User:Brambleclawx/Sandbox

__NOINDEX__ Here is my sandbox, where I can do work.

=Warriors: Super Editions=

Super Editions are standalone works part of the Warriors juvenile fantasy novel series about anthropomorphic feral cats. Each Super Edition is approximately twice the length of a regular Warriors novel. The first Super Edition, Firestar's Quest, was published in 2007, followed by Bluestar's Prophecy, SkyClan's Destiny, Crookedstar's Promise, Yellowfang's Secret, Tallstar's Revenge, and Bramblestar's Storm, with a further novel, Moth Flight's Vision, currently being written. The novels are published by HarperCollins under the pseudonym Erin Hunter, which refers to authors Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, Tui Sutherland and plot developer/editor Victoria Holmes. Super Edition novels often focus on the lives of a single character. Though the Warriors series has appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List and has had novels been nominated for several awards, none of the Super Edition novels have won a significant literary award.

Pseudonym
All of the Warriors novels are listed as being written by Erin Hunter. Erin Hunter is a pen name for several people, including Victoria Holmes, who creates the storylines and edits, as well as Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, and Tui Sutherland, who write the Warriors books in turns.

Development
Firestar's Quest was the first Warriors novel put under the Super Edition title, as a special edition extra-long book. Cherith Baldry wrote Firestar's Quest, and and the maps were drawn by Gary Chalk. To promote Firestar's Quest, an excerpt was released online on the Warriors website, and later at the back of the Warriors manga volume Warrior's Refuge. The book was also commonly mentioned in the author chats on Wands and Worlds.

SkyClan's Destiny was written by Cherith Baldry. Victoria Holmes revealed in an Author Tracker e-mail that they had developed the general idea for the book quickly, but took a while to find the right ending.

Kate Cary wrote Crookedstar's Promise. At first, an Early Clan Super Edition was planned to be released in 2010 with Victoria Holmes saying "I’d love to do a Super Edition about the very early Clans so we can see how they started to take the shape that we recognize today". However, because it was then decided to instead do an entire arc dedicated to the early Clan days (Warriors: Dawn of the Clans), the book was cancelled and Crookedstar's Promise was to be released in 2011 instead. In the seventh author chat, it was revealed that an evil female cat named Mapleshade, first mentioned in Night Whispers, will be featured in the book. Mapleshade is the first evil she-cat mentioned in this book series. The authors did not want readers to become upset because they only wrote about evil toms. The authros also wanted readers to reflect on Tigerstar and Scourge's past and compare them with Mapleshade's.

Settings
In the forest of the warrior cats, there are four Clans of feral cats who follow StarClan, their spiritual ancestors. Each Clan chooses a leader and then StarClan gives nine lives to leaders like Firestar, the leader of ThunderClan and the main character of the book.

Firestar, the protagonist of Firestar's Quest was born as a kittypet (a house cat), but wanders off into the forest and chooses to join ThunderClan. In Firestar's Quest, Firestar goes to rebuild SkyClan, a previously driven out fifth Clan.

Publication history
Firestar's Quest was first published as a hardcover in Canada on 9 August 2007, and in the United States on 21 August 2007. The book was also released in the UK. After the release, Erin Hunter went on tour to talk about Firestar's Quest with fans. HarperTrophy, an imprint of HarperCollins, released the paperback version of Firestar's Quest on 13 May 2008. Russia has published a translation of Firestar's Quest. The German version of the book has also been released as both a hardcover and audiobook.

Bluestar's Prophecy was published by HarperCollins and released on 28 July 2009. It was released in a Chinese translation in China on 31 July 2010.

SkyClan's Destiny was first released in both e-book and hardcover format on 3 August 2010 in the US, Canada, and the UK. HarperCollins gave the book a 150,000 first print.

Crookedstar's Promise was published on 5 July 2011.

Yellowfang's Secret was published on 9 October 2012 in hardcover format.

Tallstar's Revenge was released on 2 July 2013.

Firestar's Quest
Chronologically, Firestar's Quest takes place between the first two series, after the events of The Darkest Hour and before Midnight. The novel follows Firestar, leader of ThunderClan on a journey to find a fifth lost Clan of the forest called SkyClan.

Firestar and his mate Sandstorm journey upriver in order to rebuild the long-lost Clan. Firestar gathers together various housecats and loner cats, Leafdapple, Sparrowpelt, Sharpclaw, Echosong, Rainfur, Petalnose, Clovertail, Patchfoot, Shortwhisker, Cherrytail, Sagekit, Mintkit, Tinypaw, Rockpaw, and Bouncepaw, giving them training in warrior skills and the warrior code, the code of honour all warrior cats follow. Eventually, Firestar re-establishes the Clan and helps the Clan fight the force that destroyed the ancient SkyClan: rats. Though SkyClan emerges victorious, the warrior Rainfur is killed and Firestar loses his second life. As Firestar and Sandstorm prepare to return home, Leafdapple is made the leader and renamed Leafstar on the Sky Rock, which is used to connect to the SkyClan ancestors. Sharpclaw is made deputy of the Clan, and Echosong becomes the medicine cat. Firestar's Quest also described various events that were only alluded to in the Warriors: The New Prophecy series, and was also the chronologically first time the prophecy that drives Warriors: Power of Three was introduced.

Bluestar's Prophecy
Bluestar's Prophecy tells the story of Bluekit, a blue-gray female she-cat born into ThunderClan along with her white sister, Snowkit.

The novel opens with a retelling of events in A Dangerous Path, in which Bluestar sacrifices her last life to protect Fireheart from the leader of a pack of dogs. After Bluestar's death at the end of the prologue, Chapter 1 opens with Bluekit's early days in the nursery.

Only a few months into Bluepaw's apprenticeship, Bluepaw’s mother, Moonflower, is killed during a raid on a rival Clan. At a Gathering, Bluepaw meets a tabby apprentice named Crookedpaw (later Crookedjaw and then Crookedstar), an apprentice from RiverClan, and they quickly become friends. However, their friendship does not last long when their two Clans battle over territory and Bluepaw defeats Crookedpaw with the help of Snowpaw.

Later, Bluepaw goes on a hunting patrol with Snowpaw but encounter a fox, which gives chase. Realizing that they are leading the fox directly to camp, Bluepaw turns and faces the fox, but is interrupted when a lightning bolt strike sets a branch above her on fire. Goosefeather, the Clan's medicine cat, informs Bluepaw that it is a a prophecy foretelling that Bluepaw is a fire that will blaze through the forest, but that water may destroy her. Bluepaw and Snowpaw then receive their warrior names, Bluefur and Snowfur. Snowfur's relationship with her sister is damaged when she falls in love with another warrior; a spiky-furred dark gray-and-white cat named Thistleclaw, whom Bluefur feels is arrogant and untrustworthy. Afterwards, Thistleclaw and Snowfur have a son, Whitekit, later known as Whitepaw, and then Whitestorm.

Bluefur meets a famous RiverClan warrior named Oakheart, a handsome reddish brown tom; although she does not seem to like him at first, they eventually fall in love. Meanwhile, Pinestar, Bluefur's leader, leaves ThunderClan to become a kittypet (house cat). Sunfall, Pinestar’s deputy, takes his place as ThunderClan’s leader, and becomes known as Sunstar. Then, Snowfur is killed, hit by a speeding car while chasing ShadowClan intruders from their territory, leaving a heartbroken Bluefur to care for Whitekit.

Many seasons pass, and after Whitestorm receives his warrior name, Bluefur decides to meet with Oakheart one evening. They meet at the usual Clan Gathering place (“Fourtrees”), and having fun together, decide to spend the night there, but agree when it was over that they would never meet like this again, for the good of their Clans. One moon later, Bluefur is horrified to find out that she is expecting Oakheart's kits.

Sunstar tells Bluefur that he was planning to make her ThunderClan’s new deputy, because of the current deputy retiring, but since she was having kits, he was thinking about letting Thistleclaw become the deputy instead. Bluefur knows that allowing Thistleclaw to become deputy and then leader would be extremely deadly to the Clan (she saw him in a vision dripping with blood), she she takes her three kits to Oakheart, where they would be raised in RiverClan. On the way, one of them, Mosskit, a gray-and-white she-kit, dies because of the freezing snow. When she returns, she pretends that a starving predator had taken her kits. Bluefur is made deputy, and learns that Sunstar only received eight lives from StarClan because Pinestar had not died yet. After Sunstar loses his final life, she becomes leader, receiving her own nine lives and leader name (Bluestar). After successfully leading ThunderClan for several seasons, she receives another prophecy from the current ThunderClan medicine cat, Spottedleaf: "Fire alone can save our Clan", which puzzles Bluestar because fire is feared by all Clans.

She later goes on patrol with Whitestorm and her deputy, Redtail, and while nearing the twoleg (human) nests (houses), she catches sight of a bright ginger kittypet named Rusty, who she invites to join the Clan, believing that he is the destined cat from Spottedleaf's prophecy, and names him Firepaw, and eventually Fireheart. The story ends with Bluestar thanking StarClan for everything they had done, and happily picturing the gorgeous future of Fireheart one day "blazing through the forest", as Firestar, the next leader of ThunderClan.

SkyClan's Destiny
The prologue begins with ancient SkyClan. After another battle with rats and the death of two of their warriors, Spiderstar, the leader, decides to have the Clan disband. Some cats decide to become house cats at the nearby town while others stay in the gorge.

In present-day SkyClan it is six months since Firestar went to the gorge and reformed SkyClan. The new SkyClan has added loners, rogues, and former kittypets to the Clan. There are also kittypets that help the Clan in the day, but return to their humans at night. They are called daylight warriors. Leafstar invites them into the Clan to help patrol and hunt for the Clan. However, many cats such as Sharpclaw call them "kitty warriors" feeling they are not loyal to the Clan by leaving at night. The daylight warriors are Billystorm, Ebonyclaw, Frecklepaw, Snookpaw, Harveymoon, and Macgyver. Leafstar tries to keep the tensions low between the daylight warriors and regular warriors, but many regular warriors still make fun of the daylight warriors behind their backs.

One day, Leafstar receives a dream from Spottedleaf, an old medicine cat of ThunderClan who helped SkyClan when Firestar first formed the Clan. She sees cats and they say, "This is the leaf-bare of my Clan. Greenleaf will come, but it will bring even greater storms than these. SkyClan will need deeper roots if it is to survive." The next day, Leafstar visits the Clan's medicine cat Echosong and they realize they each had the same dream.

Later, Stick, Cora, Coal and Shorty, four cats Firestar met on his quest, arrive at the gorge. They stay with the Clan and learn battle moves and hunting techniques. In exchange, Stick teaches the Clan how to destroy a rat family that lives in a dump in the Clan's territory.

One day, Leafstar follows a group of SkyClan's cats visiting the nearby town. There she realizes that the loners came to recruit help to defeat a group of cats that steal prey in their town. In the end, Leafstar agrees to help though states that she will not kill anyone. The battle is fierce and ends in SkyClan's victory, but Stick's daughter Red is killed protecting her mate who Stick tried to kill since he thinks that Red's mate threatened her to join them. Stick becomes even more infuriated when Leafstar calls off her warriors from killing anyone, a policy he disproves of.

Returning to her Clan, Leafstar sets up rules for visiting cats in order to prevent any future conflicts. She makes it so that visiting cats must help hunt every day, and the Clan shall not teach any fighting moves until they have spent a month in the Clan. As the novel concludes, Leafstar notes that SkyClan is "a proud, independent Clan with a code and honor of [its] own."

Crookedstar's Promise
In the prologue, the RiverClan camp is flooded. Rainflower's kits are coming. Because the water was getting higher, she climbs up an oak tree to give birth. Brambleberry delivers her kits, and Rainflower names one Stormkit, after the storm they were born in, and the other Oakkit, after the tree that offered her protection from the water while she gave birth.

As a kit, Stormkit is chased by the ThunderClan medicine cat, Goosefeather, when he sneaks out of camp and goes to the Sunningrocks, and breaks his jaw when he falls on stepping stones. His mother, Rainflower, feels no sympathy for Stormkit and asks the RiverClan leader, Hailstar, to rename Stormkit to Crookedkit. Rainflower and Shellheart argue, and Shellheart said he never knew she could be this heartless, and says if she went on with the ceremony, they would no longer be mates.

Crookedkit is curious of what his destiny will be, and he attempts to travel to the Moonstone. The spirit of Mapleshade, an evil ThunderClan she-cat, talks to Crookedkit in a dream, and asks him to make a promise to be loyal to RiverClan above all other things. Crookedkit did not understand what he was promising when he made his pledge, not knowing that being loyal to one Clan was not the same as loving a single cat.

Throughout the novel, Crookedkit, who becomes Crookedpaw and then Crookedjaw, begins to realize what "sacrifices" he has to make because of what he promised Mapleshade. Mapleshade continues to manipulate Crookedjaw's life, sending an omen, that convinces Hailstar to make Crookedjaw deputy. Mapleshade later stops Crookedjaw from saving Hailstar from rats, leading to Hailstar's death and making Crookedjaw leader of RiverClan. Mapleshade meets him when he receives his nine lives, with the words "We did it!" Mapleshade says she will follow him wherever he goes. Mapleshade proceeds to use Crookedstar's promise against him, leading to the deaths of Willowbreeze, Crookedstar's mate. Mapleshade finally reveals her past, in which she was disowned by ThunderClan and her RiverClan mate, and promises to keep haunting him until his dying day because he is the descendant of her former mate. In the end, after the death of Silverstream, Crookedstar's daughter, Mapleshade announces that she is avenged. Brambleberry, RiverClan's medicine cat, convinces Crookedstar that the deaths were not his or Mapleshade's faults, but that they were predetermined by StarClan.

Yellowfang's Secret
Yellowkit is born to Brightflower and Brackenfoot along with littermates Nutkit and Rowankit. As an apprentice, Yellowpaw becomes close with Raggedpelt, whose father is unknown and suspected to have been a housecat, leading some to shun him as housecats are shunned for being "soft". Yellowpaw attempts to help him discover the truth, but her efforts only worsen the situation when she and Raggedpelt discover that Raggedpelt was indeed fathered by a housecat named Hal. Hal rejects Raggedpelt. Raggedpelt kills his father and denies having a father as well. Yellowpaw eventually repairs her relationship with Raggedpelt, after saving his life, much to the dismay of Foxheart, who has made her affection for Raggedpelt quite obvious.

From a young age, Yellowfang personally experiences others' pain as her own. For instance, as a kit, she and her brother Nutkit both have stomach pains, although Nutkit was the only one who consumed carrion. Eventually, Sagewhisker, the ShadowClan medicine cat, convinces Yellowfang that this ability would make her more effective as a medicine cat if she could learn to control the powers, despite Yellowfang's initial resistance to the idea. Sagewhisker thus takes Yellowfang on as an apprentice, and Yellowfang takes the medicine cats' vows, including the forsaking of taking a mate. Despite this, she and Raggedpelt continue their relationship in secret, up until Yellowfang is declared a full medicine cat.

Eventually, it is discovered that Yellowfang is pregnant, a violation of the medicine cat code. Yellowfang gives birth in secret, but only one kit survives. She then hands this kit, Brokenkit, to Raggedpelt, who has them cared for by another she-cat while shielding the mother's identity; many believe the mother to be Foxheart however. Brokenkit grows up spoiled, his parents, who are in positions of power, indulge him and refuse to punish him, and he develops into a vicious cat without learning empathy and other virtuous character traits as a result. Eventually, Brokenkit becomes the warrior Brokentail, and later, deputy. Brokentail trains his apprentices with extreme methods, which go unchecked as his father refuses to see the wrong in his son's actions. When he finally reprimands Brokentail, Brokentail appears to acquiesce, but secretly sets up a ploy to murder his father to gain control of the Clan, while blaming the death on neighbouring WindClan.

Having taken over ShadowClan, Brokenstar institutes a vicious regime, bullying his way to eventual near-totalitarian power. Using his father's death as an excuse, he begins to launch many attacks on the neighbouring Clans, many of which Yellowfang considers unnecessary. Brokenstar, however, rejects all criticism, continuing the attacks and eventually implementing extreme tactics to keep his war efforts going: he begins training kits before they are six months old (the age laid down in the warrior code as when apprenticeship may begin), and asking the elders, who cannot contribute to the fighting forces, to leave camp in order to save resources. When a kit dies in battle, Yellowfang speaks out; Brokenstar soon secretly sets up another ploy, accusing his own mother of the deaths of two kits, and banishing her from the Clan.

Yellowfang leaves; eventually she enters ThunderClan territory, where, exhausted by rage and hunger, she is apprehended by Firepaw (a scene initially depicted in Into the Wild from Firepaw's perspective), where after a brief fight, Yellowfang admits defeat.

Tallstar's Revenge
Tallstar's Revenge tells the story of Tallstar, whose father dies when he is an apprentice during a tunnel collapse. As a result, he attempts to avenge his father Sandgorse's death by killing the cat (a rogue named Sparrow) whom he believes did not help his father escape the tunnel and is therefore responsible. Tallstar leaves his Clan to track down Sparrow and briefly travels with a house cat named Jake, who is later revealed to be the father of Firestar (the main protagonist of the original six books). When he meets up with Sparrow, Tallstar discovers that his father actually sacrificed himself to allow the other cat to escape and does not carry through with his intended vengeance, instead saving Sparrow's life when Sparrow slides down a cliff and near a road.

Themes
In an Authortracker e-mail Victoria Holmes says that one of the main themes of Firestar's Quest is that "two cats are genuinely torn following the warrior code and doing what they believe is right for themselves". In the book, Firestar is asked to find and rebuild SkyClan which, as described by Holmes, "take[s] him a long way outside the warrior code and all that he believes in". A review commented that "themes of faith and responsibility give it depth" and also added that "it's quite satisfying watching Firestar and Sandstorm assemble a ragtag group of cats into a true clan", comparing the novel to movies such as The Bad News Bears and Major League.

In the sixth Wands and Worlds author chat, Victoria Holmes stated that the main theme in SkyClan's Destiny dealt with rebellion. She stated that "Leafstar struggles to find a way for her Clan to survive among pressures and challenges that aren't found in the forest". Holmes also said that another theme is a Clan so new and without any neighbors has to be able to figure out their own future without any help from their warrior ancestors.

Reception
A reviewer from Children's Literature gave a positive review, calling Firestar's Quest a “fantastic extension” to the Warriors series, and near the end of the review, the critic said Firestar's Quest showed that the Warriors books had evolved "from simply entertaining to thought provoking adventures". A review by Booklist noted the longer length of the book and also praised the mission and new characters introduced in the book. Publishers Weekly also gave a positive review, writing: "Fans of the Warriors books will excitedly delve into Firestar's Quest, the latest edition to Erin Hunter's bestselling series." Firestar's Quest has appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list.

A reviewer for School Library Journal felt that readers would be drawn into the cats' fight for survival. The reviewer also praised how well-developed the characters are and noted that the book has "a range of emotions and thoughts that draw readers into their dilemmas". The conclusion was praised as it ended "where the traits of maturity, compassion, loyalty, and strength are upheld as desirable".