous renditions, his strong character made me far more invested in them. He dynamic with other characters, especially Sharpclaw, Pebbleshine, and Leafstar, made him one of the most developed characters in a Warriors book for some time.
While I found the ending rushed and ending at a point where I didn't expect, the plot was progressing at a good speed. The rise and fall of hope was written really well, and this book felt very emulative of the Original Arc in terms of emotion and being willing to dispose of characters not needed.
While I found the ending rushed and ending at a point where I didn't expect, the plot was progressing at a good speed. The rise and fall of hope was written really well, and this book felt very emulative of the Original Arc in terms of emotion and being willing to dispose of characters not needed.
ember14's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
enter_the_phantom's review
3.0
I usually enjoy the Super Editions, but I just didn’t see why we needed this one.
I really expected this to focus more on Darktail and give us a good concrete tie-in to his Vision of Shadows plot. He was such a terrifying and formidable enemy in the Vision of Shadows arc—he very nearly manages to do what so many villains before him have tried and failed at, and he deserved much more than a few chapters worth of backstory in this book. It was so weird to see one of the first genuinely frightening villains we’ve had in a long time reduced to a second-rate baddie here.
Most of the book just follows Skyclan as they wander in circles, something we’ve seen plenty of in previous books, and I’m just tired of it now. With all the implied tragedy in Vision of Shadows, more needed to actually happen to Skyclan than a bird attack and some badgers.
Hawkwing is not an interesting or important enough character to deserve his own Super Edition. Not a lot happens to him, and it’s just boring.
Would have made a much better novella. Honestly kind of dumb that Mapleshade only got a novella and a very ill-developed secondary Skyclan cat gets a whole Super Edition, but oh well.
I really expected this to focus more on Darktail and give us a good concrete tie-in to his Vision of Shadows plot. He was such a terrifying and formidable enemy in the Vision of Shadows arc—he very nearly manages to do what so many villains before him have tried and failed at, and he deserved much more than a few chapters worth of backstory in this book. It was so weird to see one of the first genuinely frightening villains we’ve had in a long time reduced to a second-rate baddie here.
Most of the book just follows Skyclan as they wander in circles, something we’ve seen plenty of in previous books, and I’m just tired of it now. With all the implied tragedy in Vision of Shadows, more needed to actually happen to Skyclan than a bird attack and some badgers.
Hawkwing is not an interesting or important enough character to deserve his own Super Edition. Not a lot happens to him, and it’s just boring.
Would have made a much better novella. Honestly kind of dumb that Mapleshade only got a novella and a very ill-developed secondary Skyclan cat gets a whole Super Edition, but oh well.
thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Child death, and Animal death
cassidylynnereads's review against another edition
3.0
If I gave out half stars in my ratings, this book would definitely be a 3.5 out of 5 stars, but my personal philosophy is that I don't round up unless I think a book really deserves that extra star rating. That being said, I really enjoyed this book, and there were times when I couldn't put it down even though I was tired. The only reason this didn't get a four star rating is because I'm super picky and there were just a few things holding it back. Despite these few things that I picked out, this was one of my favorite super editions besides Mothwing's Vision. I didn't have any strong opinions about SkyClan or it's cats before reading this book, but now I just want to see them get a happy ending. With my initial thoughts out of the way, I will now be getting into the specifics of what I liked and disliked about this book.
Spoiler
I didn't necessarily take stars off for this, but one thing that bothered me was how much the book tried to be descriptive, but just ended up sounding odd. I guess maybe the Erins are trying to describe the characters' emotions in a new way, but the whole way through the book I couldn't help but wonder whether Hawkwing had a stomach problem or not because every time he felt some strong emotion he mentioned his stomach clenching or churning. If they had mixed in this new expression of emotion with the old forms then it probably would have worked better, but as it is now Hawkwing is just mentioning his stomach every few paragraphs. One thing that did contribute to a star being taken off was the way that time changed. This is a part where the authors could work on showing rather than telling. I understand that there have to be time shifts in order to skip to the interesting parts of the Clan's travels, but instead of saying "x amount of moons passed since y happened" I think they could have included subtle hints about the passage of time. This wouldn't have bothered me if it happened once or twice, but once SkyClan really got moving it happened so frequently it became annoying. Those were really the major reasons that I gave this book three stars instead of four. One other thing that is just me being picky is that I wish I had gone into this book not knowing that Darktail is a villain. I know that this isn't any fault of the authors since this is how the story had to be released to make the most sense, but I could easily see Darktail's motives for seemingly innocent things that he did, and I wasn't nearly as surprised at Hawkwing when he finally turned on the Clan. Again, this isn't the fault of the authors, but it's just something I wish could have worked out differently, so I didn't let this contribute to my rating in any way. I can't go into everything I liked about this book, but I will mention some things. I liked having more development for SkyClan characters that I'd seen before, but not in any great depth. I got more connected to the newer members and found myself loving the senior warriors even more. I thought all of the losses were well spaced out and were heartbreaking. It hurt to see so many cats that I loved die or go missing, especially when some felt unnecessary or forced, but I also know that SkyClan's struggle was part of their destiny as a Clan. I also thought it was interesting to see the depth of the relationships between SkyClan cats, and the raw power of their grief compared to the other Clan cats who are used to losing their loved ones in battle. I will say though that the main romance between Hawkwing and Pebbleshine felt entirely superficial and forced (after all they switched from hating each other to loving each other super quickly with not much reason besides Hawkwing saving Pebbleshine and Hawkwing thinking that Pebbleshine is pretty) and I was honestly rooting more for a Hawkwing and Plumwillow romance near the end of the book. The rest of the relationships were endearing though, especially Leafstar and Billystorm and my favorite, Cherrytail and Sharpclaw. I also wasn't very fond of Hawkwing in the beginning. His attitude was so unwarranted and his actions were just plain foolish most of the time. I see he gets his temper from his father, but even Sharpclaw got annoyed by it in the beginning. By the end of the book I grew to like him a bit more, especially as he took on the role of adoptive father and deputy, but he still isn't a favorite of mine. I feel even worse for Hawkwing seeing all the fans who think Violetpaw and Twigpaw are his kits because that means Pebbleshine most likely didn't make it. That being said, I really hope SkyClan gets a happy ending.aotora's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I liked this book, but it still wasn't as good as Tallstar's revenge in my opinion.
I loved Hawkwing as a protagonist and I so wish that he becomes a leader one day, because he deserves it. The journey part was okay though it did get a little bit repetitive here and there.
My main problem with this book is that it has so many death - and not just greencaugh or whitecaugh deaths- it has pretty violent deaths too. And most of the cats seem to just skim over them - maybe remember them once or twice but the dead are barely even mentioned. Duskpaw is the only one that gets anything really, because the book starts with his death and it affecting Hawkwing and Sharpclaw and their relationship. Then Billystorm dies and Leafstar is sad for a while and mentioning his name is a sore spot, but then he is never mentioned again for the rest of the book - aside from Hawkwing thinking about his death once - which is a shame because he was such an important character in Skyclan's destiny. Then Bouncefire dies a pretty violent way and nobody is even remotely upset or mentions him again aside from Hawkwing being horrified when he sees him die and that's that. Same with Patchfoot- another bellowed old character- same with any Sharpclaw, he dies in a battle, Hawkwing and Cherrytail are a bit upset but then he is never mentioned again - it's like these deaths are here just to show that Starclan is testing the clan cats and just because of a shock value and so that not all of them make it to the new camp. They don't seem to have any meaning whatsoever aside from Duskpaw.
I also hated that Hawkwing never made up with his father before he died- they have this extremely rocky and shaky relationship throughout the beginning of the book but it never gets resolved because Sharpclaw dies and the ending is just …. lacking. I wish that the book ended with them finally reaching their new home.
I did love Darktail as a villain though- he wasn't just evil - I loved that we are led to believe that he is a good character for so long, it made the revelation that he is the bad guy so satisfying, and I loved the relationship between Pebbleshine and Hawkwing so much, and I loved how great of a foster father he was to Plumwillow's kits. He is a good character and I can't wait to see more of him. And I still hope that he gets to become a leader one day, because he'd be a great one.
I loved Hawkwing as a protagonist and I so wish that he becomes a leader one day, because he deserves it. The journey part was okay though it did get a little bit repetitive here and there.
My main problem with this book is that it has so many death - and not just greencaugh or whitecaugh deaths- it has pretty violent deaths too. And most of the cats seem to just skim over them - maybe remember them once or twice but the dead are barely even mentioned. Duskpaw is the only one that gets anything really, because the book starts with his death and it affecting Hawkwing and Sharpclaw and their relationship. Then Billystorm dies and Leafstar is sad for a while and mentioning his name is a sore spot, but then he is never mentioned again for the rest of the book - aside from Hawkwing thinking about his death once - which is a shame because he was such an important character in Skyclan's destiny. Then Bouncefire dies a pretty violent way and nobody is even remotely upset or mentions him again aside from Hawkwing being horrified when he sees him die and that's that. Same with Patchfoot- another bellowed old character- same with any Sharpclaw, he dies in a battle, Hawkwing and Cherrytail are a bit upset but then he is never mentioned again - it's like these deaths are here just to show that Starclan is testing the clan cats and just because of a shock value and so that not all of them make it to the new camp. They don't seem to have any meaning whatsoever aside from Duskpaw.
I also hated that Hawkwing never made up with his father before he died- they have this extremely rocky and shaky relationship throughout the beginning of the book but it never gets resolved because Sharpclaw dies and the ending is just …. lacking. I wish that the book ended with them finally reaching their new home.
I did love Darktail as a villain though- he wasn't just evil - I loved that we are led to believe that he is a good character for so long, it made the revelation that he is the bad guy so satisfying, and I loved the relationship between Pebbleshine and Hawkwing so much, and I loved how great of a foster father he was to Plumwillow's kits. He is a good character and I can't wait to see more of him. And I still hope that he gets to become a leader one day, because he'd be a great one.
mychemicalseal's review against another edition
3.0
dear lord when will these books end? too many side characters and too many events that last a chapter. Stop it
feather218's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Man, I have such a soft spot for skyclan, the old super editions were some of my favorites, but this one felt a little rough. I didn't like many of the newer characters near the beginning that much and as bad thing after bad thing kept happening it started to wear on me a bit too much, but the characters grew on me which helped. Very curious to see where this ends up tying in with the main arcs, though!