Warrior Cats: A Broken Code, Books 1 to 3
Summary
A Broken Code is the sixth series in the Warrior Cats franchise. The series follows Rootpaw a SkyClan apprentice, Bristlepaw a ThunderClan apprentice, and Shadowpaw a Shadowclan medicine cat apprentice as they deal with not only the disappearance of StarClan but the sudden change in the ThunderClan leader’s personality following his death. The first book in the series serves to introduce us to the three leading characters along with the central conflict in this series, the sudden disappearance of StarClan. The second book continues this with added conflict coming from Shadowpaw’s visions, who he believes are from StarClan as well as the sudden death of Bramblestar following a deadly sickness. However when the leader revives he appears different from before. This is later shown to be because the real Bramblestar had not been able to return to his body and has now taken to haunting Rootpaw in order to persuade the young cat to help him. Book three sees the conflict against the imposter Bramblestar come to a head as he continues to banish cats he deems as codebreakers and throwing the other Clans into conflict amongst themselves. This culminates in a battle between all five Clans that results in the imposter being unmasked.
Review
I’ve been reading these books for years now, and despite whatever criticisms I may have I can not deny that they still have enough of a grip on me that I spend all my free time catching myself up when the urge to read them hits. But after reading the three newest books in less than a week it’s a little hard to remember what exactly happened in which book, which is why instead of reviewing each book in a Broken Code separately I’ve opted to review them all together.
A Broken Code may be the sixth series in a long running franchise but the overall story is still refreshing. We’ve yet to see the cats have to fend for themselves without being able to contact StarClan, and the added villain only adds to the conflict as he takes advantage of StarClan’s absence in order to further his own goals. A criticism I’ve long had in regards to the warriors series is how it clings to ThunderClan while ignoring the now five other Clans. Back in the first series where every Clan shared some sort of border with one another it was still possible to get glimpses into the other Clans despite not having a central character in them. However since the move to the lake territories the Clans no longer all share a border given the aforementioned lake in the center of their territories. And because of this it’s easy to forget that a Clan like RiverClan exists when they’re only ever seen during Gatherings or special occasions because otherwise there’d be no way to see them while following a ThunderClan character’s perspective. So seeing that the series is now branching out to have the perspectives of characters in three of the five Clans was a welcome change, and one I hope continues even after A Broken Code has concluded.
The characters in this series, while perhaps not my absolute favorites as that title will always belong to Jayfeather and Hollyleaf, are still interesting and compelling in their own rights. I found Rootpaw’s struggles with fitting into his Clan and getting along with his father particularly interesting to follow along and while there were times when I was yelling at him for how he chose to deal with certain problems I still couldn’t help but ‘root’ for him in the end. Bristlepaw’s struggle with coming to terms that following her leader may not be the right thing to do was also interesting. She’d barely become a warrior when she’s forced to make tough choices in order to protect herself and her Clanmates. And while Shadowpaw’s conflicts weren’t the most interesting I still loved seeing his relationship with his parents and seeing how far Tigerstar was willing to go in order to support and defend his son and mate in the face of all the challenges being thrown at them. Truly one of the aspects I’ve loved in this series is how it has explored the relationships between characters, from Bristlepaw’s crush on Stemleaf to Rootpaw and Shadowpaw’s relationship with their fathers, and Bramblestar’s family dealing with his sudden changes I genuinely enjoyed reading all of their interactions. The only relationship I find myself not getting into however is the one budding between Rootpaw and Bristlepaw. Rootpaw’s initial crush was cute, and as far as most romances in warriors go there’s nothing really wrong with Rootpaw and Bristlepaw but I just don’t feel as though the two have much chemistry with eachother. Bristlepaw has spent essentially all three books complaining about Rootpaw and his crush and has barely given him any thought aside of how annoying he is. Even Rootpaw doesn’t appear to be really interested in Bristlepaw by the time their ‘confession’ scene happens. Honestly speaking I feel as though Rootpaw and Shadowpaw have more chemistry together, so why not have them end up together instead of forcing Bristlepaw to be with someone she seemingly hates for the majority of the series.
While A Broken Code is definitely on the road to being one of the better series in the warriors franchise there are still some areas I feel it could be improved on. First, there are simply too many background characters. It’s starting to get to a point where I barely remember all the characters in the Clans we follow because more and more keep getting added in. I think the authors should start cutting back on the amount of kits that are added or at least find a faster way to get rid of unused background characters. Of course I’d hate to see a favorite cat go but for a majority of my favorites they’ve already had their chance in the spotlight, it wouldn’t hurt to have them give it up. And then second is just how many inconsistencies there are between series. And I don’t mean cats having their eye colors changed because that’s at least inconsequential. What I mean are inconsistencies that have to do with major plot points of past series, such as Tigerstar apparently being too young to remember the Great Battle despite having been born well before it’d even taken place. Of course I can’t fault the authors and editors too much, there’s now thirty-three main series books so I can’t imagine that keeping track of everything is easy but I still can’t help but wish that the editors hired some sort of secondary editing team that just went in and made sure no consistency errors were there.
Overall A Broken Code is a strong addition to the warriors franchise and I am looking forward to seeing where the authors take us over the final three books.
Strengths
Interesting and exciting storyline
Compelling characters
Different points of view
Weaknesses
Noticeable consistency errors
Too many background characters
Romance isn’t very compelling
Rating
Enjoyability 9/10
Story 9/10
Pacing 8/10
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