Warrior Cats (Warriors) Reading Order

Why this order?

Warriors is one of the longest-running children's and middle-grade fantasy sagas in print, written by the collective pen name Erin Hunter (Victoria Holmes plus authors including Kate Cary, Cherith Baldry, and Tui Sutherland). The story of warring forest cat Clans is organized into arcs of (mostly) six novels, and the simplest, safest way through it is publication order: read each arc start to finish before moving to the next. That keeps the cast, generations, and rising mythology in the order the authors intended.

Begin with The Prophecies Begin (the original "arc 1," sometimes still sold under the subtitle The Original Series), which follows the kittypet Rusty becoming the ThunderClan warrior Firepaw. Continue through The New Prophecy, Power of Three, and Omen of the Stars — these four arcs form one continuous multi-generation throughline and should absolutely be read in that order.

The one real gotcha is Dawn of the Clans. Although it is the fifth arc by publication (2013-2015), it is a prequel set generations before book one, dramatizing how the Clans first formed. Some readers prefer it earliest as a chronological "origin story"; most fans recommend keeping it in publication slot so you appreciate the lore callbacks. After it come A Vision of Shadows, The Broken Code, A Starless Clan, and the newest arc, Changing Skies, which opened in 2025 with The Elders' Quest and is still ongoing.

Beyond the main arcs are dozens of Super Editions (single-cat standalones like Bluestar's Prophecy and Firestar's Quest), novellas, field guides, and manga. Most are optional, but a few cross-arc lead-ins bridge the gaps neatly: read Bramblestar's Storm after Omen of the Stars, then Squirrelflight's Hope and Tigerheart's Shadow around A Vision of Shadows. If you like this kind of sprawling animal-fantasy, Erin Hunter's Survivors, Seekers, and Bravelands run on similar models.