Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Warriors Book: "Fire and Ice"

Fire and Ice is the second book in the Warriors series, written by Kate Cary and Cherith Baldry under the pen name of Erin Hunter. This individual book was written by Kate Cary.

The plot is centered around Fireheart and Graystripe, newly promoted warriors of ThunderClan, one of the four cat clans living in the wilderness. It takes up where the previous book left off, and presents the events taking place between late Autumn and late Winter.

Plot summary


The first warrior assignment of Fireheart and his friend Graystripe is to find and bring back the cats of WindClan who were driven out from their hunting grounds by ShadowClan. They find the cats living in canals below a remote intersection of highways, and convince them to return to their territory. On their way back from the successful mission, they decide to take a shortcut through RiverClan territory, but they are spotted by a patrol. A fight ensues, and a RiverClan warrior, Whiteclaw, is killed, marking the beginning of new hostilities between the Clans.

Soon after, the two young warriors are given their first apprentices. Fireheart is given Cinderpaw, a lively, enthusiastic gray she-cat, and Graystripe is given Brackenpaw, a golden-brown tabby tom. Winter arrives soon, a hard season for the feral cats because of the scarcity of prey and illnesses that claim several lives. Fireheart is meanwhile reunited with his sister, Princess, a house cat. Later, she offers one of her kittens - named Cloudkit by Bluestar, the ThunderClan leader - for Fireheart to bring to the Clan. Fireheart also finds a new friend in Sandpaw, a young she-cat who has grown fond of him after he saved her life. Additionally, he is frequently visited in his dreams by his first and forbidden love, the now deceased Spottedleaf, to give him counsel, warning and comfort.

When Graystripe falls into the river on RiverClan territory, the beautiful tabby Silverstream—daughter of the RiverClan leader, Crookedstar—saves Graystripe's life. They two later fall in love and Graystripe starts to neglect his Clan duties to secretly meet with Silverstream. Fireheart soon has to mentor Cinderpaw as well as Brackenpaw when Graystripe isn't around. This leads to tensions between him and Fireheart. His Clan also begins to suspect him of disloyalty.

The main antagonist of the book is Tigerclaw, the ThunderClan deputy, who continues to give a hard time to Fireheart and Graystripe. After realizing he is not satisfied with being deputy, he sets up a trap to murder Bluestar so he can be leader himself. However, Fireheart's apprentice Cinderpaw falls into Tigerclaw's trap, becoming crippled for life. During a battle against Riverclan and ShadowClan, Tigerclaw sees Fireheart let Silverstream escape from his grasp and now plans to turn the Clan against Fireheart. There are other signs showing that Tigerclaw can never be trusted as well, but Bluestar continues to have faith in the dark-hearted warrior.

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