I loved the Warriors as a child & I've been working on rereading and reviewing them as an adult. :) series 1 was a fantastically fun trip down memory lane.
"Midnight" the 1st book of the "new prophecy" series however was not as fun as the 1st series.
It wasn't the writing. Or the adventure. The plot & writing are good. Destruction coming? A quest to save everything & everyone the cats love? Great simple basis for a great kids series. We even get a brand new cast of characters: the second generation of heroes is here. Including the children of the original cats.
Leafpaw & squirrelpaw, the daughters of the legendary hero Firestar.
Stormfur & Feathertail, the children of Greystripe, Firestar's brave sidekick.
Brambleclaw & Twanypelt, the kids of the terrible evil Tigerstar.
& for some reason, a random apprentice from windclan who seems to have no connection to anyone important.
Now, all these characters had potential.& some of them were decent. Feathertail is sweet. Stormfur is super loyal to his sister, most likely from judgement & isolation from their clan. (From what I've read in "crookedstars promise " riverclan cats can be serious bitches.) Twanypelt is strong & brave & loyal. She wants nothing more than to prove her loyalty, a standard in any warrior. But these traits are extra admirable & dominant after switching from thunderclan & having and evil father. Leafpaw is sweet & sort of naïve, but we can forgive her. She seems pretty sheltered.
These are all good characters. Not great, but good & that leaves a lot of room for development in later books.
My main issue in "midnight" was actually Squirrelpaw and brambleclaw and Crowpaw. They had so much potential, so much that could have been done with them. brambleclaw COULD have suffered bullying and distrust because of his father. He COULD have struggled with anger, bitterness, been torn between loyalty to the clan & his sister. He could have had low self esteem & been terrified that he'd turn out just like tigerstar, especially after Firestar started freaking out at him for nothing.
Nope. To make up for his dad being such a sick fucked up bad guy with no motivation beyond the boring world domination ploy, we are given an incredibly boring, WAY to perfect Marty stew. :( he's great at hunting and fighting. He's popular. He's brave & loyal. If he's ever in trouble, he's always right and his anger is always justified. He can do no wrong. AND on top of all of that everyone in the group of cats who go to the sundown place just accepts his leadership. Sure The younger ones bitch about its a little, but that's it. No one really questions it, they just go with it. You'd think Twanypelt would pitch a fit or stormfur would grumble about thunderclan trying to rule everything. No.he just gets to boss everyone around. Maybe because he's so perfect and nice? I don't know, but he's just not interesting. He's flat & boring.
Then there's squirrelpaw. >:( God do I hate her. She's such a smart ass bitch. She's rude to brambleclaw, her mentor, her father. She's supposed to come across as brave and independent. Nope. She's rude and mean and stupid. So disrespectful! (Maybe she feels entitled because her fathers the clan leader?) this alone wouldn't be so bad. If there were a reason for her behavior that is. There is absolutely no reason for her to act like that. She's terrible to everyone who cares about her. She's dumb as a brick. Like when someone tells her not to do something because it's not safe, she'll do the exact opposite just to prove a point. There's a difference between being strong willed and a totally moronic ass.
& Crowpaw..... Maybe he (& the other two) will shape up, but I doubt it. He's as bad as squirrelpaw. He's a dick for no reason. & we don't even know why. Feathertail tries to make excuses but their sad. Just cause he's lonely is no reason to be pissy at the others. Didn't his clan teach him to be respectful to warriors, even ones from other clans?
It also took forever to get going. Loads & loads of pages before they even leave, & then it drags on & on. Leaf paws point of view was better, but not by much.
It's a bad opening. (Honestly, it was not as good as I remembered. I started skimming near the end just to be done.) I think they get better as they go on, but still. The first book of a series, even a follow up series, should not be such a chore to get through. It's not awful, really, but it's not good. kids will enjoy but adult readers might be annoyed. :/ recommended for warrior fans, but get through as fast as possible to get to better books. I think the next one has another group of cats, a tribe. That'll ought to be cool, yes?