A Starless Sky

A Clan without a leader, and no sign from the stars to name one.

A Starless Clan is the eighth arc of the Warriors series by Erin Hunter, six novels published between 2022 and 2024: River, Sky, Shadow, Thunder, Wind and Star. It is set after The Broken Code and follows three cats of different Clans, Nightheart, Sunbeam and Frostdawn. RiverClan loses its leader and its deputy, and StarClan does not show who should lead next; at the same time unrest grows over the changes that The Broken Code made to the warrior code.

Quick Facts

Series: Warrior Cats
Author (pen name): Erin Hunter

Lore & Background

Nightheart is a ThunderClan warrior, restless under the pressure of being kin to the great Firestar. Sunbeam is a ShadowClan warrior who later moves to ThunderClan to be his mate. Frostdawn trains as a RiverClan warrior and becomes its medicine cat. In RiverClan, Splashtail makes himself leader through plots and schemes, with Sunbeam's mother Berryheart, once of ShadowClan, as his deputy; both end in the Dark Forest. In the end Frostdawn chooses the Clan's leader and peace returns, and Icestar leads RiverClan afterwards. In ThunderClan, Bramblestar steps down and becomes an elder. Reviewers of the first book, River, named the changing of the Clans' code of honor for star-crossed couples as a major theme, and of the second, Sky, the handling of xenophobia.

Reader's Guide

Books in order: River (April 2022), Sky (November 2022), Shadow (April 2023), Thunder (November 2023), Wind (April 2024), Star (November 2024). Arc before: The Broken Code. Arc after: Changing Skies. River and Sky both spent weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.