What do you think?
Rate this book
Shifting Roots
Caught between barren wastes and the expansive ocean, the four Alliance colonies have had to fight tooth and claw to defend their lush territory from scavengers and rogue mages for generations. By holding fast to their traditions, these brave and noble cats have created a fragile peace for themselves that is uprooted when two rangers from Marsh Colony are found dead under mysterious circumstances.
The entire Alliance is shaken--especially Spottedshadow, a Mentor from Field Colony, and Dawnfrost, an Envoy poised to take leadership of Oak Colony. These two young mollies are determined to discover who, or what, killed the rangers, and stop it before it can kill again. Together with friends and allies from across the territory, they will embark on a mission to save their homes and lives from a danger none of them could have imagined.
However, not all threats lurk outside the Alliance, and facing this foe will force all the colonies to tear out the roots of their own prejudices and beliefs.
Content Warnings Include: Ableism, Abuse, Animal Injury and Death, Anxiety and Depression, Chronic/Terminal Illness, Harassment and Bullying, Murder, Religious/Cult Indoctrination, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence, and Xenophobia
The entire Alliance is shaken--especially Spottedshadow, a Mentor from Field Colony, and Dawnfrost, an Envoy poised to take leadership of Oak Colony. These two young mollies are determined to discover who, or what, killed the rangers, and stop it before it can kill again. Together with friends and allies from across the territory, they will embark on a mission to save their homes and lives from a danger none of them could have imagined.
However, not all threats lurk outside the Alliance, and facing this foe will force all the colonies to tear out the roots of their own prejudices and beliefs.
Content Warnings Include: Ableism, Abuse, Animal Injury and Death, Anxiety and Depression, Chronic/Terminal Illness, Harassment and Bullying, Murder, Religious/Cult Indoctrination, Suicidal Thoughts, Violence, and Xenophobia
- GenresFantasy
294 pages, Paperback
Published December 23, 2024
49 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 6, 2025
First of all, technical issues that can and should be fixed: the ebook file is a mess. There are lovely hand-drawn icons for each Colony, but the image files are broken, showing up either as black squares or black blocks with cat/flower outlines buried somewhere in the middle. The cover image for the book itself just isn't there: my ebook cover is a placeholder tan page with, I presume, some kind of ISBN or identification number. Spacing for text and images is weird, often splitting images between pages or leaving too much white space in the middle of paragraphs. The file also does not have proper navigation for chapters in general. My table of contents pulls up on my ereader as: the entire story (with no individual chapters listed), the epilogue, and the bonus short.
Most annoyingly, the footer text is completely broken and pops up at random on various pages- I'll be reading a heated conversation between two characters only for it to to be interrupted midline by THE ALLIANCE SAGA- CLOUDED MOON #1 SHIFTING ROOTS. This happened enough times at the beginning that I almost stopped reading before I had finished the first chapter. These issues do not kill the book, but they make it harder to read than it should be. They should be fixed ASAP.
Next, my thoughts on the story: I really wish this book gave itself more time to breathe, with more space to draw me into its world and characters. Sometimes I feel like I'm reading an outline of a book rather than a final draft, as the pace is brutally fast and never lets up even where I desperately wanted to linger. Seven cats set out to go on a harrowing journey outside their known world... and in the very next chapter, the narrative has jumped two weeks forward to them meeting other cats, and they were attacked by coyotes off-screen. Hey, I wanted to see that! Don't deprive me of a good coyote fight!
Likewise, there's a lot of backstory for our main cast that is dumped in as floaty exposition, from Spottedshadow's spots to Wolfthorn's journey outside the territory to Dawnfrost's bond with Redleaf and estrangement from her dad, who dies off-screen and is quickly swept away before the main plot kicks in. The concepts behind these characters are interesting, which makes me sad that I didn't get to experience them as fully-fleshed out story beats. Instead, we start smack in the middle, with characters who are firmly established in their worldview and have already undergone huge emotional arcs... off-screen. I don't believe in the relationships and romances between these characters, because as a reader I didn't "see" them happen. I think the character who suffers most from this is Goldenpelt, who I was hoping to see more complexity and intrigue from. There's just nothing in the text to make me believe in Goldenpelt as a charismatic guy with real leadership potential, because we start the book with him as a jealous, bullying suck-up who gets into physical fights with his peers over minor misunderstandings. I have no idea why anyone would want to follow him as captain.
Adding to this feeling of reading a draft is the fact that character descriptions are scant, scattered, and often confusing. I still don't know what a "cream and orange calico" is (calico cats are orange and black with high white spotting), or why some characters are described as "half-masked". Spottedshadow is a slender black cat with white spots and green eyes... but I don't really *know* what she looks like in my mind's eye. The way I've described her here in this review is about as much detail as we get in the book proper. Yes, I know what cats look like, and there is cast art floating around on the website, but this is a book! Paint me a beautiful word picture! Make me understand why Spottedshadow's spots are unusual without expositing for three paragraphs about how everyone used to think she was cursed!
This general fuzziness on what characters look like is compounded by the way that many characters have similar names (there are at least *five* cats with ice-themed names) and the POVs are constantly jumping around. An omniscient POV feels like a good choice for a book with so many characters... but at the same time, I don't care about the thoughts of Shrewpelt or Leafstorm when the main characters aren't getting enough time to shine. I'd have a better chance of keeping up with things if the POVs were restricted to the major players like Spottedshadow, Dawnfrost, Wildfur, etc.
The overstuffed cast also means that there is a lot of repetition of concepts, from two mentor-type characters who have mangled legs to a fight scene where three cats die in the exact same way and leave political vacuums that are more or less identical in terms of their effect on the plot. I get that the intention here is to build a rich world full of interesting characters, but there are so dang many of them cluttering up the story that I find it hard to build attachments to anyone. It felt especially bad that many characters get a little chunk of backstory or an interesting thought and then die unceremoniously in the very next scene. Either take the time to build those things in more organically from the start, or cut them, please! I'm going to be wondering why Hazelfur even liked Forestleaf forever now!
In general, I feel like I just need *more* from this book: more time covered in the plot, more breathing room and descriptive writing, more scenes where we really get to fall in love with the cast and world before having the rug ripped out from under our feet and earth-shaking lore revelations. Another book covering the backstory of these characters (*especially* the romances, which are paper-flimsy and boring) in detail, showing how they actually got to their positions in Shifting Roots would have been much appreciated.
Finally, the elephant in the room: does this book have anything to offer that the average Warriors book doesn't? Does it bring anything unique to the xenofiction genre as a whole?
Honestly... no, which is a real shame. Warriors influence is all over this book, from the colony structure, with its leader, second-in-command, and healer roles, to the two-part naming system and kitten-to-apprentice-to-warrior-to-elder life cycle. Changing the jargon without actually changing the structure of the society makes Shifting Roots feel even more like a cheap knockoff, and some of the new phrases are distractingly clunky ("new-claw" just does not feel as good to read as "apprentice"). There are jobs for cats to do outside of warrior-ing, and the concept of magic is introduced as a major deviation, but these feel more like responses to the typical Warriors clan setup rather than completely original ideas. It only serves to weaken Shifting Roots and make it feel like fanfiction than its own thing. Real-life feral cats do sometimes organize into colony structures, with unique social roles that I have yet to see in a cat-centric story. Why not start with that, instead of going off of Warriors' hyper-nationalist kitty soldiers who are constantly warring and making policy and marrying their own cousins?
The biggest issue with this book, in my opinion, is that there seems to be very little consideration given to the fact that the characters *are* cats. This is an issue plaguing late-series Warriors books, but feels even more jarring and strange when Shifting Roots is the first book introducing us to what is supposed to be a fresh and new xenofiction saga. If you are writing from an animal's POV, I would like to get a sense of why it is important to the story for that animal to be a cat, vs a dog or a horse or a bat or a mouse or... I don't know, a centipede. The cats in this story purr, and meow, and hunt squeaky little animals for food, but they also talk politics and use magic and suture wounds and train to fight. They have human thoughts and human laws and human customs, with minimal thought given to what would make these things feel more.... well, "catty", for lack of a better word. I can't tell you how much I disliked having to sit through a bunch of cats discussing the concept of necromancy.
I'm getting bored of comparing this book to Warriors, which I do not consider to be a well-written series, so let's look at an example from a classic cat xenofiction book, Tailchaser's Song. This is the opening of its first chapter:
"The Hour of Unfolding Dark had begun, and the rooftop where Tailchaser lay was smothered in shadow.
He was deep in a dream of leaping and flying when he felt an unusual tingling in his whiskers. Fritti Tailchaser, hunterchild of the Folk, came suddenly awake and sniffed the air. Ears pricked and whiskers flared straight, he sifted the evening breeze. Nothing unusual. Then what had awakened him? Pondering, he splayed his claws and began a spine-limbering stretch that finally ended at the tip of his reddish tail."
Here's the opener for Shifting Roots:
"Summer announced its arrival with a gentle breath of dry air. The abundant season of warmth was on its way to Alliance Lake, the Green Moon finally full on the horizon. When it reached its zenith in the sky that night, the Moonlight Meeting would bring all the colonies together upon Moonlight Island to celebrate days of easy hunting and lazy nights spent under the stars.
...
Dawnfrost was not given to such things as omens or signs–she left that business to Thornheart–but even she would admit to being in brighter spirits than usual. Ever the early-riser, spring often meant returning from her duties with dew soaking her paws. Now the leaf litter beneath her feet was crisp and dry as she led her group along the highlands of Oak Colony’s territory. The sunlight touched the Scrub Oak Terrace before it reached the more densely wooded areas in the lowlands, and Dawnfrost could already hear the chorus of songbirds rising from their nests to greet the morning."
Tailchaser's Song throws us right into Fritti's head, into the mind of a sleeping cat with razor-sharp senses and dreams of pouncing and play. He transitions easily from sleep to wakefulness, his priorities are immediate and led by what his ears and nose can tell him. From his thoughts, you know that he is not only Fritti Tailchaser, but a "hunterchild", a silly little moniker that is nevertheless so important to him that it is stated right after his own name. In two paragraphs, you understand that Fritti is a proud hunter whose thoughts are simple and direct, and that he is more attuned to the world around him than a normal human might be. 10/10 catty-ness.
Shifting Roots places us in the mind of a person with a job (and paws, I guess). Her thoughts are human thoughts, her priorities human priorities. We have a bunch of locations thrown at us, and another character's name, but I don't get a strong idea of who Dawnfrost is, what she looks like, or even what species she is. There's a real absence of catty-ness to the way Dawnfrost walks and thinks and talks. Her first action in the story is conducting a final exam so two students can graduate and start their lives as adults... with jobs. Not exactly a riveting activity for cats to do, and a pretty hard sell unless the reader is coming to this book having already read 40+ Warriors books and is used to the idea of kitties with career ambitions.
This might seem like an overly pedantic sidenote, but beginnings are important. In xenofiction, the author is constantly fighting a battle to trick the reader into believing they are reading about an animal, rather than a person wearing a fuzzy disguise. I'm a little baffled that Shifting Roots doesn't even seem to try. This story would look and feel more or less the same if it followed four groups of humans living in the wilderness practicing primitive medicine and worshiping their ancestors and fighting giant bears... and honestly, I might cut it more slack if it was. But they are cats, so I have to judge them as cats, and these are some really un-catty cats.
I'm not quite finished with the book, but I can't forsee the issues I have here being resolved before I'm done with the story. These are deep, structural problems that would require a full rewrite-maybe multiple rewrites- to properly address. I don't hate this book (I would not waste time writing such a long review if I did), but I would like it to be better. There's obviously a lot of time and love invested in this story, but it still needs serious work if it wants to stand on its own two feet as a separate entity from the Warriors series.
Most annoyingly, the footer text is completely broken and pops up at random on various pages- I'll be reading a heated conversation between two characters only for it to to be interrupted midline by THE ALLIANCE SAGA- CLOUDED MOON #1 SHIFTING ROOTS. This happened enough times at the beginning that I almost stopped reading before I had finished the first chapter. These issues do not kill the book, but they make it harder to read than it should be. They should be fixed ASAP.
Next, my thoughts on the story: I really wish this book gave itself more time to breathe, with more space to draw me into its world and characters. Sometimes I feel like I'm reading an outline of a book rather than a final draft, as the pace is brutally fast and never lets up even where I desperately wanted to linger. Seven cats set out to go on a harrowing journey outside their known world... and in the very next chapter, the narrative has jumped two weeks forward to them meeting other cats, and they were attacked by coyotes off-screen. Hey, I wanted to see that! Don't deprive me of a good coyote fight!
Likewise, there's a lot of backstory for our main cast that is dumped in as floaty exposition, from Spottedshadow's spots to Wolfthorn's journey outside the territory to Dawnfrost's bond with Redleaf and estrangement from her dad, who dies off-screen and is quickly swept away before the main plot kicks in. The concepts behind these characters are interesting, which makes me sad that I didn't get to experience them as fully-fleshed out story beats. Instead, we start smack in the middle, with characters who are firmly established in their worldview and have already undergone huge emotional arcs... off-screen. I don't believe in the relationships and romances between these characters, because as a reader I didn't "see" them happen. I think the character who suffers most from this is Goldenpelt, who I was hoping to see more complexity and intrigue from. There's just nothing in the text to make me believe in Goldenpelt as a charismatic guy with real leadership potential, because we start the book with him as a jealous, bullying suck-up who gets into physical fights with his peers over minor misunderstandings. I have no idea why anyone would want to follow him as captain.
Adding to this feeling of reading a draft is the fact that character descriptions are scant, scattered, and often confusing. I still don't know what a "cream and orange calico" is (calico cats are orange and black with high white spotting), or why some characters are described as "half-masked". Spottedshadow is a slender black cat with white spots and green eyes... but I don't really *know* what she looks like in my mind's eye. The way I've described her here in this review is about as much detail as we get in the book proper. Yes, I know what cats look like, and there is cast art floating around on the website, but this is a book! Paint me a beautiful word picture! Make me understand why Spottedshadow's spots are unusual without expositing for three paragraphs about how everyone used to think she was cursed!
This general fuzziness on what characters look like is compounded by the way that many characters have similar names (there are at least *five* cats with ice-themed names) and the POVs are constantly jumping around. An omniscient POV feels like a good choice for a book with so many characters... but at the same time, I don't care about the thoughts of Shrewpelt or Leafstorm when the main characters aren't getting enough time to shine. I'd have a better chance of keeping up with things if the POVs were restricted to the major players like Spottedshadow, Dawnfrost, Wildfur, etc.
The overstuffed cast also means that there is a lot of repetition of concepts, from two mentor-type characters who have mangled legs to a fight scene where three cats die in the exact same way and leave political vacuums that are more or less identical in terms of their effect on the plot. I get that the intention here is to build a rich world full of interesting characters, but there are so dang many of them cluttering up the story that I find it hard to build attachments to anyone. It felt especially bad that many characters get a little chunk of backstory or an interesting thought and then die unceremoniously in the very next scene. Either take the time to build those things in more organically from the start, or cut them, please! I'm going to be wondering why Hazelfur even liked Forestleaf forever now!
In general, I feel like I just need *more* from this book: more time covered in the plot, more breathing room and descriptive writing, more scenes where we really get to fall in love with the cast and world before having the rug ripped out from under our feet and earth-shaking lore revelations. Another book covering the backstory of these characters (*especially* the romances, which are paper-flimsy and boring) in detail, showing how they actually got to their positions in Shifting Roots would have been much appreciated.
Finally, the elephant in the room: does this book have anything to offer that the average Warriors book doesn't? Does it bring anything unique to the xenofiction genre as a whole?
Honestly... no, which is a real shame. Warriors influence is all over this book, from the colony structure, with its leader, second-in-command, and healer roles, to the two-part naming system and kitten-to-apprentice-to-warrior-to-elder life cycle. Changing the jargon without actually changing the structure of the society makes Shifting Roots feel even more like a cheap knockoff, and some of the new phrases are distractingly clunky ("new-claw" just does not feel as good to read as "apprentice"). There are jobs for cats to do outside of warrior-ing, and the concept of magic is introduced as a major deviation, but these feel more like responses to the typical Warriors clan setup rather than completely original ideas. It only serves to weaken Shifting Roots and make it feel like fanfiction than its own thing. Real-life feral cats do sometimes organize into colony structures, with unique social roles that I have yet to see in a cat-centric story. Why not start with that, instead of going off of Warriors' hyper-nationalist kitty soldiers who are constantly warring and making policy and marrying their own cousins?
The biggest issue with this book, in my opinion, is that there seems to be very little consideration given to the fact that the characters *are* cats. This is an issue plaguing late-series Warriors books, but feels even more jarring and strange when Shifting Roots is the first book introducing us to what is supposed to be a fresh and new xenofiction saga. If you are writing from an animal's POV, I would like to get a sense of why it is important to the story for that animal to be a cat, vs a dog or a horse or a bat or a mouse or... I don't know, a centipede. The cats in this story purr, and meow, and hunt squeaky little animals for food, but they also talk politics and use magic and suture wounds and train to fight. They have human thoughts and human laws and human customs, with minimal thought given to what would make these things feel more.... well, "catty", for lack of a better word. I can't tell you how much I disliked having to sit through a bunch of cats discussing the concept of necromancy.
I'm getting bored of comparing this book to Warriors, which I do not consider to be a well-written series, so let's look at an example from a classic cat xenofiction book, Tailchaser's Song. This is the opening of its first chapter:
"The Hour of Unfolding Dark had begun, and the rooftop where Tailchaser lay was smothered in shadow.
He was deep in a dream of leaping and flying when he felt an unusual tingling in his whiskers. Fritti Tailchaser, hunterchild of the Folk, came suddenly awake and sniffed the air. Ears pricked and whiskers flared straight, he sifted the evening breeze. Nothing unusual. Then what had awakened him? Pondering, he splayed his claws and began a spine-limbering stretch that finally ended at the tip of his reddish tail."
Here's the opener for Shifting Roots:
"Summer announced its arrival with a gentle breath of dry air. The abundant season of warmth was on its way to Alliance Lake, the Green Moon finally full on the horizon. When it reached its zenith in the sky that night, the Moonlight Meeting would bring all the colonies together upon Moonlight Island to celebrate days of easy hunting and lazy nights spent under the stars.
...
Dawnfrost was not given to such things as omens or signs–she left that business to Thornheart–but even she would admit to being in brighter spirits than usual. Ever the early-riser, spring often meant returning from her duties with dew soaking her paws. Now the leaf litter beneath her feet was crisp and dry as she led her group along the highlands of Oak Colony’s territory. The sunlight touched the Scrub Oak Terrace before it reached the more densely wooded areas in the lowlands, and Dawnfrost could already hear the chorus of songbirds rising from their nests to greet the morning."
Tailchaser's Song throws us right into Fritti's head, into the mind of a sleeping cat with razor-sharp senses and dreams of pouncing and play. He transitions easily from sleep to wakefulness, his priorities are immediate and led by what his ears and nose can tell him. From his thoughts, you know that he is not only Fritti Tailchaser, but a "hunterchild", a silly little moniker that is nevertheless so important to him that it is stated right after his own name. In two paragraphs, you understand that Fritti is a proud hunter whose thoughts are simple and direct, and that he is more attuned to the world around him than a normal human might be. 10/10 catty-ness.
Shifting Roots places us in the mind of a person with a job (and paws, I guess). Her thoughts are human thoughts, her priorities human priorities. We have a bunch of locations thrown at us, and another character's name, but I don't get a strong idea of who Dawnfrost is, what she looks like, or even what species she is. There's a real absence of catty-ness to the way Dawnfrost walks and thinks and talks. Her first action in the story is conducting a final exam so two students can graduate and start their lives as adults... with jobs. Not exactly a riveting activity for cats to do, and a pretty hard sell unless the reader is coming to this book having already read 40+ Warriors books and is used to the idea of kitties with career ambitions.
This might seem like an overly pedantic sidenote, but beginnings are important. In xenofiction, the author is constantly fighting a battle to trick the reader into believing they are reading about an animal, rather than a person wearing a fuzzy disguise. I'm a little baffled that Shifting Roots doesn't even seem to try. This story would look and feel more or less the same if it followed four groups of humans living in the wilderness practicing primitive medicine and worshiping their ancestors and fighting giant bears... and honestly, I might cut it more slack if it was. But they are cats, so I have to judge them as cats, and these are some really un-catty cats.
I'm not quite finished with the book, but I can't forsee the issues I have here being resolved before I'm done with the story. These are deep, structural problems that would require a full rewrite-maybe multiple rewrites- to properly address. I don't hate this book (I would not waste time writing such a long review if I did), but I would like it to be better. There's obviously a lot of time and love invested in this story, but it still needs serious work if it wants to stand on its own two feet as a separate entity from the Warriors series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2025
My rating with partial stars would still be 4.
I've been awaiting this book since it was announced, having followed The Alliance Saga since before it made the shift from fan project to original IP. Perhaps I'm biased in its favor, then; I've already watched the introductory videos and read the extra character moments many times, so I can conjure a lot of the characters in my mind's eye, and I know what their deal is even if it's not revealed in the pages of this book. I have some constructive criticisms, but overall I found this to be a very enjoyable read.
I don't share the sentiment some others have taken away that this is just find-and-replace Warriors. You can see the parts where the story wears its influences on its sleeve, and parts where they couldn't change that much without compromising existing animation. But whereas the original incarnation was Vanilla+ Warriors, to borrow Minecraft terminology, I find that the shift to an original world lets the environments, characters, and cultural systems breathe far more freely. The addition of magic especially shifts this into its own realm, and I'm glad this version of the story was able to be told with that in mind. If we have to do derivative comparisons to other xenofiction, I'd say this holds up alongside Wings of Fire more than anything else I've read.
One of my main critiques is that the character descriptions could've used more vividness. I have the benefit of encyclopedia brain that easily internalizes large casts of characters, but for people who are getting into the series starting with the book, it would be really helpful to have brief descriptions in the allegiances and to have more visual indicators on-page. (I get that the collapsed allegiances made formatting the illustrations easier, but this could probably be balanced!) The existing epithets do some lifting, but I found it difficult to visualize some characters whose illustrations hadn't been revealed, so I can empathize with the experience of people who haven't seen the character lineups full stop. It also might help to have a disclaimer at the front of the book that it's a part of an expanded universe with necessary side material and where to find it, if that's the play you're going with!
My other big thing is that I would've been forgiving of a longer book to get some screentime for important scenes! For example, I would've loved to see the coyote attack play out in real time. I'm of two minds on this one, because I did really like the creative order of events as to how the traveling group arrived to the Followers! But I caught the parallel between the coyote attack and the way Spottedshadow lost her mother, and that parallel could've been expanded upon had we seen it happen. I don't know how I would arrange events with this in mind, granted, but it is a repeated criticism that I feel actually holds water. More page time would also allow the POVs more room to breathe - and I enjoy Avalon's writing enough that I'd read a book twice as thick if that's what the story needed!
On the topic of POVs, I think with such a monumental cast, third person omniscient was absolutely the way to go. Some character insights felt a little off-topic, but it helps us understand what some of the side or background characters have going on that they wouldn't voice more than we could if we were locked in third person limited.
I also like that characters are allowed to be complicated. We may have protagonists and side characters to root for, but they're hardly perfect people. Main characters lie and make dubious decisions; antagonists have beating hearts underlying their horrible actions. Particularly juicy offerings on each side are that Spottedshadow seems to be making decisions as Captain that we're not supposed to fully agree with, and that Rainfall, for all her rancid behavior, is also the scared puppet of her even more detestable father.
I respect that no character is too sacred to be offed or harmed, too. There's a LOT of character death in this book, and it makes circumstances that could cause the death of major players all the more tense, because the Star Cat Studios team has shown that they're not shy about it. Peachblossom is, of course, a notable and heartbreaking death, but I found my most tearful moment to be Elmtail's family wishing him farewell.
Out of the characters and their relationships, I think my favorite single character is Wolfthorn, and my favorite bond is between Wildfur and Pool. I love a witty, wandering character with a sad backstory and a cool façade, and Wildfur and Pool are just the sweetest mentor-mentee friendship I've ever seen. I like that Pool plays a notable role in bringing Wildfur out of his shell, even if the latter does ultimately end up leaving the colony.
I could probably find little things I love about this book for days, and I have to wrap up this review at some point! I'll just say that this book definitely kept me on my toes and tugged on my heartstrings, and that the epilogue has me scared and excited for Shaded River!!
I've been awaiting this book since it was announced, having followed The Alliance Saga since before it made the shift from fan project to original IP. Perhaps I'm biased in its favor, then; I've already watched the introductory videos and read the extra character moments many times, so I can conjure a lot of the characters in my mind's eye, and I know what their deal is even if it's not revealed in the pages of this book. I have some constructive criticisms, but overall I found this to be a very enjoyable read.
I don't share the sentiment some others have taken away that this is just find-and-replace Warriors. You can see the parts where the story wears its influences on its sleeve, and parts where they couldn't change that much without compromising existing animation. But whereas the original incarnation was Vanilla+ Warriors, to borrow Minecraft terminology, I find that the shift to an original world lets the environments, characters, and cultural systems breathe far more freely. The addition of magic especially shifts this into its own realm, and I'm glad this version of the story was able to be told with that in mind. If we have to do derivative comparisons to other xenofiction, I'd say this holds up alongside Wings of Fire more than anything else I've read.
One of my main critiques is that the character descriptions could've used more vividness. I have the benefit of encyclopedia brain that easily internalizes large casts of characters, but for people who are getting into the series starting with the book, it would be really helpful to have brief descriptions in the allegiances and to have more visual indicators on-page. (I get that the collapsed allegiances made formatting the illustrations easier, but this could probably be balanced!) The existing epithets do some lifting, but I found it difficult to visualize some characters whose illustrations hadn't been revealed, so I can empathize with the experience of people who haven't seen the character lineups full stop. It also might help to have a disclaimer at the front of the book that it's a part of an expanded universe with necessary side material and where to find it, if that's the play you're going with!
My other big thing is that I would've been forgiving of a longer book to get some screentime for important scenes! For example, I would've loved to see the coyote attack play out in real time. I'm of two minds on this one, because I did really like the creative order of events as to how the traveling group arrived to the Followers! But I caught the parallel between the coyote attack and the way Spottedshadow lost her mother, and that parallel could've been expanded upon had we seen it happen. I don't know how I would arrange events with this in mind, granted, but it is a repeated criticism that I feel actually holds water. More page time would also allow the POVs more room to breathe - and I enjoy Avalon's writing enough that I'd read a book twice as thick if that's what the story needed!
On the topic of POVs, I think with such a monumental cast, third person omniscient was absolutely the way to go. Some character insights felt a little off-topic, but it helps us understand what some of the side or background characters have going on that they wouldn't voice more than we could if we were locked in third person limited.
I also like that characters are allowed to be complicated. We may have protagonists and side characters to root for, but they're hardly perfect people. Main characters lie and make dubious decisions; antagonists have beating hearts underlying their horrible actions. Particularly juicy offerings on each side are that Spottedshadow seems to be making decisions as Captain that we're not supposed to fully agree with, and that Rainfall, for all her rancid behavior, is also the scared puppet of her even more detestable father.
I respect that no character is too sacred to be offed or harmed, too. There's a LOT of character death in this book, and it makes circumstances that could cause the death of major players all the more tense, because the Star Cat Studios team has shown that they're not shy about it. Peachblossom is, of course, a notable and heartbreaking death, but I found my most tearful moment to be Elmtail's family wishing him farewell.
Out of the characters and their relationships, I think my favorite single character is Wolfthorn, and my favorite bond is between Wildfur and Pool. I love a witty, wandering character with a sad backstory and a cool façade, and Wildfur and Pool are just the sweetest mentor-mentee friendship I've ever seen. I like that Pool plays a notable role in bringing Wildfur out of his shell, even if the latter does ultimately end up leaving the colony.
I could probably find little things I love about this book for days, and I have to wrap up this review at some point! I'll just say that this book definitely kept me on my toes and tugged on my heartstrings, and that the epilogue has me scared and excited for Shaded River!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 6, 2025
it wasn't even good warriors fanfiction
February 9, 2025
Personally if I could I would rate this more along the line of 3.5 stars but I digress.
Main Compliments:
1. Scratches that same itch as warrior cats
2. Most of the characters, including background characters have personalities
3. Some of the character moments are really intriguing and makes you want to read on
4. Lots of diversity that relates to the human world
Main critiques:
1. Too much squeezed into one book: characters, plots, world system, povs.
2. Use of third person omniscient is done too fast paced and quickly. Switching povs multiple times in one chapter has occurred and confused me.
3. Too fast paced with little room to truly breathe and understand what’s happening
4. Too much tell, not enough show
5. Too much reliance on knowledge from outside sources
Detailed Review:
First for anyone not aware this book is based off of a warrior cat’s roleplay from a group of friends. At some point during development of an animated web series they decided to move away from the warriors IP. A lot of the original concept was based on these concepts and a basic understanding of the background of the characters from supplemental materials they have posted to YouTube/tumblr/patreon. One problem I have is they have stated that the novelization is but a part of the whole story/world. That to get a better understanding you would need to pay for the patreon or follow the YouTube videos. This is fine for an internet hobby and to enjoy the media while scrolling. But I don’t think it works well as a good introduction to a novel series. The book has a lot of work to do to fully introduce someone to a new world and system that is apart from the warriors universe. I felt like a needed an introduction to world itself before we moved to the plot, while this isn’t necessarily ideal for every novel it is helpful with sci-fi books where the world is very different from the human world and we have something to reference as how the world works.
The use of terms like mages and magic are fine but they are not well defined in this world. And while that is a plot point, I feel like that should have been defined better in a different book where we focus on how magic works in this world. Also define what animals are actually living in this world, are cats like humans in ours? That they are the higher beings with civilization and all other animals are not? As in warrior cats it is clear that these are feral cats in your neighborhood woods (at least in the first series).
For the use of third person omniscient, I don’t think it’s used the best in this book. There were several chapters where the pov would change without a format change and I would be confused as to who we were following. I’m not saying that this type of writing was a wrong choice but possibly using one pov per chapter would have been helpful so that way I could follow whose insights we were following. A good book from another indie writer that uses this well (and also good intro to a new world) is Amygdala from the August Few series. In that book I never was confused as to who we were following and there were many characters as well.
Also the one big thing that threw me off was we went from The Chosen chapter to Those that Follow the Wind chapter and completely skipped over the journey. While traveling books are a big taboo in warrior cats, the fact that this was skipped and the characters kept calling back to events that happened during the journey was infuriating. I wanted to see the characters get close during the travel not just say “oh yes I am more open to wildfur since traveling together.”
Once the group actually found the gust and finally got to have character moments together it was good.
I also agree that the characters becoming leaders (besides one for the most part) was too sudden. I don’t really believe based on previous character moments that it deserved or made sense.
Anyway overall I did like reading the book and do think it was better than more recent warriors books. However, I think this could be better if given a couple more passes.
Main Compliments:
1. Scratches that same itch as warrior cats
2. Most of the characters, including background characters have personalities
3. Some of the character moments are really intriguing and makes you want to read on
4. Lots of diversity that relates to the human world
Main critiques:
1. Too much squeezed into one book: characters, plots, world system, povs.
2. Use of third person omniscient is done too fast paced and quickly. Switching povs multiple times in one chapter has occurred and confused me.
3. Too fast paced with little room to truly breathe and understand what’s happening
4. Too much tell, not enough show
5. Too much reliance on knowledge from outside sources
Detailed Review:
First for anyone not aware this book is based off of a warrior cat’s roleplay from a group of friends. At some point during development of an animated web series they decided to move away from the warriors IP. A lot of the original concept was based on these concepts and a basic understanding of the background of the characters from supplemental materials they have posted to YouTube/tumblr/patreon. One problem I have is they have stated that the novelization is but a part of the whole story/world. That to get a better understanding you would need to pay for the patreon or follow the YouTube videos. This is fine for an internet hobby and to enjoy the media while scrolling. But I don’t think it works well as a good introduction to a novel series. The book has a lot of work to do to fully introduce someone to a new world and system that is apart from the warriors universe. I felt like a needed an introduction to world itself before we moved to the plot, while this isn’t necessarily ideal for every novel it is helpful with sci-fi books where the world is very different from the human world and we have something to reference as how the world works.
The use of terms like mages and magic are fine but they are not well defined in this world. And while that is a plot point, I feel like that should have been defined better in a different book where we focus on how magic works in this world. Also define what animals are actually living in this world, are cats like humans in ours? That they are the higher beings with civilization and all other animals are not? As in warrior cats it is clear that these are feral cats in your neighborhood woods (at least in the first series).
For the use of third person omniscient, I don’t think it’s used the best in this book. There were several chapters where the pov would change without a format change and I would be confused as to who we were following. I’m not saying that this type of writing was a wrong choice but possibly using one pov per chapter would have been helpful so that way I could follow whose insights we were following. A good book from another indie writer that uses this well (and also good intro to a new world) is Amygdala from the August Few series. In that book I never was confused as to who we were following and there were many characters as well.
Also the one big thing that threw me off was we went from The Chosen chapter to Those that Follow the Wind chapter and completely skipped over the journey. While traveling books are a big taboo in warrior cats, the fact that this was skipped and the characters kept calling back to events that happened during the journey was infuriating. I wanted to see the characters get close during the travel not just say “oh yes I am more open to wildfur since traveling together.”
Once the group actually found the gust and finally got to have character moments together it was good.
I also agree that the characters becoming leaders (besides one for the most part) was too sudden. I don’t really believe based on previous character moments that it deserved or made sense.
Anyway overall I did like reading the book and do think it was better than more recent warriors books. However, I think this could be better if given a couple more passes.
January 17, 2025
It's pretty good.
If you are reading the ebook on a phone, the layout is a little wonky, but that has nothing to do with the book itself.
I can't wait for more.
If any parents have kids obsessed with warrior cats. Get them this. It's basically warrior cat fan fiction and I mean that in the best way.
If you are reading the ebook on a phone, the layout is a little wonky, but that has nothing to do with the book itself.
I can't wait for more.
If any parents have kids obsessed with warrior cats. Get them this. It's basically warrior cat fan fiction and I mean that in the best way.
February 19, 2025
I have been looking forward to reading this book for a long time. I have been a big fan of all of the character videos that have been released for this series, and I was excited to see how all of their stories would unfold. I feel that the characters are the strongest aspect of this book. Each of our protagonists have such well defined voices and personalities, with their backstories and relationships to each other being clearly conveyed. Goldenpelt especially makes for an engaging antagonist and foil to Spottedshadow. Spottedshadow was also a really enjoyable protagonist, as I enjoy characters who are unexpectedly put into positions of leadership and responsibility. Especially with her becoming leader so early on in the story, it makes me curious as to how her story will continue to evolve in the next book.
The side and background characters also feel very well defined. I appreciate how no one in this book feels like just a blank slate. They all have their own lives and relationships going on in the background. It helps this world to feel more alive and for the colonies to feel like a true community. It also makes it more devastating when characters get injured or killed off. One side character I didn't expect to enjoy as much as I did was Shrewpelt, later renamed Viperfang. I found his character to be really entertaining and I really enjoyed his relationship with his family. I hope we can see more of him in the next book.
My only major issue is probably the length of the book, as I feel like this book should have been longer. Specifically, I would have liked the journey across the unbound lands to have been longer rather than seemingly skipping to them finding the Followers of the Wind. I feel as though there were a lot of critical character moments and interactions that we didn't get to see. For instance, I would have liked to have seen more interactions between Spottedshadow and Wildfur since their relationship has been such a critical part of both of their character arcs, yet we don't get to see much of them being together. I also feel as though Dawnfrost and Shrewpelt should have had more time to interact, since Shrewpelt's motivation has been for both Dawnfrost and Oak Colony to finally recognize him for his abilities after feeling overlooked for so long. This culminates in Dawnfrost deciding to make him the new second in command of the colony after he proves himself to be a capable leader. I feel as though this moment would have been more powerful if we had seen the two of them connecting during the journey. Especially since both of them are currently grieving over Redleaf during this time, which would have been an excellent opportunity for them to talk about him and how they both wish to live up to his legacy.
Additionally, I feel as though readers who have not watched at least a few of the lore or character videos may have trouble fully understanding this world on their first read. While I do think that the glossary of terms and maps at the beginning of the book do an effective job of explaining the culture of the cat colonies, I feel that a slightly longer introduction to this world would have greatly helped new readers.
Overall, I still really loved this book and am eagerly awaiting the next book.
The side and background characters also feel very well defined. I appreciate how no one in this book feels like just a blank slate. They all have their own lives and relationships going on in the background. It helps this world to feel more alive and for the colonies to feel like a true community. It also makes it more devastating when characters get injured or killed off. One side character I didn't expect to enjoy as much as I did was Shrewpelt, later renamed Viperfang. I found his character to be really entertaining and I really enjoyed his relationship with his family. I hope we can see more of him in the next book.
My only major issue is probably the length of the book, as I feel like this book should have been longer. Specifically, I would have liked the journey across the unbound lands to have been longer rather than seemingly skipping to them finding the Followers of the Wind. I feel as though there were a lot of critical character moments and interactions that we didn't get to see. For instance, I would have liked to have seen more interactions between Spottedshadow and Wildfur since their relationship has been such a critical part of both of their character arcs, yet we don't get to see much of them being together. I also feel as though Dawnfrost and Shrewpelt should have had more time to interact, since Shrewpelt's motivation has been for both Dawnfrost and Oak Colony to finally recognize him for his abilities after feeling overlooked for so long. This culminates in Dawnfrost deciding to make him the new second in command of the colony after he proves himself to be a capable leader. I feel as though this moment would have been more powerful if we had seen the two of them connecting during the journey. Especially since both of them are currently grieving over Redleaf during this time, which would have been an excellent opportunity for them to talk about him and how they both wish to live up to his legacy.
Additionally, I feel as though readers who have not watched at least a few of the lore or character videos may have trouble fully understanding this world on their first read. While I do think that the glossary of terms and maps at the beginning of the book do an effective job of explaining the culture of the cat colonies, I feel that a slightly longer introduction to this world would have greatly helped new readers.
Overall, I still really loved this book and am eagerly awaiting the next book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2025
Really strong start for an indie project like this! I genuinely think some reviews/comments I've seen, both on this website and on others, are a bit disingenuous or outright meanspirited. I've often seen the issue of the series being "We Have Warriors At Home", or that the magic system wasn't fully relevant until the last half of the book, but I just can't agree. While it is true this series did start out as a Warriors fanfiction/roleplay, what we have currently is anything but. While I wish The Alliance Saga could have split even more from the original inspiration, I understand that the first episode of the animated series had already been released upon the decision to switch things up, and that's fair.
I do have qualms with people complaining about the lack of magic in the first half of the book, though. Without sounding rude, it feels almost as if we didn't read the same book. Mages had been mentioned as an outsider, antagonistic force from the first couple of chapters, it makes sense plot-wise that we as readers wouldn't see mages and the magic system up close until the protagonists leave their territory, where magic is banned. Additionally, this book is the first of what is confirmed to be a trilogy. There is still plenty of time for magic to be implemented further into the plot and worldbuilding and for the Alliance to grow further from the Warriors-based roots. I think judging so harshly for something being "thrown in so late" in the first book of a trilogy is. A choice. To say the least.
Now, I do have my own ups and downs with this book. First, the ups!
No character is safe from death or tragedy. Not only that, but the scenes that include instances of these tragedies taking place are heart wrenching. Avalon has a wonderful skill at writing emotional scenes. I felt vengeful and invigorated for characters like Osprey, and crushed at the loss of Peachblossom, and how her death effected the characters around her and her struggle to live just a bit longer so she could speak the truth of River Colony's attack to her beloved mentor before she could pass peacefully. You can tell there is so much love put into these characters.
Similarly, the fight and crowd scenes are written exceptionally. I can really picture a good amount of the action without getting lost or confused, which is something I find myself doing with books that have similar scenes. There also isn't too much repetitiveness with actions, either, which keeps these scenes from becoming stale.
I do have some criticisms, though.
I think the book could have benefitted from taking its time a bit more. I think settling down a bit to give the characters time to breath would have allowed us a chance to get to know them even more. I especially am curious about the early lives of our main protagonists. However, with what we did get, I am rather pleased.
While a small critique, I do think some of the random POV switching without page break or other way of communicating that a POV was switched could be a bit confusing, and also removes a bit of mystery with what other characters could be thinking. Showing, not telling, could be a good way to fix this. Rather than switch from Spottedshadow's thoughts to Goldenpelt's regarding an announcement, just show him from Spottedshadow's pov reacting. Have her wonder what he is thinking, and if a reveal is needed, do so in the next chapter or page break, rather than in the next paragraph. Just an example, not meant to reflect an actual scene. I will say, however, that the pov switching does wonders for scenes like the first Moonlight Meeting and the battles, as it aides to the chaos and/or social aspect of these scenes, and helps readers to really get involved.
My last critique is the choice to have this book not stand apart on its own from the supplementary material. I, personally, am a big fan of the extra material! I follow Tennelle on YouTube and Avalon on Tumblr, as well as the Star Cat Studio blog. However, even as someone who has followed this project for years, I still struggle to keep up with things. Additionally, it can be rather hard to recommend this book to someone knowing that they'll probably struggle even more than I do if they aren't willing or able to pour hours of time into watching videos, streams, or scrolling blogs. The supplementary material is great, I love it, and I will continue to engage with it of course, but I can't say I wouldn't be pleased to see the book be able to stand on its own, as well. Of course, that is a personal decision from the creators, and one I will respect.
TLDR:
If you're interested in this book, read it for yourself. Don't let the negative reviews sway you away. I really enjoyed this book and it's such a fun addition to the world of indie xenofiction. I can't wait for the next book! Will be buying ASAP
I do have qualms with people complaining about the lack of magic in the first half of the book, though. Without sounding rude, it feels almost as if we didn't read the same book. Mages had been mentioned as an outsider, antagonistic force from the first couple of chapters, it makes sense plot-wise that we as readers wouldn't see mages and the magic system up close until the protagonists leave their territory, where magic is banned. Additionally, this book is the first of what is confirmed to be a trilogy. There is still plenty of time for magic to be implemented further into the plot and worldbuilding and for the Alliance to grow further from the Warriors-based roots. I think judging so harshly for something being "thrown in so late" in the first book of a trilogy is. A choice. To say the least.
Now, I do have my own ups and downs with this book. First, the ups!
No character is safe from death or tragedy. Not only that, but the scenes that include instances of these tragedies taking place are heart wrenching. Avalon has a wonderful skill at writing emotional scenes. I felt vengeful and invigorated for characters like Osprey, and crushed at the loss of Peachblossom, and how her death effected the characters around her and her struggle to live just a bit longer so she could speak the truth of River Colony's attack to her beloved mentor before she could pass peacefully. You can tell there is so much love put into these characters.
Similarly, the fight and crowd scenes are written exceptionally. I can really picture a good amount of the action without getting lost or confused, which is something I find myself doing with books that have similar scenes. There also isn't too much repetitiveness with actions, either, which keeps these scenes from becoming stale.
I do have some criticisms, though.
I think the book could have benefitted from taking its time a bit more. I think settling down a bit to give the characters time to breath would have allowed us a chance to get to know them even more. I especially am curious about the early lives of our main protagonists. However, with what we did get, I am rather pleased.
While a small critique, I do think some of the random POV switching without page break or other way of communicating that a POV was switched could be a bit confusing, and also removes a bit of mystery with what other characters could be thinking. Showing, not telling, could be a good way to fix this. Rather than switch from Spottedshadow's thoughts to Goldenpelt's regarding an announcement, just show him from Spottedshadow's pov reacting. Have her wonder what he is thinking, and if a reveal is needed, do so in the next chapter or page break, rather than in the next paragraph. Just an example, not meant to reflect an actual scene. I will say, however, that the pov switching does wonders for scenes like the first Moonlight Meeting and the battles, as it aides to the chaos and/or social aspect of these scenes, and helps readers to really get involved.
My last critique is the choice to have this book not stand apart on its own from the supplementary material. I, personally, am a big fan of the extra material! I follow Tennelle on YouTube and Avalon on Tumblr, as well as the Star Cat Studio blog. However, even as someone who has followed this project for years, I still struggle to keep up with things. Additionally, it can be rather hard to recommend this book to someone knowing that they'll probably struggle even more than I do if they aren't willing or able to pour hours of time into watching videos, streams, or scrolling blogs. The supplementary material is great, I love it, and I will continue to engage with it of course, but I can't say I wouldn't be pleased to see the book be able to stand on its own, as well. Of course, that is a personal decision from the creators, and one I will respect.
TLDR:
If you're interested in this book, read it for yourself. Don't let the negative reviews sway you away. I really enjoyed this book and it's such a fun addition to the world of indie xenofiction. I can't wait for the next book! Will be buying ASAP
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 3, 2025
I honestly had expected better. I knew of this story's origins, I'd been following Tennelle for a while, watched the pilot, etc. But this book just seemed kind of.. lackluster? Beyond the odd formatting and spelling errors (did nobody check for spelling and grammar?? the amount is crazy), the characters just felt so dry compared to the content I'd watched and loved over on YouTube. I think they've done a good job finding an interesting plot, but i also almost wish they focused on fewer things at a time- the bears, the magic, and Rainfall. I understand why all these things were included, but it felt a little like we were constantly bombarded with new things. speaking of, the narration of this book jumped around a lot. I dont mind pov shifts, but there ended up being so many more than I anticipated, to the point where I was sometimes left feeling like I was playing catchup.
it is still just warriors fanfic, the similarities will always be too strong 😭😭 they've added way more onto it than warriors could ever dream of, though
I was also a little disappointed by Rainfall just ending up not being the mastermind and huge villain. dont get me wrong- I love a complex character. but i just wanted her to be bad!! she is bad obvs, but having her bow down to Frozenpool is just silly to me. let her be evil!!
OK OK- the good stuff:
it was entertaining and I kept wanting to read more. I've known these characters for years at this point, and I really enjoyed hearing and seeing more about them. absolutely devastated by Peachblossom. Will not recover.
I really appreciated the bonus scenes at the end!! when I was younger, I watched the speedpaint Tennelle did of Missingfoot telling the story so many times, that when I read it, I could vividly remember how they sounded reading it.
also, the reveal that lakespeckle is alive?? that's rad.
it was cute seeing wild and spotty !! they were cute in this
I know the team really wanted to emphasize teacher/student relationships, and i think they did a good job! I like how intertwined and built up all the cats.
I also really appreciate how affectionate and physically supportive the cats are. it shows a level of care within the colonies that is just sweet
all in all: meh. its warriors fanfic with a pretty bow, lore, and LGBTQIA+ characters. I think it will be more enjoyable if you knew of this story before reading this book, OR if you'd never read or heard of warrior cats
it is still just warriors fanfic, the similarities will always be too strong 😭😭 they've added way more onto it than warriors could ever dream of, though
I was also a little disappointed by Rainfall just ending up not being the mastermind and huge villain. dont get me wrong- I love a complex character. but i just wanted her to be bad!! she is bad obvs, but having her bow down to Frozenpool is just silly to me. let her be evil!!
OK OK- the good stuff:
it was entertaining and I kept wanting to read more. I've known these characters for years at this point, and I really enjoyed hearing and seeing more about them. absolutely devastated by Peachblossom. Will not recover.
I really appreciated the bonus scenes at the end!! when I was younger, I watched the speedpaint Tennelle did of Missingfoot telling the story so many times, that when I read it, I could vividly remember how they sounded reading it.
also, the reveal that lakespeckle is alive?? that's rad.
it was cute seeing wild and spotty !! they were cute in this
I know the team really wanted to emphasize teacher/student relationships, and i think they did a good job! I like how intertwined and built up all the cats.
I also really appreciate how affectionate and physically supportive the cats are. it shows a level of care within the colonies that is just sweet
all in all: meh. its warriors fanfic with a pretty bow, lore, and LGBTQIA+ characters. I think it will be more enjoyable if you knew of this story before reading this book, OR if you'd never read or heard of warrior cats
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 23, 2025
EDIT: Authors are now vocally supporting a known groomer trying to reintegrate into a fandom full of children and teens https://x.com/Joox_imus/status/200318.... Do not buy this book. Do not give them an iota of your money or time. They’re either grossly incompetent at best or actively malicious at worst. Their book is dogshit anyway.
“Mom, can we have warriors?”
“We have warriors at home.”
Warriors at home:
1/5. This was originally a two, but after Maya’s review dug up even more numerous problems I didn’t even know I had, I just can’t find it in me to justify the original rating. If you can’t even correctly describe what a calico is in your cat xenofiction, something tells me you don’t know enough about the animal you’re writing. I really, REALLY hope the next book improves.
TLDR; Xenofiction fans, if you’re looking for an original, well-written standalone project, this isn’t it.
Warriors fans, you’ll find better fanfics than this online.
As someone who’s been following this project since the beginning and got into xenofiction from warriors (despite a current love-hate relationship with it), I wanted to like this book so, so badly. I was so excited to see it deviating from the worldbuilding of warriors (which the authors themselves claimed they were happier doing, citing the original framework as ‘restrictive’) and potentially build something from the ground up. You can imagine my disappointment when I got ‘Warriors but we just renamed all the important terms and threw in magic at the end so it’s a different series now’
Celeste Dylla’s review summarizes a lot of my gripes perfectly, but I’ll put my own foot forward.
You know those rare published Reylo fics you see sometimes where it’s really obvious it was originally a fanfic that the author had to hastily rename every character in before putting out properly? It’s one of those, but for warrior cats. I was literally able to copypaste the entire book as I read it into a google doc and revert EVERYTHING, including the magic system, into an accurate warriors book with arguably minimal changes. It started as a joke to cope with my own disappointment at the lack of originality, but the fact the thing I had the most problems with was the eBook text formatting is really, really telling.
Why deviate from your source material if you’re going to do literally nothing with it? Why throw in literal magic cats and not even show them for two-thirds of the book? The names are the same, the groups are the same, the culture is the same, the religion is the same, everything is identical when it has every reason not to be. It feels like the absolute bare minimum to avoid getting sued. Warriors has done both clan cats and outsider groups with powers from spirits too, so even the magic system is somewhat derivative. The few genuinely original beats that I found myself caught off guard by come right at the end and are stifled by the back half’s pacing issues before they have a chance to sit. There’s potential buried here, however scarce, and that’s what makes me the saddest.
Of course, being warriors in a different coat of paint comes with all the typical warriors pitfalls. The cats aren’t even remotely cat-like, they’re little people in fursuits that meow and eat mice while simultaneously knowing about stitching up wounds, cultivating plants, and necromancy, I guess. None of the colonies have remotely distinguishing features other than where they live and what they eat. The worldbuilding and culture lack depth and dimension. I would, of course, expect this if I was reading warriors, and I was lowkey expecting it here, but I’m still going to point it out while it’s relevant, because that’s another thing I would have loved to see averted for once in warriors-inspired fiction.
The pacing starts out ok, then crams the events of what could easily be two or three books into the last ten chapters (Some major events of which happen off-screen, including but not limited to the coyote attack on the travelling alliance cats, the River Colony raid on the Field Colony, and most if not all of the journey back with the Followers of the Wind). Breaking the status quo of the colonies completely lacks impact when the status quo hasn’t even been established for a whole book. Again, it’s just trying to one-up the same-y absence of self-awareness in Warriors while trying simultaneously to not be Warriors. It doesn’t work.
The prose fluctuates between passable and bone-dry with an abundance of telling over showing, the largest offender being the giant blocks of backstory exposition that litter the early story. If you’ve seen the original Drawing a Blank videos from Tennelle you’d already know all the info being given, and for a reader going in blind it just comes off as extremely clunky and offputting. The book practically relies on you having seen supplementary material anyways, both to know what characters look like anyway since they completely lack any physical character descriptions in their allegiance section, and to actually feel any sense of personality from or attachment to the characters themselves. You just can’t immerse yourself or get properly attached with just Shifting Roots itself, because so much has just already happened offscreen by the time the book starts. What results are cardboard cutouts of characters, bland, flavourless relationships, and another mountain of wasted potential.
So much could have been solved simply by shifting the timeframe of the book back, and starting at the VERY beginning during the protagonists’ youth. Let us see the friendships and relationships actually develop. Establish the norm in the colonies before breaking it apart. Show us the River Colony under Poolglare that Wolfthorn so desperately wants to restore instead of just plunging us head-on into Rainfall’s era. Show us Golden and Shadow actually being friendly with each other instead of just showing on-screen Goldenpelt as nothing but a petty, manipulative asshole and trying to convince us Spottedshadow, much less anyone actually liked him or thought he showed any leadership skills at any point in time by repeating it ad nauseam. So many events would mean more if we weren’t dropped blindly into the middle of the story.
EDIT: The authors have now confirmed this book’s reliance on supplemental material is indeed the intended experience (https://www.tumblr.com/tennelleflower..., reblogged by the group’s official tumblr), which A. Only makes me question the whole backstory dump decision more, and B. Raises a whole new host of issues that I’d like to address now.
Your book should not rely on following the activity of a team of four authors (Three of whom aren’t even credited by name except in the ‘About the creators section’, and two of whom don’t even have their relevant social medias attached to the names they’re credited by) just to know things like what a character looks like or very plot-relevant beats of main characters’ backstories. You should be able to pick up the first book in a series completely blind and know exactly what you’re dealing with with no issues by the time you finish it. That’s literally just how books work. Leaving important information obscured behind a wild goose chase does nothing but alienate and thin out your potential audience. I cannot emphasize enough how much this decision is simply shooting your own work in the foot. Now, back to the review.
The PoV also doesn’t help flesh out the protagonists, full of meaningless fluff as it abruptly jumps around between background characters whenever it feels like to tell you whatever barely-relevant thought/feeling they’re experiencing before springing back to the main characters. There’s an entire chapter of this that’s just Redleaf playing with his kittens just so you feel bad when he dies horribly soon after. Shrewpelt/Viperfang is the one who accidentally leads the bears into the base at the end of the chapter; if you had to focus on a side character then, why not give him depth before the journey thrusts him into the limelight? Why not explore his guilt over his ambition’s involvement in the attack that gets Redleaf, HIS FATHER, killed? His guilt is barely brushed over for two paragraphs before Redleaf dies, and is never mentioned again. In their attempt to create a full, flesh-out background cast, they just achieve a bunch of unnecessary crowding of characters and accidentally ends up with only a marginal improvement on the warriors staple of a cast full of undefined nobodies, which was something the original Drawing a Blank videos for the clans made me genuinely hopeful would be avoided. The amount of times this book falls into warriors pitfalls while trying specifically to avoid them is honestly kind of impressive.
Everything in the Alliance Saga relies too much on both having watched videos by the authors and having been an avid warriors reader to even begin to stand as its own work, and as someone who falls into both categories, I’m still disappointed by this first instalment. If you don’t avidly follow Tennelle and company or dislike warrior cats at all, you’re not going to get anything of value out of this book.
That being said, I do know the first is typically the worst, and I do hope the potential that’s very much there will be built upon with these initial reviews. I will be grabbing books two and seeing this series through, and I’d like to hope Shaded River will be an improvement, though that may be nostalgia talking. If this was my first impression of a brand new series though, I definitely wouldn’t be picking up any more books.
“Mom, can we have warriors?”
“We have warriors at home.”
Warriors at home:
1/5. This was originally a two, but after Maya’s review dug up even more numerous problems I didn’t even know I had, I just can’t find it in me to justify the original rating. If you can’t even correctly describe what a calico is in your cat xenofiction, something tells me you don’t know enough about the animal you’re writing. I really, REALLY hope the next book improves.
TLDR; Xenofiction fans, if you’re looking for an original, well-written standalone project, this isn’t it.
Warriors fans, you’ll find better fanfics than this online.
As someone who’s been following this project since the beginning and got into xenofiction from warriors (despite a current love-hate relationship with it), I wanted to like this book so, so badly. I was so excited to see it deviating from the worldbuilding of warriors (which the authors themselves claimed they were happier doing, citing the original framework as ‘restrictive’) and potentially build something from the ground up. You can imagine my disappointment when I got ‘Warriors but we just renamed all the important terms and threw in magic at the end so it’s a different series now’
Celeste Dylla’s review summarizes a lot of my gripes perfectly, but I’ll put my own foot forward.
You know those rare published Reylo fics you see sometimes where it’s really obvious it was originally a fanfic that the author had to hastily rename every character in before putting out properly? It’s one of those, but for warrior cats. I was literally able to copypaste the entire book as I read it into a google doc and revert EVERYTHING, including the magic system, into an accurate warriors book with arguably minimal changes. It started as a joke to cope with my own disappointment at the lack of originality, but the fact the thing I had the most problems with was the eBook text formatting is really, really telling.
Why deviate from your source material if you’re going to do literally nothing with it? Why throw in literal magic cats and not even show them for two-thirds of the book? The names are the same, the groups are the same, the culture is the same, the religion is the same, everything is identical when it has every reason not to be. It feels like the absolute bare minimum to avoid getting sued. Warriors has done both clan cats and outsider groups with powers from spirits too, so even the magic system is somewhat derivative. The few genuinely original beats that I found myself caught off guard by come right at the end and are stifled by the back half’s pacing issues before they have a chance to sit. There’s potential buried here, however scarce, and that’s what makes me the saddest.
Of course, being warriors in a different coat of paint comes with all the typical warriors pitfalls. The cats aren’t even remotely cat-like, they’re little people in fursuits that meow and eat mice while simultaneously knowing about stitching up wounds, cultivating plants, and necromancy, I guess. None of the colonies have remotely distinguishing features other than where they live and what they eat. The worldbuilding and culture lack depth and dimension. I would, of course, expect this if I was reading warriors, and I was lowkey expecting it here, but I’m still going to point it out while it’s relevant, because that’s another thing I would have loved to see averted for once in warriors-inspired fiction.
The pacing starts out ok, then crams the events of what could easily be two or three books into the last ten chapters (Some major events of which happen off-screen, including but not limited to the coyote attack on the travelling alliance cats, the River Colony raid on the Field Colony, and most if not all of the journey back with the Followers of the Wind). Breaking the status quo of the colonies completely lacks impact when the status quo hasn’t even been established for a whole book. Again, it’s just trying to one-up the same-y absence of self-awareness in Warriors while trying simultaneously to not be Warriors. It doesn’t work.
The prose fluctuates between passable and bone-dry with an abundance of telling over showing, the largest offender being the giant blocks of backstory exposition that litter the early story. If you’ve seen the original Drawing a Blank videos from Tennelle you’d already know all the info being given, and for a reader going in blind it just comes off as extremely clunky and offputting. The book practically relies on you having seen supplementary material anyways, both to know what characters look like anyway since they completely lack any physical character descriptions in their allegiance section, and to actually feel any sense of personality from or attachment to the characters themselves. You just can’t immerse yourself or get properly attached with just Shifting Roots itself, because so much has just already happened offscreen by the time the book starts. What results are cardboard cutouts of characters, bland, flavourless relationships, and another mountain of wasted potential.
So much could have been solved simply by shifting the timeframe of the book back, and starting at the VERY beginning during the protagonists’ youth. Let us see the friendships and relationships actually develop. Establish the norm in the colonies before breaking it apart. Show us the River Colony under Poolglare that Wolfthorn so desperately wants to restore instead of just plunging us head-on into Rainfall’s era. Show us Golden and Shadow actually being friendly with each other instead of just showing on-screen Goldenpelt as nothing but a petty, manipulative asshole and trying to convince us Spottedshadow, much less anyone actually liked him or thought he showed any leadership skills at any point in time by repeating it ad nauseam. So many events would mean more if we weren’t dropped blindly into the middle of the story.
EDIT: The authors have now confirmed this book’s reliance on supplemental material is indeed the intended experience (https://www.tumblr.com/tennelleflower..., reblogged by the group’s official tumblr), which A. Only makes me question the whole backstory dump decision more, and B. Raises a whole new host of issues that I’d like to address now.
Your book should not rely on following the activity of a team of four authors (Three of whom aren’t even credited by name except in the ‘About the creators section’, and two of whom don’t even have their relevant social medias attached to the names they’re credited by) just to know things like what a character looks like or very plot-relevant beats of main characters’ backstories. You should be able to pick up the first book in a series completely blind and know exactly what you’re dealing with with no issues by the time you finish it. That’s literally just how books work. Leaving important information obscured behind a wild goose chase does nothing but alienate and thin out your potential audience. I cannot emphasize enough how much this decision is simply shooting your own work in the foot. Now, back to the review.
The PoV also doesn’t help flesh out the protagonists, full of meaningless fluff as it abruptly jumps around between background characters whenever it feels like to tell you whatever barely-relevant thought/feeling they’re experiencing before springing back to the main characters. There’s an entire chapter of this that’s just Redleaf playing with his kittens just so you feel bad when he dies horribly soon after. Shrewpelt/Viperfang is the one who accidentally leads the bears into the base at the end of the chapter; if you had to focus on a side character then, why not give him depth before the journey thrusts him into the limelight? Why not explore his guilt over his ambition’s involvement in the attack that gets Redleaf, HIS FATHER, killed? His guilt is barely brushed over for two paragraphs before Redleaf dies, and is never mentioned again. In their attempt to create a full, flesh-out background cast, they just achieve a bunch of unnecessary crowding of characters and accidentally ends up with only a marginal improvement on the warriors staple of a cast full of undefined nobodies, which was something the original Drawing a Blank videos for the clans made me genuinely hopeful would be avoided. The amount of times this book falls into warriors pitfalls while trying specifically to avoid them is honestly kind of impressive.
Everything in the Alliance Saga relies too much on both having watched videos by the authors and having been an avid warriors reader to even begin to stand as its own work, and as someone who falls into both categories, I’m still disappointed by this first instalment. If you don’t avidly follow Tennelle and company or dislike warrior cats at all, you’re not going to get anything of value out of this book.
That being said, I do know the first is typically the worst, and I do hope the potential that’s very much there will be built upon with these initial reviews. I will be grabbing books two and seeing this series through, and I’d like to hope Shaded River will be an improvement, though that may be nostalgia talking. If this was my first impression of a brand new series though, I definitely wouldn’t be picking up any more books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2025
A pretty terrible start to a series. There's an endless stream of new characters, almost none of which get any sort of development or personality. Instead of focusing on a subsection of them, there's just more and more coming.
Even PoV characters suffer from this. It doesn't feel like this is the story that the author wanted to develop. A lot of the space is spent on narration about the past events. These aren't flashbacks, they aren't even past discussed by characters, it's just the narration telling us what happened, what the character motivations were, what their development was. Their entire lives and character arcs happened before the book even started. Why can't we focus on that instead? The scraps of development and involvement in the book also happen to be mostly told by narration - a very baffling choice.
The villains are terrible. We have magic bears, which are bearable, actually. They aren't the most interesting of the choices, but they are one of the very few plots that is actively built up in the book and has an on-screen resolution.
Then there's Goldenpelt, who's supposed to be torn between his love for Spottedshadow and wanting the best for the Clan. Of course, his internal conflict mostly happened offscreen before the book even started, so he's just a random asshole. Am I supposed to care for his supposed feelings for Spottedshadow? He never displays them. His supposed competence is also never shown, so why the Colony thinks he's the best choice remains a mystery.
Finally there's the River Colony. They constantly flaunt how evil they are, so the book keeps finding excuses why the other colonies can't just deal with them.
A lot of major events are skipped to after they already have happened, and we are instead told by narration what happened. Everything happens off-screen. The result is that the book feels like a wiki summary of what the story is supposed to be. And that's boring. The battles happen off screen. Character romances? Off screen. Character dilemmas? Off screen. And most of them actually happened before the book even started. We're just reading the echoes of the character backstories. If the writer doesn't care about showing the storyline, why should I care?
Even PoV characters suffer from this. It doesn't feel like this is the story that the author wanted to develop. A lot of the space is spent on narration about the past events. These aren't flashbacks, they aren't even past discussed by characters, it's just the narration telling us what happened, what the character motivations were, what their development was. Their entire lives and character arcs happened before the book even started. Why can't we focus on that instead? The scraps of development and involvement in the book also happen to be mostly told by narration - a very baffling choice.
The villains are terrible. We have magic bears, which are bearable, actually. They aren't the most interesting of the choices, but they are one of the very few plots that is actively built up in the book and has an on-screen resolution.
Then there's Goldenpelt, who's supposed to be torn between his love for Spottedshadow and wanting the best for the Clan. Of course, his internal conflict mostly happened offscreen before the book even started, so he's just a random asshole. Am I supposed to care for his supposed feelings for Spottedshadow? He never displays them. His supposed competence is also never shown, so why the Colony thinks he's the best choice remains a mystery.
Finally there's the River Colony. They constantly flaunt how evil they are, so the book keeps finding excuses why the other colonies can't just deal with them.
A lot of major events are skipped to after they already have happened, and we are instead told by narration what happened. Everything happens off-screen. The result is that the book feels like a wiki summary of what the story is supposed to be. And that's boring. The battles happen off screen. Character romances? Off screen. Character dilemmas? Off screen. And most of them actually happened before the book even started. We're just reading the echoes of the character backstories. If the writer doesn't care about showing the storyline, why should I care?
February 20, 2025
Shifting Roots is a work of love, there is no doubt about it. As troubled as its production has been, the fact that the book is out at all is a minor miracle.
To start with, the book does a good job of depicting the different colonies and their cultures. It was an interesting move to make the Alliance hateful of magic, but it works in the setting's favour. Especially as we are introduced to actual mages in the second half of the book.
However, this isn't to say Shifting Roots is flawless.
Storywise, the book seems to be in a hurry to get as much done as possible. We barely get to know Hazeful's and Forestleaf's leadership before the two are killed off. Two of our main characters become colony leaders in this book, robbing us of watching them grow to these positions.
The biggest issue for me, however, is that the Alliance reads exactly like the four clans in Warrior Cats. That is, there is no love lost between colonies and River Colony is outright hostile to others. The clans in warriors are held together by a shared belief in Starclan more than being one community. The Alliance in Clouded Moon is supposed to be a group that willingly supports one another, as per their laws. Yet, the naked distrust towards other colonies resembles less a willing alliance and the way the clans in Warrior cats function. Especially the case of River Colony, why are they allowed to be in the Alliance given their naked cruelty towards others?
Shifting Roots is a good start, but in the future it would be nice for the books to be less hectic and let the reader watch the characters grow.
To start with, the book does a good job of depicting the different colonies and their cultures. It was an interesting move to make the Alliance hateful of magic, but it works in the setting's favour. Especially as we are introduced to actual mages in the second half of the book.
However, this isn't to say Shifting Roots is flawless.
Storywise, the book seems to be in a hurry to get as much done as possible. We barely get to know Hazeful's and Forestleaf's leadership before the two are killed off. Two of our main characters become colony leaders in this book, robbing us of watching them grow to these positions.
The biggest issue for me, however, is that the Alliance reads exactly like the four clans in Warrior Cats. That is, there is no love lost between colonies and River Colony is outright hostile to others. The clans in warriors are held together by a shared belief in Starclan more than being one community. The Alliance in Clouded Moon is supposed to be a group that willingly supports one another, as per their laws. Yet, the naked distrust towards other colonies resembles less a willing alliance and the way the clans in Warrior cats function. Especially the case of River Colony, why are they allowed to be in the Alliance given their naked cruelty towards others?
Shifting Roots is a good start, but in the future it would be nice for the books to be less hectic and let the reader watch the characters grow.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 13, 2025
This book is an outstandingly read! I genuinely did not want put it down the second I started. One of my favorite things about this book is how it goes in a much more mature direction than its original inspiration ever could. The culture and hierarchy system of each of the individual colonies is very creative. With a diverse cast of characters, a well paced storyline, and LGBTQ representation not only is this a book series that I want to see more of, but I would love to see prequel stories of some of the characters. Especially those who have established relationships, whether that be platonic or romantic, with one another that we don’t know too much about. I’m also curious to see how the magic/magic casting system will work in this series. I really love it when books and TV shows really tried to personalize superpowers or magical powers in a way that either works really well with a character or contrast to them in a way that aids in their character development. 5 stars. 10 out of 10 read. What more can I say?
September 9, 2025
I had a blast reading this book. As a huge fantasy fan who adored warrior cats as a kid, this gave me everything I needed. I am in love with so many of the characters and the writing was wonderful. I don’t even want to compare it to Warrior cats because it was so different in the best of ways. It had all the writing choices and characterization that I wish Warrior cats would have sometimes. Can’t wait for the next one!
December 21, 2025
There's really nothing I can say that the other reviews haven't covered. This is just Warriors fanfiction. I'm not a Warriors fan but even I know that the worst books in Warriors can't be as muddled as this. By the way, there are two pages for this book because one is kindle and the other is paperback. This is the paperback review.
January 1, 2025
Man. This is some of the best xenofiction I've read in a good long while, and it made me sob like a baby. The worldbuilding, story and characters sucked me in so fast and I genuinely was upset every time I had to set it down. SUPER excited for the next installments in this series.
Want to read
January 8, 2025Would def like to give this a shot to see if it's any good! :D
December 28, 2025
I initially gave a better rating but it never felt quite right. I enjoyed the book, yes, but there was also glaring flaws I couldn't ignore.
But then I realized that my enjoyment of the book relied entirely on the fact I watched video giving informations on each characters prior to the book release. Without thise informations, the book would've been confusing. And this is *the intended experience*. And this is bad.
The book should be able to stand on it's own. The speedpaint videos and such should be treated as bonuses, not something required to fully enjoy and understand the story.
Also, while some elements are enjoyable and the book really surprised me in many occasions, I need to adress the glaring flaws I mentioned earlier: The story tries too hard to not repeat warriors mistakes, but veering so hard in the opposite direction it's doing worse. It tries to fix issues without understanding them.
For exemple; Warrior cat writes long and uninteresting travel portions? Here, we skip the travel portion altogether to find our character on the verge of death without context. Yes, we later learn what happened to them, but we should have SEEN the scene.
Warrior background characters lack personality? Here they try to detail everyone, but the book is much smaller so we instead spoon feed you character backgrounds, when you're not outright expected to know their story from youtube videos. So you struggle, don't get attached much to the characters and don't feel much for them.
But then I realized that my enjoyment of the book relied entirely on the fact I watched video giving informations on each characters prior to the book release. Without thise informations, the book would've been confusing. And this is *the intended experience*. And this is bad.
The book should be able to stand on it's own. The speedpaint videos and such should be treated as bonuses, not something required to fully enjoy and understand the story.
Also, while some elements are enjoyable and the book really surprised me in many occasions, I need to adress the glaring flaws I mentioned earlier: The story tries too hard to not repeat warriors mistakes, but veering so hard in the opposite direction it's doing worse. It tries to fix issues without understanding them.
For exemple; Warrior cat writes long and uninteresting travel portions? Here, we skip the travel portion altogether to find our character on the verge of death without context. Yes, we later learn what happened to them, but we should have SEEN the scene.
Warrior background characters lack personality? Here they try to detail everyone, but the book is much smaller so we instead spoon feed you character backgrounds, when you're not outright expected to know their story from youtube videos. So you struggle, don't get attached much to the characters and don't feel much for them.
July 19, 2025
1/10. I'm so disappointed... and why are there two separate pages for this book?
For the full rant, go to my website
For the full rant, go to my website
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews