Analyzing warriors book covers by Nightfeather

Nightfeather takes a look at the book covers of the first arc.

Artwork by Owen Richardson

It’s me, Nightfeather. I was going to talk about what I ship, but then I realised that there were so many of those. Instead, I decided to talk about the book covers,
The book covers have been something that the fandom does not seem to enjoy. A lot of people complain about the current covers being that they are just awkward close ups of cats, but I also personally think that the old covers weren’t the best either. I will be looking at the covers of the prophecy begins and I will be looking at how it looks in general and how it represents the book.
Before we start I want to talk about the art styles in general. The problem that I have with both of them is that they are too realistic and not that expressive. My friend and I had a whole argument about what yellowfang’s facial expression was in the new cover of rising storm. This is a fictional book series about cats that live and act like people.
So first we are looking at Into the Wild. This is one of the only ones where I would say I like the new cover better. In the first cover you can’t even tell what’s happening. I looked it up and it’s supposed to be Greypaw and a cat from another clan. It doesn’t really represent what actually happens in the book. The new cover looks pretty good. It’s Firepaw doing something that I guess is hunting. It’s not the most interesting but it looks good nonetheless.
Now we get to Fire and Ice. I couldn’t find what the old cover exactly was so I’m just going to take a guess. It’s probably Fireheart and Graystripe and then the battle that happens at the end of the book. Usually I would say battles on the cover are not that interesting because it happens all the time but new readers would be intrigued being that there has only been one battle. The new cover is Tigerclaw just staring. Not very interesting. It looks like there was a fire because there were sparks but nope. Also I feel like the title is pretty random. Unless my memory is horrible I don’t think that the book had anything to do with fire or ice.
Then we have Forest of Secrets. The cats on the cover are supposed to be Graystripe and Fireheart crossing the stepping stones. You can barely tell who they are. I’m not sure who the ginger cat is. I thought it was Fireheart at first but then I realised that the cat had amber eyes. I can not tell who the cat is. The cover looks cool but the concept isn’t really interesting. Then the new cover. It’s just a really awkward close up of Greystripe in front of some yellow lake. What is even happening?
On Rising Storm we have Fireheart and Cloudpaw. Not exactly interesting. On the new cover we have yellowfang in a fire. It’s kind of a spoiler but interesting. Don’t have much to say about this one.
A Dangerous Path. *Sighs*. On the old cover it shows a battle. Even though this is only the second time there has been a battle on the cover, battles aren’t shocking anymore to the reader. The battle wasn’t even the highlight of the book. It was the dogs, Swiftpaw, Brightpaw, (I refuse to call her lostface) Bluestar’s death. No one even died in the battle. I completely forgot about it myself. And then on the new cover we have a depressed Bluestar that looks nothing like the Bluestar anyone imagined. Just look up Bluestar on the internet and you will not see a Bluestar looking anything like this.
So I may have made a mistake. Apparently the cat on the old cover of The Darkest Hour is actually Firestar even though he has amber eyes. It is revealed in Fading Echoes that he has green eyes so I can’t really criticize them for that. I don’t like Firestar in this cover though. It doesn’t look like anything I pictured. I like the idea though. And then the new cover. Can someone tell me what’s going on? All I can take from it is that it’s an awkward picture of Firestar.

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26 comments

  • The Fire part in Fire and Ice is probably relating to Fireheart and the Ice is probably about how most of the book takes place during leaf-bare

  • i don’t think there’s anything wrong with the covers being realistic. they’re all very beautiful and remind the reader that these are cats, not humans (which is very important to me).

    also, i don’t think the cover should be a scene in the book. covers should symbolize what the entire book is about. itw’s new cover shows firepaw hunting with a serious expression, which perfectly symbolizes the book. fire and ice shows a sinister tigerclaw, forest of secrets shows graystripe because of his meetings with silverstream, rising storm shows yellowfang to foreshadow her death, dangerous path shows bluestar to also foreshadow her death, and the darkest hour shows angry firestar’s reflection because of the lion thing. these are all wonderful covers in my opinion 🙂

  • First Book New Cover: Firepaw had a dream about hunting and he went into the wild.
    Second Book New Cover: No idea…
    Third Book New Cover: Greystripe fell in love with a cat from Riverclan so that explains him and the lake.
    Fourth Book New Cover: There was a fire yellowfang died that was important.
    Fifth Book New Cover: Bluestar reaveals she was the mother and she dies and she goes crazy!!
    Sixth Book New Cover: I have a theory that it Firestar staring at scourge and the black stuff is his neck and head. There is even a brown collar.

  • i believe that the “fire” part of the title represents Fireheart, and the “Ice” part represents Greystripe. in the book it’s the part of Greystripe falling in love with Silverstream. and i believe that there is the great fire in that book. the new cover is Tigerstar because he accuses Grey and Fire of helping riverclan (when the river clan cats are starving).

  • I love the spines on the books, how they create scenes when put all together. I’ve never noticed this with any other book series. At the library I’ve seen some of the old covers for warriors, I didn’t like them. It made me think the books were written in the 70s or something, the new covers make me want to pick up the books and devour every word. 🤣 And with the novellas it’s still kinda like the old art scheme, which I can appreciate that they didn’t trash that style completely, a few of the old covers I actually liked. I think there is one with Fireheart looking down at his reflection in a puddle of water and he sees a lion.

  • I Think the fire and ice title refer to fireheart and graystripe being unfriendly to each other and arguing the whole book. Or maybe that’s the next one? I can’t remember either.