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Warriors: Field Guide #5

Warriors: The Ultimate Guide

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The ultimate companion to Erin Hunter’s #1 bestselling Warriors series! Full of never-before-seen stories, full-color artwork, and captivating details about the warrior Cat clans, The Ultimate Guide is a must-have addition to any Warriors collection. This gorgeous hardcover volume This collectible field guide is a fantastic introduction to the Warriors world for new readers, and an indispensable resource for longtime fans.

222 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2013

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5069 people want to read

About the author

Erin Hunter

277 books10.7k followers
Erin Hunter is the pseudonym of five people: Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, Tui T. Sutherland, Gillian Philip, and Inbali Iserles, as well as editor Victoria Holmes. Together, they write the Warriors series as well as the Seekers and Survivors series. Erin Hunter is working on a new series now called Bravelands.

Erin Hunter is inspired by a love of cats and a fascination with the ferocity of the natural world. As well as having a great respect for nature in all its forms, Erin enjoys creating rich mythical explanations for animal behavior, shaped by her interest in astronomy and standing stones.

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5 stars
2,644 (65%)
4 stars
827 (20%)
3 stars
425 (10%)
2 stars
86 (2%)
1 star
51 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 212 reviews
Profile Image for Erin.
26 reviews
February 17, 2015
So, this book irritates me a lot, for one particular reason: The Erins are biased as hell. Conveniently, I have the book on-hand, so I can provide quotes.

"Ashfur truly loved Squirrelflight and was bitterly hurt when she passed him over in favor of Brambleclaw."



Um, no. No no no no no. Ashfur never loved Squirrelflight; he was obsessed with her. There's a huge difference. If he did "truly love" Squirrelflight, as the Erins say he did, he would have wanted her to be happy. He wouldn't have attempted to murder her family.

"It was a tragic and unfortunate end for a cat whose greatest fault had been loving too much."







On the other hand (because this is a book review, and not an "I Hate Ashfur" review), the artwork really is gorgeous. I love Spottedleaf's and Ivypool's images the most. Also, the new information on Mapleshade is great. I just don't understand why Blossomfall and Tigerheart weren't included in the guide; they were relatively important characters.
Profile Image for Faith.
80 reviews24 followers
November 10, 2013
I really like this book! It's a great guide and a must-have for every fan of the beloved Warriors series!

I only have a few complaints. For one thing, I felt like the thunderClan and ShadowClan sections got too many cats. I mean, yeah they are very important Clans, but WindClan and ShadowClan only got a few, and Cats Outside the Clans got even less.

Here are some cats that they left out that I think should have gotten SOME mention:

Moonflower, Tigerheart, Dawnpelt, Heatherstar, Hawkheart, Barkface, Sandgorse, Palebird, Dawnstripe, Rainflower, Shellheart, Billystorm, Sasha, Jake, and Sparrow.

I felt like they should have gotten a mention in the book. They did in other cats' biographies, but I felt like they should have gotten their own biography, or even a shared biography with someone else. Like Rainflower and Shellheart could have been together. Or Sandgorse and Palebird. Or Hawkheart and Barkface.

This book also had a few werrors. I saw a lot of little typos and continuation issues. In Oakheart's biography, I think Crookedstar's name is spelled "Grookedstar", and ShadowClan is spelled "Shadow Clan". They also messed a few of the things up saying that Bluestar told the Clan her kits were taken by a badger, when, in Bluestar's Prophecy, she claimed it was a fox. The "Grookedstar" thing might JUST be on my Kindle because I saw a lot of other funny errors, but I figured it was just the way my Kindle showed it, but I heard the Crookedstar was still "Grookedstar" in the actual book from a friend.

I also didn't like that they had spoilers for Thunder Rising in the the section called "The Early Settlers". I know that this book and Thunder Rising came out the same day, but still.
Profile Image for Cody Minturn.
23 reviews
December 28, 2023
The book does a great job or summarizing the lives of many important cats while also including amazing art work for each cat. I found Firedtar’s and Graystripe’s view from StarClan really interesting and I enjoyed the book listing the new warrior code. One this that was a bummer was that the book is only updated the end of the broken code arc and doesn’t include profiles for the main characters for the Starless Clan arc which already has 4 books. The book also includes a “coat” and “eye color” color box for each cat on their pages, the main problem is that it isn’t always that accurate. For some cats it was just completely wrong with some apparently having purple coats. For Bluestar the color for her fur is white and Firestar now supposedly has black eyes. Other than that the book is great and I would recommend to all fans of warriors.
3 reviews
March 14, 2017
This book was really good with lots of info about the cats in the clans. It had only one flaw though. It had some spoilers in it. Such as, i had the book out when my friend came over and he saw (SPOILER!!!!) the SkyClan sign. he was wondering what "TreeClan" was.
Profile Image for Alana Robinson.
203 reviews
July 19, 2023
This was such a great and useful book! It does include spoilers, but if you don’t mind spoilers/love spoiling yourself, then this is just the right book for you! I loved all of the pictures and all of the lore was so interesting! Definitely recommend!
Profile Image for Animallover1234.
23 reviews23 followers
November 19, 2014
This book contains almost all of the characters in the warrior books, and tells you about them.
Profile Image for Cloudfall.
6 reviews1 follower
June 12, 2023
Great for newer fans who like art and specific details on different early Warrior Cats, since it only shows characters up to the 6th or 5th arc. But it was good enough for me to buy it :)
Profile Image for Chantal Kloth.
332 reviews4 followers
January 2, 2024
not really a normal book to be read, but i did it anyways. lover then insight on starclan and the leaders’ 9 lives ceremonies. also so glad it’s now updated from the last version
Profile Image for Gerda Fiske.
25 reviews
November 30, 2017
This book got a lot of things wrong and left out a lot of important and long loved characters. It was a really fun read though so I enjoy just flipping through the pages every now and then
Profile Image for Caitlin Wedge.
38 reviews1 follower
April 9, 2021
I finally got to finish this book know that I read Vision of shadows. This book was informational and some things in here I knew the cat, but didnt know a fact about them!
Profile Image for Rose of Books.
178 reviews
June 12, 2024
Updated 2023 published edition.

This is great for recaps on plot specific characters in the Warriors universe. The art by Owen Richardson is beautiful as always. The new short stories that were written are fun, plus the new rules to the Warrior Code after the most recent completed arc are great to see in writing.

This is not great for fans that pay attention to the characters and know what pelt colors the cats actually are, fans who can see that whomever was in charge of putting what pelt color a cat had in the color description box just color picked and didn't actually know the color of the cat. For example, Ivypool is a grey tabby and white cat, but in this book it lists her coat as being a dark reddish-brown. The illustrator Owen Richardson does a phenomenal job on his illustrations, and in his drawing of Ivypool she's in an amber light, probably from a sunset, so it's casting her grey/white coat in a dark reddish-brown color. That doesn't mean her coat color is red or brown. The laziness of some editors gets to me... Do your research before you just color pick. And shame on the editors who let that slip through the cracks. Are there not enough people who know the characters anymore who can see that something is wrong? That's why you do a final check before you print.

A lot of other characters are messed up as well. On Runningnose and Littlecloud's page, Runningnose is drawn with grey fur, amber eyes, and his dripping "running nose". Littlecloud is drawn with brown fur, blue eyes, and no dripping nose. Yet, the color picker listed Runningnose as brown-furred and blue eyed, and Littlecloud as grey-furred and amber eyed. The lack of care in the Warrior's editors in the last 5-ish years is quite annoying.

There are many other characters who have similar issues with color picking off the artwork, but I digress.
Profile Image for Ash.
35 reviews34 followers
August 10, 2017
The minute I got this book, I knew I was in for a treat.

It is a wonderful guide for any lover of Warriors.

First off, the artwork. Wayne McLoughlin has always done fantastic artwork for the Warrior books, but he practically exceeded himself in this book. The artwork was completely gorgeous and expressive. I had a lot of people flipping through the book, pointing out which cat looked like their own and a couple even thought some were photographs.

The book gives you some little insights on the characters and gives you some background information and little stories (such as Bramblestar and Tigerstar receiving their nine lives). Some of the descriptions even inspired me to write for certain characters and made me think of some of my own original characters attributes.

The only criticism I have is that I felt some of the later sections could have a lot more characters and stories. I mean, ThunderClan naturally was full of them... and both Shadow and ThunderClan got stories... but I kind of was curious about a ShadowClan story that didn't involve a villain... or a RiverClan story or a WindClan one. It seemed almost rushed.

And then characters like Graypool, Darkstripe, and other characters were left out too, which was kind of disappointing. Some of the chapters were so short of characters, I was like : That's it???? after some of them.

Oh well, it is a great guide and well-worth the investment if you are a Warrior fan. I recommend it!
Profile Image for Liza.
789 reviews61 followers
October 16, 2014
First off, I am a HUGE Warriors fan. I've been a fan ever since the first series came out a long, long time ago and I've been keeping up with Erin Hunter books ever since, even despite the fact I feel like the Warriors series deteriorated over the course of Firestar's life.



But hey, at least Dawn of the Clans is bringing back the magic of the original, at least for me anyway.

So, back to this book which is what this review is for. Since this is a guide for Warriors, it doesn't have a plot. Instead it just explains about the various clans and has pretty pictures of a bunch of the cats and stuff about them. The pictures from Cats of the Clans were included along with a bunch more(like Spottedleaf, Sol and Gray Wing). The art is pretty, I will say that. Some of them look a bit odd(like the Cloudstar/Skywatcher one) but prettiness overtakes all!



There isn't really much else to say as this is a guide book and can only be really appreciated by people like me who have read everything up to this point and can appreciate the characters.

It's a great guide book for Warrior fans! May StarClan watch over you!
Profile Image for Kaylee.
294 reviews5 followers
June 11, 2024
Solid four stars. I don’t have much to say here. There were a few cats missing that I thought should have been here: Millie, Flametail, ANY of the RiverClan cats we’ve gotten to know in A Starless Clan, and some more semi-important WindClan and SkyClan cats to even out the numbers. There were a couple mistakes in this guide, too, that really bothered me. How did Littelcloud and Runningnose’s coat and eye colors get mixed up? Runningnose is one of the easiest cats to identify. Aside from that, Mapleshade was listed in allegiance with RiverClan? She never joined RiverClan, in fact she was explicitly driven away from RiverClan. If anything, I expected her allegiance card to say ThunderClan. That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, but I’m sure there’s more.
Overall, a solid book, but certainly not the end all be all that it is often advertised as. It’s just a more updated version of the old definitely-not-ultimate guide. I loved the new art though, especially Rootspring, Shadowsight, and a few others I can’t recall off the top of my head.

EDIT: Flametail was in the book; thank you to the person who pointed that out. I still stand on the fact that Millie and the new RiverClan cats should have been in here, though.
Profile Image for Rachel.
741 reviews4 followers
December 20, 2023
December 2023 (New Edition) I can't help but laugh because, alas, there are still errors in this brand new, updated edition! Still, what can ya do. At least the errors are pretty tiny. And this edition is soooooooo beautiful!! The art is generally amazing, the descriptions are fun. I loved the stories at the end, especially because we get to see Firestar and Graystripe being silly gooses. It actually seems like it would be cool to be in StarClan, now that I know they can live and look at all Clan cats' lives and experiences. That's honestly pretty awesome. The whole Skystar thing felt a little forced though, I have to say. Oh well. But yeah, very fun update to the Warriors (field guide) universe!

Oct. 2020 Always amusing to see the slight inaccuracies that come from more books coming out. Still fun to read about the important characters of the first five series.

March 2019 Basically a big version of Cats of the Clans but a little more accurate. I like that it includes the cats from Dawn of the Clans.
Profile Image for J. Rose.
81 reviews1 follower
December 8, 2023
A few things:

- Some of the art was okay. Others you could barely tell the color of the cat's fur.
- More newer cats could have been added.
- STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR SKYSTAR. Sure, he didn't want cats to go hungry and such, but he pushed his fellow mountain cats away and treated them like crap. He's not misunderstood; he's a terrible cat and he's lucky he made it to StarClan despite everything.
- There were a few typos.

If you don't want spoilers, I suggest reading the main series and super editions first.

Apart from what I already stated, the book wasn't too bad. I loved Ivypool and Dovewing's chat and seeing the updated warrior code.
Profile Image for Elenazumika.
1 review1 follower
March 4, 2014
This book is a amazing book of how tigerstar and bramble star revived their nine life's. It has also profiles of exactly 90 cats!!! There's also a insider look at each of the clans! Here are the contents:
Interdiction blue star speaks
Bluestar
Pinestar
Goosefeather. And featherwhisker
Spottedleaf
Graystripe and Millie
Sandstorm
Brightheart and cloudtail
Firestar
Yellowfang
Cinderpelt
Leafpool
Squerrelflight
Brambleclaw
Ashfur
Lion blaze
Hollyleaf
Jayfeather
Cinderheart
Dovewing
Ivypool
And that's all of thunderClan
I am to lazy to type up the rest at the moment


Profile Image for Kathy Filardo.
73 reviews2 followers
January 12, 2017
I thought this book was wonderfully done. As I read I tried to picture what each cat looked like and some I could do so well and others I had trouble picturing, but with this guide and the lovely artwork it really brought each cat to life and explained a lot about them as well. I wish they would also put out a book in which it details lineage--who was mates with who and what kits they had.
Profile Image for Serena.
335 reviews7 followers
February 4, 2023
Overall, I really enjoyed this. I thought learning about the different cats was really cool and it was nice to learn some of the lore and history of the series. Definitely would recommend if you love this series
Profile Image for Jay Semeniuk.
Author 5 books7 followers
November 8, 2023
the og field guide is so much better but i canttttt ever give a warriors book less than five stars
Profile Image for aleo.
267 reviews5 followers
Read
May 14, 2022
tawnydust - warrior cats navigation hub

warrior cats: favorites
(in rank order, best to worst)
1. Super Edition ⇢ bluestar's prophecy
2. OotS, #3 ⇢ night whispers
3. TNP, #5 ⇢ twilight
4. OoTS, #2 ⇢ fading echoes
5. TNP, #2 ⇢ midnight
6. Super Edition ⇢ crowfeather's trial
7. Po3, #5 ⇢ long shadows
8. Po3, #6 ⇢ sunrise

warrior cats: A tier
(in chronological order)
TPB, #3 ⇢ forest of secrets
TPB, #6 ⇢ the darkest hour
TNP, #3 ⇢ dawn
Novella ⇢ leafpool's wish
Po3, #2 ⇢ dark river
OoTS, #5 ⇢ the forgotten warrior
AVoS, #2 ⇢ thunder and shadow
++ nav

warrior cats: ok
(in chronological order)
TNP, #4 ⇢ starlight
TNP, #6 ⇢ sunset
OoTS, #1 ⇢ the fourth apprentice
Novella ⇢ dovewing's silence
Super Edition ⇢ bramblestar's storm
AVoS, #1 ⇢ the apprentice's quest


warrior cats: idc
(in chronological order)
Super Edition⇢ crookedstar's promise
TPB, #1 ⇢ into the wild (unreviewed)
TPB, #2 ⇢ fire and ice (unreviewed)
Po3⇢ hollyleaf's story
AVoS, #4 ⇢ darkest night
AVoS, #5 ⇢ river of fire
AVoS, #6 ⇢ the raging storm


warrior cats books i don't like
(in rank order, worst to best)
1. Super Edition ⇢ tigerheart's shadow
2. Super Edition⇢ squirrelflight's hope
3. Po3, #4 ⇢ eclipse
4. Po3, #1⇢ the sight
5. OoTS, #4 ⇢ sign of the moon
6. TNP, #2 ⇢ moonrise
7. Po3#3 ⇢ outcast
8. OoTS, #6 ⇢ the last hope


objectively good warrior cat books that i really don't like
TPB, #4 ⇢ rising storm
TPB, #6 ⇢ a dangerous path
AVoS, #3 ⇢ shattered sky


warrior cats: manga
winds of change
a shadow in riverclan
the rise of scourge
graystripe's adventure
Profile Image for Hannah Simpson.
125 reviews2 followers
January 14, 2022
Lots of illustrations of the characters within Warriors. 10/10 just for that.
Profile Image for Simon.
5 reviews
January 24, 2019
Extremely outdated, it doesn't cover the whole of "A vision of shadows". I mean it should at least mention Alderheart and Twigbranch.
Profile Image for Julia.
59 reviews3 followers
January 3, 2015
In reality, I would give this book a 4.7 rating...but anyways...
ONE THOUSAND TIMES THANK YOU TO THE ERIN HUNTERS FOR CREATING THIS
It is safe to say that the Warriors series has played a major role in my life, and it will always have a spot in my heart. I started reading the series when I was eleven years old, during that time I was bullied and didn't really have much friends. So I turned to history (Titanic, Anne Frank, anything World War 2 related really) and books as my friends. When I discovered Warriors, these books soon became my whole world. I wanted to know everything about the series, the characters, and I even had dreams about the series. Some kids saw me as "weird" because of my love for a series about cats, but I didn't care because I was having too much fun. I looked up to Firestar as my role model, and the books did give me hope when I started to become depressed. I do believe these books are what really got me into reading and allowed me to realize my love for nature and cats. Even though it has been years since my Warriors faze has ended, and I have moved on to other things, these books are still a part of me and every now and then I go back and reread the series that got me through so much and was there in such a major turning point in my life.
Even though I know that the Warriors series is still continuing with the kind of "prequel" series, I count the books as finished after The Last Hope came out and Firestar died. After all, the series started with Firestar and they should rightfully end with Firestar. There will be no more adventures of the cats that we have fans have come to know and love since 2004 and therefore, in my mind, the Warriors series is over and this is the last book in that series. Unless something else comes up that is absolutely mindblowing, this will probably be the last Warrior book I will be purchasing, as a finale to the series and a goodbye to the characters I pretty much grew up with.
This book was beautifully put together, the illustrations of most of the characters were on point, and even though a lot of the characters were repeated from the Cats of the Clans books, their information was updated. I am so glad that characters like Spottedleaf were included, and that Jayfeather, Lionblaze, and Hollyleaf were each given their own pictures this time around. I am also so grateful that they added how Tigerstar and Bramblestar received their nine lives, that was a really nice way to answer some of the questions left behind. Bringing Ravenpaw back just for Bramblestar's nine lives was such a great touch, and to be honest, I probably would've have bought the book just for that because I loved Ravenpaw's character so much and always wondered his fate.
My only complaint about this book is that I wish they could have added a few other cats in that I feel were pretty important to the series including Dustpelt, Whitestorm, Lionheart, Darkstripe, Longtail and Mousefur.
This is a must have for any previous or current Warriors fan, as either an addition to the ever growing series, or as a farewell to the cats that we as fans have come to love in the past ten years.
Profile Image for Emily W..
144 reviews70 followers
October 11, 2017
Ah I remember this book being announced back in my 7th grade year...I was a library aide to the school and during my freetime I got on a computer and went to the warrior website. I was excited to hear about the giveaway that they were having for it it was a special one. They were going to choose 7 lucky people to dedicate the book to and the people who won were to receive the book. I remember entering explaining why I thought I was one of the biggest fans of the warrior series. I lost, but that's alright it was fun to at least give it a try.

But anyway this field guide is very similar to the Cats of the Clan field guide. Except it gives more updated details about cats in the previous book as well as adds new cats to the book up to date with where the story arcs were at at the time.

It contains all the different maps for different locations in each arc and story of warriors.

It was a wonderful read it really fills you in on adventures to come and it fills you in on some details you might have missed.

It contains at least 2 short stories:
Letting you see how Tigerstar received his lives and how he felt about each of 9 lives representation. Like he seemed somewhat ungrateful about receiving some of these lives. And because of that it really makes you wonder if he really just lost all 9 lives because of Scourge's killing blow or if some of it was just really bad karma from his ungratefulness when receiving the lives given to him.

You also see Brambleclaw go through his 9 lives ceremony and see his thoughts as he went through it. And how he still felt grief after the battle, but knew what his new major responsibilities to his clan were. He accepted his new responsibilities which you can read more about in his Super Edition Bramblestar's Storm and AVOS arc.

But overall this is a wonderful updated field guide to really enjoy looking into.
I'd recommend it to Warrior fans, and those analysts who look further in depth of things such as characters and whatever story the character need to tell.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Good Manticore.
241 reviews6 followers
November 8, 2023
This review is of the Updated and Expanded Edition.

I'm not impressed.

1) The art is lazy. Some images are copy/pasted, recolored, and/or drawn over (Raggedstar is Graystripe with a badly drawn scar on top of his nose). Very few images match the character descriptions, and the lighting and oversaturation makes it hard to even tell what they're supposed to look like. Some of the images even appear to be AI-generated (Brightheart and Cloudtail, for one). Anatomy is a mess (Shadowsight). A real shame since the art was the reason for purchasing this new version.

2) Details are incorrect. Namely the colors of characters' coats and eyes. They are color-picked from the bad images, and so do not match. Bluestar, the first cat in the book and the cat known for her blue-gray coat and blue eyes (hence her name) is said to have white fur and green eyes. Ivypool, a gray and white tabby, is shown as having brown fur. And Dovewing, a gray cat, is shown as having GREEN fur. These are only a few examples. Nearly every cat's details are incorrect in this way.

3) It didn't fix the inconsistencies in the previous version. When thinking on incorrect information in the original version of the text, Hollyleaf's murder of Ashfur is the first thing that comes to mind. In the original, Brambleclaw's made-up excuse for what happened is listed as what actually happened. So, one would assume that they would fix it in the updated version. They did not. Brambleclaw's version of the events is still what's said here. It didn't fix past inconsistencies, and it added a few new ones.

4) It retcons characters and their personalities. Skystar. That's it. It tells us Skystar was a good guy all along, he was just misunderstood. This is objectively false.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 212 reviews

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