the new prophecy

M to the J has alerted me to the existence of The Warriors. I'm more than a touch upset, because I'll be damned if this wasn't the way my delicious character dev/plot was leaning w/r/t my first assignment for Boundary St. Dammit!

From MJ:

In my weekly coupon email from Borders, they spotlight a few books or CDs that, in theory, are supposed to be very popular.

And this is the SIXTH book in the series! There were five previous! About cats! This blows a small part of my mind.

The best thing is that the name of the section this book is under is titled "Cat Power." I'm fairly sure that the kind of people who get that reference are not the kind of people who read the book. Just a hunch though.

As an added bit of fun, there was a link to an excerpt from the book. I've included it below. Remember: these are ALL cats.

Brambleclaw sent a silent prayer of thanks to StarClan that they had chosen this moment to send his old friend back to the Clans. He and Stormfur had been through a lot together on the first journey to the sun-drown-place, and he could think of few cats he'd rather have beside him now.

He turned his head as a thin wail came from a trampled clump of ferns at the edge of the hollow. "We need to find all the cats that have been badly wounded. Some will be on their way to join StarClan," he warned, glancing at Brook. "The badgers came to kill, not drive us out."

Brook met his gaze steadily. "Whatever they have done, I want to help. I have seen this kind of savagery before from Sharptooth, remember?" Sharptooth was a giant mountain cat that had terrorized the Tribe of Rushing Water for many moons, until the cats from the forest arrived. Stormfur's sister, Feathertail, had died in the fall that killed the savage animal.

"We'll do whatever we have to," Stormfur promised. "Just tell us what to do. Are you ThunderClan's deputy now?"

Brambleclaw studied a fragment of moss that was trapped under his front paw. "No," he admitted. "Firestar has decided not to appoint another deputy. He wants to give Graystripe more time to come back."

"That's tough." There was a note of sympathy in Stormfur's voice that made Brambleclaw wince. He didn't want any cat's pity.

MJ PROVIDES!!!!

Disappointment #1 is that these are childrens books, and now somehow less funny. 45 year olds reading cat fantasy? Kind of awesome. Kids reliving Ye Olde Thundercat experience? Eh.

I'll get over it. Actually, my favorite part of MJ's info is the text of Erin Hunter's author blurb. One: research (looking at the website for 4.2 seconds) has shown that "Erin Hunter" is actually a pseudonym for two women who work on this series. Two: Something is v. v. wrong here. The name "Erin" is perfectly nice. It is, actually, my given middle name. I like a lot of the Erins I have met in the world. That being said: If your name is CHERITH BALDRY, and you are a cat fantasy author, I am confused why you drop a name like that to go with "Erin Hunter."

Erin Hunter loves to read fantasy, enjoy nature, and take care of her cats. She combined these loves in her refreshingly original fantasy series, Warriors, which is about clans of feral felines scratching out a life for themselves in the wild. In Warriors, the New Prophecy: Sunset, the sixth book of the New Prophecy, the cats of ThunderClan are still cleaning their wounds from a vicious badger attack when a member of their clan named Leafpool receives a disturbing prophecy. Hunter offers another delightful, hair-raising adventure of cats in trouble trying to land on their feet.

Greatest author blurb of all time? You be the judge. Anyways, be sure to pick up books 1-6 at the Fairfax Cnty. Library. (oh, snaaaap.)

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In other news, my favorite websearch of the morning is "bears on leashes."