Literature / Bramblestar's Storm

"When water meets blood, blood will rise."

—Cloudstar

Puberty hurts, man

Bramblestar's Storm is a novel in the Warrior Cats franchise. It is the seventh installment of the Super Edition series, and takes place after the Omen of the Stars series.

Set six moons after the events of The Last Hope, the Clans are still recovering from the final battle against the Dark Forest, and mourning those who fell defending their Clanmates from the shadowy warriors. Bramblestar leads ThunderClan now, and he struggles to measure up to his predecessor and mentor Firestar, one of the greatest leaders the Clans have ever known. But more trials are coming for the Clans, and as a storm rises, all of Bramblestar's skills will be put to the test.

Bramblestar's Storm was released on August 26, 2014. It was written by Cherith Baldry.

A novella titled Dovewing's Silence, was released November 4, 2014. It explained how events between The Last Hope and Bramblestar's Storm had transpired. It served as a prequel and somewhat of a lead-in to the novel.

As well, Bramblestar's Storm served as a sort of launching point for the sixth arc, A Vision of Shadows, establishing concepts and characters which would lay the groundwork for the arc.

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This novel contains examples of:

• Amicably Divorced: Squirrelflight and Bramblestar aren't together anymore, but they get along well and seem to be friends now. Of course, they get together again.
• Brought Down to Normal: The Three have lost their powers following the Great Battle. Jayfeather is doing fine without his, but like in The Forgotten Warrior Dovewing feels deaf and blind, while Lionblaze injures himself severely by tripping over a root.
• The Bus Came Back: Of a sort. Bramblestar lost a lot of prominence once The New Prophecy ended, but here he's a main character again.
• Character Development:
  • Continuing his development in Omen of the Stars, Berrynose has dropped a lot of his hotheadedness and arrogance, becoming much more thoughtful and a helpful adviser to Bramblestar.
  • Lionblaze is less brooding, and is now cheerful with a sense of humour.
• Dawn of an Era: At the very end, something happens that we've never seen in a non-prequel Warriors book, and which will change future Clan interactions for the better: they add to the warrior code, deciding that every Clan should help defend the others. This is particularly triumphant because the cats have spent the last twenty-four books learning to work together when they are in danger.
• Distant Finale: The manga at the end is distant, for warriors. It takes place at least six moons, possibly more like seven or eight, after the end of the novel proper.
• Due to the Dead: Similar to Rock's stick, Jayfeather has a stick with scratches in it set up in the camp, serving as a memorial for the cats that died in the battle.
  • The other Clans are revealed to have something similar to this to honor their dead. WindClan has a pile of stones on a hill with one stone to represent one cat, RiverClan has a circle of ferns which represent their warriors, and ShadowClan remembers their dead by listening to the cries of the owl.
• Identical Stranger: Crowfeather has a new apprentice named Featherpaw, who happens to look just like his First Love, Feathertail.
• Internal Reveal: Strangely averted. Despite the amount of time the narrative and Bramblestar spend on brief mentions of the Dovewing/Tigerheart/Bumblestripe triangle, Bramblestar never finds out about it.
• Killed Offscreen:
  • Although we only see a few cats die during the Great Battle in The Last Hope, more cats died during the battle and since then.
    • ThunderClan lost Sorreltail and Foxleap to injuries after the battle. Hazeltail, Toadstep, and Icecloud also died of greencough some time after.
    • ShadowClan has lost Toadfoot, Shrewfoot, Starlingwing, Olivenose, Applefur, Cedarheart, Tallpoppy, and Weaselkit.
    • WindClan explicitly loses Ashfoot, Owlwhisker, Swallowtail, and Thistleheart. Also, although not stated in the book, Sunstrike, Tornear, Webfoot, and Boulderfur are not listed in the allegiances, so it appears that they died as well.
    • RiverClan's losses are not stated, but based on the allegiances, Graymist, Robinwing, Hollowflight, Pouncetail, Mossyfoot, and Dapplenose have died.
    • From outside the Clans, both Floss and Pip the dog died.
  • During the flood, a few cats die offscreen as well. Specifically, Blackstar, Grasspelt, Pouncefoot, and Frankie's brother Benny.
• Meaningful Rename: Special shout out to Lilypaw, who becomes Lilyheart to memorialize her dead mother and sister, and Frankie, who becomes Stormpaw in memory of the storm that brought him to the Clan and killed his brother.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Did you hear the title of this book before finishing Omen of the Stars? Well, now you know Bramblestar becomes leader.
• The Medic: Leafpool has returned to her role as medicine cat, after leaving it for the Omen of the Stars arc. Willowshine has also graduated from Mothwing's apprentice to the rank of full medicine cat. These are both odd situations because no Clan has ever had two medicine cats at once before; one is always an apprentice. Usually, even though Willowshine has her full name, she would still technically be considered Mothwing's apprentice until Mothwing retired or died.
• No Antagonist: For the overall book, at least. There are scuffles with other sapient beings (the kittypets, badgers, and WindClan), but the storm and subsequent flood are the biggest problems.
• Out of Focus: Several cats who were important during the previous books are now much less so.
  • Crowfeather barely appears, only showing up about twice to sneer at ThunderClan cats during border patrols. As well, his son Breezepelt doesn't appear at all, but is revealed in the allegiances to still be with WindClan.
  • Bramblestar's sister Mothwing barely even gets a mention, despite family being incredibly important to Bramblestar, and his relationship with his other sister Tawnypelt being a driving part of the book.
  • Due to being dead, Firestar and Hollyleaf get this as well. Although referenced constantly, Firestar only appears a few brief times, and Hollyleaf only appears in a flashback Bramblestar has.
• Serial Romeo: In addition to having been mates with Floss and Daisy, Smoky now lives with a new she-cat called Coriander.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • Squirrelflight reminisces about the time when she and Bramblestar helped fight off a badger, back when she was his apprentice. But she was Dustpelt's apprentice, never Bramblestar's.
  • Graystripe mentions his kits, Blossomfall, Bumblestripe, Briarlight, and... Stonefur and Mistystar? Particularly awful since Mistystar's and Stonefur's true parentage was kind of a big deal, seeing as they were the kits of Bluestar and Oakheart, one of the original cross-clan relationships, and also because Graystripe's real daughter and son Feathertail and Stormfur don't get a mention despite having been important characters in The New Prophecy. This mistake was so bad that future editions of Bramblestar's Storm will have the mistake corrected.
• Time Skip: Bramblestar's Storm begins six moons after The Last Hope, and the exclusive manga begins probably about seven moons after the end of the novel.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: An instance of this is finally addressed with Thistlepaw, the sister of Sedgewhisker and Swallowtail, who seemingly vanished after Power of Three. She is finally revealed to have become a warrior by the name of Thistleheart, although she died during the Great Battle.

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