A review by rinku
Warrior Cats - Der Ursprung der Clans. Der erste Kampf: V, Band 3 by Erin Hunter, Friederike Levin

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

With The First Battle, the war in Warriors comes to life – but not really until the last third of this book. At the beginning, the plot was kind of repeating itself; there are random dramatic events™ like dog attacks or birth scenes. Those freaking birth scenes! I think we had literally had one in every book of this arc. I hate them so much because they are so unnecessarily graphic, especially for a kids’ book.

Tom was an interesting and good antagonist though. Like Clear Sky, he’s a manipulative abuser and is well written in that aspect. Talking about antagonists, I didn’t like that we got Clear Sky’s perspective just because we should feel sorry for him. There are other and better stylistic devices with which this can be achieved. I don’t care for Clear Sky at all, so his chapters were my least favorite thing about the book.

Even though The First Battle had its problems plot wise in the first two thirds, the ending was amazing and probably my favorite moment from Dawn of the Clans:
The speech of Tall Shadow was amazing at the beginning of the final battle, but sadly they couldn’t resolve the conflict this way. It was so random that they started to fight nevertheless over such a small thing, but the fight was still epic – or more accurately: it was a terrifying massacre. Thunder finally realized how cruel his dad was and hopefully will stay away from him. The creation of StarClan in the end gave me goosebumps but they instantly start with unclear messages *sigh*.


Just to give some thoughts on a few characters in the end: I’m so annoyed by the ableism towards Jagged Peak, which is sadly a recurring problem in the Warriors series. I still dislike Turtle’s Tail, she is almost as annoying as Spottedleaf:
And then, she just died? I was not sad about this, but I felt sorrier for Gray Wing who apparently has no luck with the ladies
.

I enjoyed this book not as much as Thunder Rising, since here, the characters act more stupid, and the plot seems to go in circles at some points. But the ending is so amazing that I still gave four stars. 

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