They just go on and on and on... Image: Wikia
What did I get myself into?
There’s a wall of shelves in my public library holding 50 or more hardback books in the Warriors series.
Perhaps you have not heard of the Warriors series. My kid, Owen, is a big fan of the Warriors, so I asked him to explain it to the rest of the world:
It is about cats surviving in the wild. They have to catch prey a lot. It is called WARRIORS because sometimes the cats get into battles with other cats. They are in the adventure category of books. Sometimes they are suspenseful and they are always very detailed.
Different groups are called clans. They have names like Wind Clan, Thunder Clan, and Sky Clan. There’s a lot of good characters but one I like is Clear Sky.
There’s these cats that were in the forest where they live, who were there first. They attack the Warriors and that’s how some of the battles start. These forest cats are rogues.
When Owen first started telling me about every moment of action in a Warriors book, I started doing a special voice to entertain him and myself. It was basically a newscaster looking on as cats do dangerous things and plummet to their deaths: “Oh no, kitty! Stay away from the edge of that cliff. Poor kitty.” That sort of thing. I’m not proud of it, except that it did entertain the children and make me laugh at the same time. But there's no going back now.
Warriors #1: Into the Wild (The Prophesies Begin) came out in 2009, written by Erin Hunter (available on Kindle for $1.99). There are subseries and tangents and who knows what else: The Prophesies Begin, The New Prophesies, Power of Three, Dawn of the Clans. Then there are the Super Editions, the novellas, and the manga. And if you aren’t into cats, how about Seekers, which seem to involve a variety of animals, as near as I can tell? Or Survivors, which is about dogs?
What did I get myself into?
Author Erin Hunter’s Amazon biography says, “She is inspired by a love of animals and a fascination with the ferocity of the natural world. As well as having great respect for nature in all its forms, Erin enjoys creating rich mythical explanations for animal behavior.”
My questions:
Is her last name really Hunter? Tell me the truth.
How in the hell can she be writing this many pages? No way possible.
Is she writing all of these? Maybe I’m the only writer who doesn’t produce 10,000 words a day.
...Cat battles? Am I missing something?
Should I be letting my kid read these? Is he going to end up Very Weird because of them?
I am happy for Ms. Hunter and her success, I really am. I simply don’t understand the appeal. But if she wants to give me some pointers on how to make my quiet novel into a media empire, I’m available to talk.
