The Quest Begins

Seekers #1

by Erin Hunter

When three bears are separated from their families their lives hang in the balance. Forced to rely on their instincts and drawn to each other by extraordinary circumstances, these bears must search, not only for the food that will keep them alive, but for a safe haven in an increasingly hostile environment. Faced starvation and the ever-present danger of human intervention, Kallik, Lusa and Toklo are left with only one place to go . . .

Genres: Fantasy, Animals, Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens, Adventure, Young Adult

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 27, 2008

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Finley Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not HALF as good as it's feline cousin, Warriors (which I am a fan of to the death). Story doesn't grip me. Characters are not as well crafted, and I can't say anything about Kallik's personality, whereas with Squirrelflight I can say: Strong and hotheaded, will not let anything stand in her way.

[Icer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, despite the marketing, this is NOT 'Warrior Cats' with bears, so do not let your like/dislike one one be a guide to whether you'd like the other!

I liked the Warriors series a lot, so I thought I'd give this a go. I also wrote this review after also reading the 2nd book, so as not to pre-judge by only the opener. Well... they tried.

-'Erin Hunter' isn't a real person but a team of writers. An additional 3rd writer writes these who didn't work on Warriors... (the dog series doesn't have any of the original writers.) I think this series would have been better if it had been allowed to be more different rather than marketed as a B-grade Warriors spinoff.

-Thankfully the bears don't act like stupid teddy bears.

-Part of the beauty of the Warriors series were there were so many characters and epic conflicts and battles. It was like one of those addictive soap operas (I assume, having never been addicted to soap operas.) These elements are just missing from the Seekers series. Well, yes, focussing more on just the 4 main characters is potentially a good thing in some ways. The problem is, much of Seekers consist of what I'd call 'boring filler' in the Warriors (the parts where they went on a boring trip and got chased by a dog or stuck in a thorn bush, yawn...) There's more scope for things actually happening here, but we know the bears aren't about to die or something (unlike Warriors...) so it's not exactly suspenseful.

-Long stretches of the book sound like they'd make a great TV show or movie, where you actually see the action, but are just boring to read...

-Then there's the bears' 'religion'/superstition. This is fine when the whole thing is properly developed, (like StarClan in Warriors was actually plotted) but them just having random superstitions and believing in the wind/hallucinations doesn't really cut it for me.

The polar bear is just boring, sorry, and undergoes zero character development. I like Toklo and Lusa. They're the only part/s of the first two books that capture my interest.

I think this is targeted at a younger audience than Warriors, which is misleading, when all the marketing and covers makes them look 'the same'.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a great book
It is the perspective of three bears!
Kallik (a polar bear), Lusa (a black bear), and Toklo (a grizzly bear)
Eventually they get separated from there family's (all three of them)


Kallik- is looking for her brother(when her mom died they where separated by the ice ) she has hope and faith she will find him by following the star. she meets this kind bear who toke care of her but eventually she dies! (all three bears are following this star!)

Lusa- wants to go to the wild she is locked up in the bear bowl
she meets a mom bear who is sad and disowned her cub (moms name is Oka)
Oka is sorry for doing it she could not stand to see another cub die Lusa promised Oka she would tell Toklo her cub.

Toklo- is very mad that his mom only pays attention to Tobie, Tobie this, Tobie that he is tired of Tobie
then Tobie dies his mom cant stand to see it happen to Toklo so she lives him. Toklo meets a bear that reminds him of Tobie.
this is no ordinary cub it can turn into animals.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Warriors series is an old guilty-pleasure favorite of mine, and even though I'm probably too old for Erin Hunter, I really don't care. I was pleasantly surprised with this new series. Some of the later Warriors books get tired and repetitive, so I'm glad that other then the writing style, Seekers bears little resemblence to Warriors. (If the bears had started living in Clans and calling each other names like 'Rabbitfang', /then/ I would be worried.)

I was skeptical about how a Polar bear, Black Bear, and Grizzly would all meet and become friends, but it's been pulled off pretty well so far. I love Toklo and can easily accept Lusa and Ujurak traveling with him. The only real problem is Kallik, the polar bear. Lusa and Toklo's stories flow seamlessly into each other, but how will she come into play? I didn't like her parts of the story after a while -- too many guessing games as you see the human world through an animal's eyes.

Needless to say I will be keeping as close an eye on this series as Power of Three. I'll probably remain an Erin Hunter fangirl into high school, college and beyond.

[Lilli Gilliam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read one of the Warriors sub series and I loved it! I love the writing and the characters. I asked my mom to buy me this book because I really enjoyed Warriors: A Vision of Shadows.
I have to say I was disappointing. It is not as action packed as it's feline companion. I found myself disliking the characters and the plot, and being bored. The way Toklo thinks of his family is just horrible. And there was too much death for me. I have the second book, and plan to read eventually, but I will probably not continue on in the series.

[Margaryta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had dropped the Warrior series after the first 6 books because I found them really boring and not interesting, and thought Erin Hunter (which is actually 3-4 different people!) was really poor wannabe author that didn't succeed in capturing my attention, but when I saw Seekers the irresistable cover jumped out and me and just seemed to beg 'READ ME!!!' So, I had listened to that inner voice and picked it up. And boy was I in for a shock!

Seekers was for me about ten times better than Warriors - it had everything the warriors series lacked for me, so I immediatley continued buying the rest of the books. It still impresses me, this series, and I hope the rest of it will continue in the same style and won't make me throw the books across the room like I had done with Warriors.

Recomend it to anyone who felt strongly disappointed by the books Warriors - Seekers is a new start and will most likely win your attention over after the first book. However how long that attention will last for, we'll have to see.

[Ms. B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first in the Seekers, a series about 3 bear cubs; Kallik - a polar bear, Lusa - a black bear and Toklo - a grizzly bear who each must survive on their own. A fourth bear, Ujurak - a spirit bear of some sorts is introduced late in the story. The story ends on what I felt was a cliffhanger, so in some ways the entire story felt like it was simply setting the stage for book 2, Great Bear Lake.
If you're like me and like bears, this might be the book or series for you. Those who enjoy the nature aspect of survival stories will also want to give this one a try.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect Musical Pairing: Run, Wolf Warrior, Run by Joyce (from Wolf's Rain)
-------------------------

Reading about the awesome antics of Iorek Byrnison put me in the mood for bears (bears are awesome), and my brain needed a break from all of the emotional and intellectual heavy-lifting of His Dark Materials, so I figured I'd give Seekers a look.

I had avoided this series for a long time because I wasn't particularly impressed with Team Erin Hunter's Warriors, but in my never-ending search for good quality anthropomorphic fiction on the same level of awesomeness as good old Watership Down, my kept finding myself gravitating towards the children's fiction section in the bookstore, and this cover always caught my eye (if there's one thing Erin Hunter's books have, it's good cover art).

And now here I am at the end of this first book in a six-book series, and I gotta say, it's no Watership Down, but it's a ripping good yarn all the same. Heck, if it was the team's intention to write a "Watership Down for kids" with this story, then I say Mission Accomplished.

The best in anthropomorphic fiction portrays their characters with some, well, anthropomorphism (they have to, otherwise we'd just be reading the equivalent of a nature documentary), while the true animal natures of the characters remain intact and realistic. This is what makes anthropomorphic fiction so challenging and enjoyable. The animals here in Seekers behave (for the most part) like their real, wild counterparts (which is more than I can say for Warriors), and I greatly appreciated this surprising level of realism.

Something else that I immensely enjoyed that I guess other people were complaining about: the pacing. I was surprised (and impressed) by how the team really took their time to set up these characters and the setting, so that I was deeply getting to know these adolescent bears, and it made their struggles and their battles against the odds all the more engrossing.

I'm looking forward to the next book, and I'm also considering giving Erin Hunter a second chance. Maybe Warriors is a better series than I remember...

[Malli (Chapter Malliumpkin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erin Hunter has done it again, only this time the emotions are REAL. I can't begin to express how emotional this book was and how many times I have cried. This is only book one in the series and I'm dying to see what the rest of the series has in store. I have to say that compared to Erin Hunter's other series Warriors: The Prophecy, book on of the Seekers: The Quest Begins escalates rapidly causing the reader to rapidly read through to the end. You'll find yourself on an emotional roller-coaster ride while reading this book. This insanely powerful book is well deserved five-star rating for the emotional pulling it has on the heart and for the great length in details that paint the emotions and image in your head. Pick up a copy as soon as you get the chance. I was fortunate enough to receive this as a present from my husband and it has become one of my top favorite books thus far.

[Riley T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ehehehehe SO ridiculous. Very cleansing after a bunch of nonfiction books

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

First in a wonderful series....loved it!

[Paige Pimmel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nostalgic read. I remember reading this book on the floor of the library after school one day and was so invested I finished it that day. Still holds up. I love bears ❤️

[Jamieson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What would you do if everything you knew was taken away from you? What would you do if you were forced to survive against all odds? Three bears must do just that in Erin Hunters fantastic new novel, Seekers: The Quest Begins.

Kallik is a polar bear. Strong willed and curious, she and her brother Taqqiq are travelling with their mother Nissa across the great icy plains of the Arctic. They are trying to reach land before the ice melts so that they will be able to survive in the wild for the warmer months. Kallik longs to be strong, just like her mother.

Lusa is a black bear. She lives with her mother and father in a zoo enclosure and is curious about the world outside her cage. Her father, King, once lived in the wild but he won’t tell her anything about it. She longs to know what the wild is like, longs to experience life in the wild for herself and not feel trapped.

Toklo is a grizzly. He wanders with his mother Oka and his brother Tobi through the forest, trying to stay out of the way of other bears and humans. Toklo resents his younger brother Tobi as he is very sick. He wonders if his mother loves Tobi more than he loves him. He longs to prove to Oka that he is a real bear, a strong bear, unlike his sickly brother.

When tragedy strikes in three very different ways, Kallik, Lusa and Toklo are forced to care for themselves in the wild. More than that, the three bear cubs are being brought together to fulfill a destiny that none of them could have ever imagined possible…

Following the phenomenal success of her Warriors series, featuring clans of cats in a struggle for power, Erin Hunter changes focus and enters the realms of fantasy fiction with Seekers: The Quest Begins.

Seekers: The Quest Begins is an incredible read. I was preparing myself for the average talking animal book where the animals are cute and the conflict is resolved and we have a happy Disney like ending. Not so in Seekers: The Quest Begins. There is violence within these pages and the threats are very, very real.

This makes the story of the three bear cubs heading towards destiny all the more exciting. As a reader, we really get a feel for what it is like to be a bear, to live in the wild, to constantly have to fight for food and nourishment, to survive in a barren landscape. Hunter has done the undoable: given us an understanding of the true life of bears.

At first, I was worried that Seekers: The Quest Begins would be a cheap rip off of Brian Jacques Redwall series. Again, I was proven wrong. Those that compare the two are comparing apples and oranges. Seekers: The Quest Begins does have talking animals but the similarities end there.
Erin Hunter has actually made bears seem more human but without losing their ferocity, their wildness. She has given us three strong protagonists in Kallik, Lusa and Toklo and I found myself rooting for them, cheering for them. I didn’t expect to become attached to three bear cubs but by the end of Seekers: The Quest Begins, I feel like I know these bears.

That is the true power of Hunters writing. She presents us with animals who are somehow so human we can’t help but fall in love with them but she never lets us forget that they aren’t human, that they have worries beyond anything we could imagine. It takes a very talented writer to balance this fine edge and Hunter does this with aplomb.

Seekers: The Quest begins is a fantastic adventure that leaves me hungering for more. If you’re looking for a great read to start your summer off right, look no further; Seekers: The Quest Begins will leave you breathless.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

So... Thought I'd try out the other Erin Hunter series, 'Seekers'. Obviously it's about bears instead of cats like I'm used to reading about in 'Warriors.'

Characters - 4/5 - I thought that the characters were good, and there was a good variety of different personalities incorporated into them which made them each more interesting and unique to read about. My favourite would probably be Lusa; she seems to have this sort of humour about her, yet it's ironic considering the situations. I really enjoyed how this was portrayed. However, I still need to develop more with the characters, which I'm sure I will as the series progresses. In this first book we find out the basics about each one, but now it's all been set up, I expect the characters will grow on me in books two and beyond.

Plot - 4/5 - A slower plot than what I'm used to from Erin Hunter, so I suppose this seemed strange at first, and by the end of the book only the very basics had been set-up. Though I think because there were a lot of themes in here, the pacing gave for more thinking time rather than simply dashing through the pages. But I still feel like more could have happened and, for me, it lacked a little bit of intensity and the action that I like to see from any book that I read.

Writing - 4/5 - As I've said, it progressed in a much slower style, and I didn't feel as much intensity from it. There were definitely elements of sadness though, and that was brought across brilliantly, and a lot of the descriptions are always fun to read - just the right amount; not too much that it's overpowering, but not too little that you need to know more. The perspectives were interesting too and showed contrasts between each bear, but this had some negatives in the sense that you were sometimes waiting three chapters to actually find out what happened from the cliffhanger a few chapters before. This probably caused the slower pace, and whilst I felt like reading on to find out, maybe it was a little too long to wait and caused any intensity to come and then go soon after...

Enjoyment - 4/5 - It was an enjoyable read, but I definitely prefer Warriors. I'm not sure, I just think everything works a lot better in those books. But it's still a great, easy read, and it incorporates some great themes and personalities within the characters. Needed further development and more action at times, but I'm confident that, because it's a series, that'll all come in future books.

Overall - 4/5 - A solid rating, obviously not outstanding, but still really good. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested animals or someone who's looking for a nice, easy read that explores a lot of environmental issues. And if you read it, I hope you enjoy as much, or if not more, than I did! :)

[Lara's · Rating 5 out of 5]

Synopsis : Three young bears from different species—black, polar, and grizzly—are separated from their families when they are just young cubs. They find themselves brought together on a perilous journey. Fate is about to change all these bears lives forever, setting their paws on a path toward a future they cannot yet imagine . . .
Review : Having just learned that Erin Hunter is actually a pen name for three seperate writers makes me less jealous of the fact that they were able to not only write this fantastic story but also managed to find time to crank out the equally awesome "Warrior" series without essentially breaking a sweat. So, now that I know, it's not as envy inspiring...but, only ,i>bearly. Straight off of the top, this book is very touching and it made me teary in a few places--so little ones and sensitive readers should know to be prepared. Natural selection and tragedy are realistically, unapologetically interwoven in this remarkable story. This tale follows three bear cubs (Kallik, Toklo and Lusa--great names!) through their separate journeys as they each struggle with illness, abandonment, death and captivity. It is their individual mythical belief in the protective, gallatic, earth, water and wind bear spirits which provides strength to continue on in the face of natural heart-breaking tragedy. The balance of characterization, natural bear behavior and environmental concerns makes this a really fantastic adventure story. As mentioned, more sensitive readers will need to steel themselves against the realistic portrayal of life in the wild.
Critical Reviews : The reviews I found agreed. "Told with an interesting balance of cute anthropomorphic characterization and realistic attention to bear behaviors and the brutalities of life in the wild." -- ALA Booklist. "Hunter creates a richly sensuous world filled with cruelty, beauty, tenderness, savagery and just enough underlying legendary background to add mystery." -- Kirkus Reviews

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I liked it, but I didn't love it like I do Warriors. It probably wasn't even as good for me as Survivors. Basically it took far too long to develop any action, although the characters were cute and distinct.

I bought this as a daily deal on Kindle at some point, and actually read snippets over the course of two weeks while waiting for the bus. I finally made a solid dent in at the doctor's office today, because they were running an hour behind. Maybe the choppy reading I did corrupted my view, but I don't think so. I have to know more about what motivates this series before making a commitment.

Warriors/Survivors fans would probably still enjoy this set, even if it's not the books they've come to love. Four stars for now.

[Jenny Rose · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kallik is a polar bear. Toklo is a young Grizzly and Lusa is a black bear. There is a lot of folklore of the stars and where the spirits of the dead go woven into the story.

I found this to be a sad and depressing story. While it was interesting to view the world from the perspective of three different types of bears, experiencing so much death and abandonment made me wonder what the point was. I realize death is part of nature and animals dying is normal, but to have so many bears die in the first few chapters I found depressing.

[Frances · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book. I was familiar with the Warriors books because my daughter and her little friends LIVE for those stories. Though I liked the first cat book, Seekers was a lot more entertaining for an adult reader, and I couldn't put it down. Rich and detailed, touching and realistic while still laced through with myth and fantasy. A great read for any age.

[Kaat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leuk om terug te lezen en dingen anders te zien en meer akkoord zijn met een karakter dat ik niet snapte als kind :) 🐻‍❄️🐻🐻*zwarte beer*

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the first two or so books in this series years ago, around when they were first coming out, and loved them. I’m a big fan of bears and liked the writing style of Erin Hunter (I know that there are multiple writers that form Erin Hunter but they all seem to aim for similar writing styles), so naturally I liked it a lot, but I didn’t keep coming back to the series as new books came out.

Now that it seems like all the books that are being written for Seekers have been published (the most recent one published was back in 2016) I’m giving reading the whole series another shot.

The first time I read this I read a physical copy and this time I listened to the audiobook, which I really enjoyed. I found it to be very well voiced and I now know how to pronounce some names that I’m pretty sure I didn’t know before.

I already knew I liked this book the first time I read it and was happy to discover that it held up to reading again now that I’m older.

This series follows the Erin Hunter formula of having three protagonists (at least in the spin off series’s). We have Kallik, a polar bear cub who is separated from her brother, Taqqiq, when their mother is attacked and killed by orcas. Toklo, a grizzly bear cub who is forced to fend for himself after his sickly brother, Tobi, dies and their mother abandons him in her grief. And Lusa, a black bear cub from a zoo who sets out to find Toklo after his mother ends up at the same zoo as her and Lusa promises to go and tell Toklo that his mom regretted abandoning him.

I like how this is not just a copy and paste of Warriors but with bears, instead it works with the fact that bears are much more solitary creatures than cats, not showing the bears as living in big clans together but alone or just with their mother while they’re cubs.

There are a few bears that help our protagonists in their struggles. Kallik has a few things explained to her by some fellow polar bears, and even is taken under the wing of a mother bear that lost her cub, Nanuk, though she dies too. (Kallik doesn’t have good luck with mothers.) Lusa has her zoo bear family, who she gets advice about the wild from before she sneaks out to the zoo to set off on her journey. Toklo doesn’t get much help from others though, and in fact he ends up taking care of another cub, Ujurak. He turns out to be a shapeshifter bear with a murky past who struggles to control his powers.

The first book ends with Lusa finding Toklo, and Ujurak, after a difficult lonely journey (it ends literally right after she finds him, quite the cliffhanger), and Kallik is just as alone as she has been since her mom died, having just lost Nanuk too, so she refocuses on finding her brother.

I’m really looking forward reading the second book, which I definitely remember reading at least some of, though I don’t know if I finished it. I don’t remember how things go down between Lusa and Toklo, so it’ll be interesting to see how that pans out, and I have vague memories about Kallik’s journey, though nothing concrete. Ujurak is another thing I’m looking forward to reading about, since we really don’t know much about him yet.

[Tess (Mondi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts of slow, nothing much of anything happening in the first half and only giving you one interesting POV out of three till that point.
Kallik was rather fun to read about from the start and I easily began liking her. Lusa was terribly boring and that didn’t change till almost the end of the book. Toklo was simply dislikable, the toxic dynamic of his family killing a lot of charm he might have had and often causing me to cringe, though through his family drama, his pov does get more interesting in the second half of the book.
Generally the book is well researched, leaving you with a good representation of environment and nature, the author adapting her writing perfectly to the different bear species. The hints to climate change were brilliant and the terminology was well implemented, truly immersing you into the story. Though it did make it a bit difficult to get into the book, because some terms truly made you guess what they intend to mean, like “Firebeasts”, i certainly didn’t think cars with that name.
While the setting was good, i felt some scenes were repeated in each pov, just with the different bear. The believes the bears had also sounded too much like make belief to me, while I suppose they were supposed to be something traditional instead. My problem with them was the inconsistency between the beliefs of the different bear species. I get that each should probably have their own beliefs, but it simply felt contradicting in nature, which made it sound like a bed time story the bears just made up for the cubs, rather than actually tradition.
Worst for me was the sudden supernatural element. I just gotten proper into the story, am fully immersed and it just ruined the whole experience, because it didn’t fit.
Nothing had a supernatural nature up until maybe 65-70% of the book. The book felt like watching a wild life documentary, where the animals are capable of speech, so the supernatural was just so out of place, it didn’t seem to match the rest of the book at all. The story could have worked just as well without it and I am definitely not continuing reading the series with this part coming more into focus for the next books.
Overall it wasn’t terribly, but I was disappointed.

[mor :D · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Listen we’re not gonna talk about how long it took me to read this book okay)
Roughy a decade ago, I was gifted this series by my parents in the hopes that it would get me to read. Nightly, they’d sit down with me and get me to read a couple pages out loud to try and force me into the literacy habits that would be necessary to develop my little impressionable mind. This series single-handedly turned reading from a chore into a hobby. Without Seekers, without Tikki and Ujurak and Lisa and Kallik, I would not be the reader I am today.
I reread this as a nostalgia read because I wanted to revisit the world that engrossed me so fully. And honestly, yeah I get it. This book is written for children, so as a human being that is no longer a youth, it was nothing special. But I g e t it. I would keep reading the series because I am intrigued, and the world and characters are well done. When I read it back then, this would have found itself an easy 5 stars. I cannot give it that now, but I can honour my love for it with 4 instead.
I do not think I’m ever going to donate these books. I do not expect every child to love them as much as I did, but for all of the children I will share these with, I hope some part of them can connect to these bears just as little me did.
With time, I’ll let myself reread the other 5 books. But for now, I’ll appreciate the pieces of my heart that were bandaged with the nostalgia this read gave me.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a good book for those who like to waste their time and waste knowledge. I honestly did not like this book so I give it 2 stars because the characters were too similar. They all went through the same thing and not much variety between all of them. Also, the story was too complicated to understand because each chapter has to do with only one of the characters and it is just confusing. This book is a bad book. I advise you not to read it unless you like to waste your time.

[Colin King · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up on this book, do not count for reading goal Mrs Jackson's english.

[Ashlie Chatagnier · Rating 5 out of 5]

More for a young reader, 10-15 but the whole series is about nature and the struggles of animals living around us from their perspective and I enjoyed it

[geographyRyan YT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good.
It could be better (includes shape shifting and a tiny bit of magic), but other than that it is a wonderful book.

[Quimby Scotton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was very interesting along with all of the different species of bears.

[Joel Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love this book

[JD DeLeon · Rating 3 out of 5]

These bears are starving.

[Emma Seeger-Bonner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good good