but in the series entire, even after dozens and dozens of other books have come out to

rival it, and I must agree that it is an emotionally engrossing and action-packed story.

It's not perfect, and I don't think any Warriors book is, but it's certainly one

of the best books in the first arc if not the series.

The Darkest Hour was released on October 5th of 2004, four months after A Dangerous Path.

Cherith wrote this book as well, meaning that the first arc ended up being equally divided

between the two ghost-writers of the time.

I will say, in many ways, this book redeems Cherith for any foul we might have given her

based on A Dangerous Path.

It has a consistent train of action along with some emotion, and gives a satisfying

conclusion to this first arc of Warriors, with one possible exception.

But that exception has nothing to do with what choices Cherith had to make in the writing

of the story, and she executed the last-minute switch with grace.

Although, it certainly has its flaws, so let's begin with one of its biggest: division of

book time.

Looking at the top 10 cats, they do have 73% of the lines, which is a nice percentage.

However, the vast majority of those lines in the top 10 come from Firestar alone.

Throughout the arc, he had around 400-600 lines in each book.

That is a lot considering most other cats got around 4-20 lines.

However, previous books were still balanced better since at least the other cats with

Firestar in the top 10 spots had reasonably large numbers of lines.

In each previous book, there were three to five other cats who also had more than 100

lines.

In The Darkest Hour, Firestar is the only cat in the book to have more than 100 lines,

and it isn't even close.

Graystripe speaks 76 times.

Whitestorm, Tigerstar, Cinderpelt, and Sandstorm each have line counts in the 50's, and no

other cat in the book can get even 40 lines.

The first arc as a whole has always had an issue incorporating its supporting and background

casts with a level of depth even close to Fireheart, but this book takes the cake in

that regard.

Each cat in this book, putting aside Firestar, is here to serve one function as a wrap up

to their arc, and outside of that one purpose, they step aside so Firestar can take all of

the spotlight.

This is very much *his* book, more than any other.

It tells his story, and everything else is secondary.

This also explains a bit of our she-cat problem in this book.

44% of the cast is female, but here they have only 20% of the lines, which is insane.

None of the first arc books have been particularly good at giving she-cats screentime, but this

book, for two reasons, is easily the worst.

First, there's the problem I already mentioned, with Firestar taking up almost all of the

spotlight.

Firestar is a tom, so of course his overwhelming presence would result in a smaller percentage

of lines for the she-cats.

But also, the first arc only ever had 4 she-cats who had substantial presences consistently

through multiple books: Bluestar, Yellowfang, Cinderpelt, and Sandstorm.

By The Darkest Hour, the former two have died, and the latter two aren't given much to

do in this book.

Cinderpelt is here to be medicine cat.

Sandstorm is here to be mate.

That is all.

And as always, the wider cast of characters is still tilted in the toms' favor, with

cats like Bramblepaw, Cloudtail, Ravenpaw, Tallstar, Darkstripe, Barley, and even Scourge

all being given relatively large amounts of attention, for this book anyway, while only

Mistyfoot, Bluestar, and Leopardstar even come close to reaching their level.

But this will become more important when I do a complete comprehensive lookback on the

first arc.

For now, let's speed through the allegiance updates and begin with the story.

Fireheart is now Firestar, leader of Thunderclan since Bluestar has died.

Along with that, Whitestorm is now the deputy.

Despite Whitestorm being moved out of the warriors section, with Cloudtail becoming

a warrior and Goldenflower moving out of the nursery, the warrior count increased from

9 to 10.

Interestingly, Lostface, despite having some version of a warrior name, is listed with

the apprentices.

Because of this, and with Bramblepaw and Tawnypaw as new apprentices, the apprentice count stayed

constant with 6 cats.

Goldenflower moving into the warriors' den and Speckletail moving into the elders'

den has left Willowpelt as the only queen, and there are now 4 elders rather than 3.

All right.

Now let's begin, The Darkest Hour.

After a brief prologue setting up the dynamic and partnership between Tigerstar, Boulder,

and some members of a group in the Twolegplace: Scourge and Bone, we return to Fireheart still

trying to process Bluestar's death, letting Stonefur and Mistyfoot stay for a while to

mourn their mother despite the clan's disapproval and meeting his clanmates one by one to tell

them what happened, not just at her death, but in her past, with her kits.

They bury Bluestar's body and Cinderpelt and Fireheart go to get the new leader his

nine lives from noteworthy cats in his life who have died.

In order, they were Lionheart with the life of courage, Redtail with the life of justice,

Silverstream with the life of loyalty to what you know to be right, Runningwind with the

life of tireless energy, Brindleface with the life of protection, Swiftpaw with the

life of mentoring, Yellowfang with the life of compassion, Spottedleaf with the life of

love, and Bluestar with the life of nobility, certainty, and faith.

Just as they are celebrating Firestar's new position though, he is given a vision

of a pile of bones with rivers of blood flowing out of it, along with the prophecy “Four

will become two, Lion and Tiger will meet in battle, and Blood will rule the forest.”

As soon as he gets back, he checks in with Whitestorm to learn what happened in camp,

reassures Sandstorm that being a leader doesn't stop him from loving her, gets told by Graystripe

that he doesn't need to be deputy, and then goes to decide who should be deputy himself.

He first considers Sandstorm, partially because she's an extremely talented and loyal warrior

who even just before he made his decision was ready to create patrols and take up the

duties of a deputy, but mostly because it would show her he loves her.

But he decides against it since she hasn't had an apprentice (and who's fault is that)?

But he convinces himself that it's okay because Whitestorm would be a far better deputy

than even her.

Whitestorm is appointed and Firestar leaves him in charge while he visits Princess and

has a quick chat with Bramblepaw while there.

Darkstripe poisons Sorrelkit but since only Graystripe witnessed it, they need to wait

for her to wake up and confirm what happened before they can exile him justly, sending

him to Tigerstar in Shadowclan and leaving Firestar to give Fernpaw a new mentor, Longtail.

I will give him the benefit of the doubt here and say he wanted Sandstorm to fully train

an apprentice rather than finishing out the last moon, but still...thin ice, sir.

Even before the verdict, every cat in camp started mistrusting and avoiding Darkstripe,

even Dustpelt, who was once his apprentice.

Thornpaw is made Thornclaw and Lostface, with the harsh recommendation of Cloudtail and

the ceremony from One-eye, is given the name Brightheart instead.

During Thornpaw's assessment, he scented some rogues he hadn't smelled before, but

they were too old and faint to follow.

Firestar does, however, react as a leader should and tells the patrols to keep a look

out.

Mistyfoot alerts him that Tigerstar and Leopardstar have been regularly meeting, and soon it's

time for the gathering.

Tallstar welcomes Firestar as a leader and Firestar almost confides in him his suspicions

about Tigerstar's plans before they are cut off by Shadowclan and Riverclan bursting

in together and Tigerstar announcing the creation of Tigerclan, which he invites Tallstar and

Firestar to join.

Tallstar refuses first, and Firestar soon does as well.

Firestar then launches into a story about Tigerstar's past for the whole gathering,

but this is cut off by a bolt of lightning which is declared a sign from Starclan and

causes the gathering to end.

Firestar trains Bramblepaw, using far more patience and praise than ever before, and

checks in on Brightheart, who is learning new moves that she can use to fight despite

her missing eye.

During a hunting session, Firestar sees a lion in place of his reflection in the river,

and Spottedleaf comes to tell him to remember what he has seen, and learn what he must be.

Smallear gets unreasonably mad at Tawnypaw who seems fed up with her treatment and soon

leaves to join Shadowclan instead.

Graystripe gets worried about his kits in Riverclan, so after a rational talk about

how best to proceed, he, Firestar, and Ravenpaw go into Riverclan to check on them in secret.

There they find the grotesque Tigerclan camp, with a bonehill as their highrock, a rank

odor everywhere, and the half-clan cats locked up in a guarded cave.

Tigerstar, and Leopardstar secondarily, order Stonefur to kill Featherpaw and Stormpaw to

prove his loyalty, but he refuses and so he is killed instead, by Darkstripe and Blackfoot.

As soon as Tigerstar spares Featherpaw and Stormpaw's lives another day, the FireGrayRaven

trio set off and rescue them, and Mistyfoot, bringing them to Thunderclan.

Graystripe is made into Stormpaw's new mentor, and Firestar gets the idea to ask Windclan

for help just before Mudclaw bursts in asking for Thunderclan's help with a Tigerclan

attack on Windclan's camp.

The battle is already over though, with Gorsepaw killed by Tigerstar and Onewhisker greatly

injured.

Tallstar and Firestar agree to meet Tigerstar at Fourtrees the following morning as requested,

but also agree not to join Tigerclan and instead stand together and fight.

After saying “I love you” to Sandstorm and preparing the clan, they make their way

to Fourtrees, where they learn Tawnypaw has joined her father willingly and Bramblepaw

rejects him completely, being willing to die if it means being loyal to Thunderclan.

Then, however, Tigerstar reveals his other allies, Bloodclan, the rogues Thornpaw scented

earlier.

These cats don't answer to Tigerstar, though.

They answer to their own leader, Scourge, a cat we are finally meeting in chapter 22

of this final book.

Firestar finally tells every cat, Scourge included, Tigerstar's story, and Scourge

decides not to fight, and instead to kill Tigerstar, slitting his stomach and letting

all nine of his lives slowly, painfully drain away.

Scourge then declares that Bloodclan will take over this land, giving them three days

to agree or face Bloodclan, and Firestar has a completely new and unexpected force to fight.

Firestar brings Thunderclan, Windclan, and after some tense discussion Riverclan and

Shadowclan as well, together under the mantle of Lionclan.

Ravenpaw and Barley join too, and the latter, admitting he was a member of Bloodclan, tells

Firestar Scourge's weakness: his lack of belief in Starclan or the warrior code.

We check in with every cat from Brightheart to Sorrelkit to Princess to Whitstorm before

the battle in a truly heartwarming series of scenes and then it is time.

United as one, the clans fight Bloodclan.

Darkstripe and Jaggedtooth joined Bloodclan, Graystripe kills Darkstripe, Bone kills Whitestorm

and Firestar names Graystripe as the new deputy mid-battle...something I will choose to forgive

momentarily since he didn't have time to think about it, and all the apprentices avenge

Whitestorm by killing Bone.

Scourge takes one of Firestar's lives, and while in Starclan Bluestar tells him there

were always five clans, the significance of which is currently unclear but assumed to

be talking about Starclan beside the four clans.

When Firestar returns, feeling the spirits of the cats who gave him his lives beside

him, he attacks with far more speed and strength than before and kills Scourge, sending Bloodclan

fleeing terrified from the forest.

The forest is saved, Tigerclan splits up and Mistyfoot is named Riverclan's new deputy,

and Firestar stands victorious beside Graystripe and Sandstorm, with Spottedleaf still whispering

in his ear.

The early chapters explain that cats cannot talk at all once they enter Mothermouth for

a leader ceremony, and even the medicine cat they go with doesn't know what happens during

the ceremony.

They can get a few sensations, like the smell of blood, but otherwise it is a private event

between the new leader and Starclan.

This is similar to the way they treated Cinderpaw's first introduction with Starclan: as a mystical

event that couldn't ever be shared or explained.

Now we should probably discuss the book's portrayal of Leopardstar and Blackfoot, as

both cats' morality will be discussed at length later in the series.

Blackfoot follows his leader without question and guides Tigerclan in their hatred of half-clan

cats.

He taunts Darkstripe's inability to kill Stonefur and, when ordered too, immediately

does so himself.

Even after the battle is done, there is no indication that he regrets his actions.

There is also no indication of stupidity.

He was completely on board with their actions.

Leopardstar meanwhile does hesitate to persecute her own clanmates, but she is not under threat

or duress when she decides to order Stonefur to kill the apprentices, and it was her idea

in the first place to invite Tigerstar into her clan.

By the level of power Tigerstar's criticism displays over her, it's possible that some

underlying beliefs or longstanding manipulation led to these thoughts, but it took place entirely