Book Review: Survivors: The Original Arc by Erin Hunter (Survivors Arc 1)

I’ve only read arc 1 of Survivors once a long time ago, and had very mixed thoughts on it. But, with me giving Warriors another shot and surprisingly enjoying some of the later arcs despite the negative things I’d heard about it, I thought that it was time to give this book series, which is basically the dog equivalent of Warriors, a shot. It’s written under the same pen name, though not by the same authors if I recall correctly. Also, yes, there will be quite a few Warriors comparisons in here because the marketing of this is basically “Warriors but with dogs”.

So let’s dive into the world of the wild dog packs in Survivors: the first arc. Spoilers ahead.

Book One: The Empty City 

Our story starts off as we follow Lucky, a lone street dog, in an abandoned-by-humans city after an apocalyptic event. He finds himself with a group of pet dogs left by their owners, which he feels obligated to help survive in the wild. In teaching them on how to find their true selves and listen to their dog-spirit, however, he may just discover that the life of a lone dog isn’t suited for him after all.It’s the startup book for this whole two-arc long ordeal, and with that, it’s got a lot to do. Establish the world, introduce the characters and overarching plot, it’s all there. How does The Empty City hold up with this?

I’ll be honest, it’s not as strong a startup as the first Warriors book for example. Unlike there, where our main character knew nothing of this new life he was entering, Lucky already knows all he can about living in the wild and the world he inhabits. Therefore, we don’t get smoothly introduced to some concepts. For example, a sharpclaw is a cat, but it’s never made really clear that this is a cat other than the description. Warriors would here explain in wild cat/Clan terminology what an oddity Rusty/Firepaw encounters is called, but we’re just supposed to go off descriptions only in this book.

We don’t get introduced to a main plot until very late, either. We spend like the first two thirds of the book just with the Leashed Pack and them coming to grips with the fact that their owners abandoned them and learning how to hunt and survive. Then suddenly in the last part of the book we get introduced to a pack of Dobermans because I guess we needed some form of a climax and to set up the main villains for the rest of Arc 1, but it’s really too late for this here. We already should’ve at the very least had some hints of a real plot in the first book. Again, comparing it to Warriors, Tigerclaw was set up as the main villain of The Prophecies Begin in the very first book and not too late into it.

It also doesn’t have a very interesting world. We start out in a completely abandoned metropolis, which would be very intriguing, but the way it was written just didn’t bring this out at all. Things got better once we went into the wild and the Leashed Pack trekked into the hills and forests, but the city is just very under described for such a major setting (it’s literally the title of the first book).

Lucky also wasn’t particularly great as a main character, at least not yet. I’m not going to judge his sequel characteristics yet, but he just felt kind of predictable here. He was a bit of a jerk at times, but that, together with his insistence that he definitely really is a lone dog, were really his only defining personality traits. Otherwise he was just kind of bland. The other dogs don’t fare much better, either. They have some traits, but they feel very far from being actual unique characters. They just all kind of blended together with the exception of Bella and Alfie, I guess.

It was also obvious from the start that Lucky was going back to the Leashed Pack eventually. They were trying to build it up as a surprise, but it was very obviously heading in that direction. Still, we never really saw Lucky get that attached to the pet dogs, with exception of his sister. He spends most of his time internally complaining about how they’ll never be true wild dogs and don’t have any dog-spirit or whatever, then after he left suddenly he insists on staying with them. I get that this was because they were in danger, but he stays with them after that in the second book, so I still don’t fully buy it. They could’ve done a better job showing him get attached to these dogs.

Overall, as a first book, I don’t think this is horrible or anything, but it’s just really not a strong start. It lacks on the world establishing and building explanations, the part in the city feels very dully written, and there really isn’t any plot to speak of whatsoever until the Fierce Dogs show up. There were hints here and there of a Storm of Dogs (which is a ridiculous name I cannot take seriously, by the way), but those are so few and far between they might as well not be there.

Not my favorite start to the series, but I did really enjoy the second part.

Rating: 3/5

Book Two: A Hidden Enemy

In the second book, A Hidden Enemy, we still follow Lucky as he now infiltrates a pack of wild dogs led by a wolf hybrid in order to gain information out of them for the sake of the Leashed Pack. This doesn’t go easily, and Lucky is put to the test once he has to pick where his loyalties truly lie.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than the original. Now that the world is (mostly) set up, we finally get into the nitty gritty of the story. We have Alpha established as a major factor into the story (not an outright villain quite yet, but getting there), Sweet is back and is here to stay, we meet other wild dogs for the first time other than Old Hunter, it’s all there.

The plot also had more going on, with Bella obviously hiding something and there actually being a set point to the story now. Book one just kind of felt like idling about in first the city and then the woods before finally introducing a last conflict with the Fierce Dogs. But here we have a clear antagonist, a clear purpose to the story, and that really makes it work a whole lot more than the first.

The characters also feel… better, somehow. It isn’t a major leap of improvement over the first one or anything, but I get more of a feel for them here, at least with the Wild Pack. The Leashed Pack still has some character development that leaves much to be desired, but at least Bella gets a pretty major character change in this. Lucky himself isn’t quite amazing yet, but we do really get to see that he does have a good moral compass here but is willing to play dirty in order to get what he wants/needs.

The world building still isn’t quite to my liking yet. We have a whole lot of Spirit Dogs they keep going on about, but it isn’t really clear what each spirit does. Sky Dogs, Moon Dog, Earth Dog, the list goes on. They’re just kind of described and some loose lore about them is given, but they don’t feel as lively as say StarClan in Warriors in the first arc.

Another complaint I have is that this book series yet again uses the completely wrong theory regarding how packs work, with this whole alpha-beta-omega nonsense. This has been debunked years ago, yet they still insist on keeping parts of it, when they could’ve just gone the Warriors route and made up a completely new ranking system, rather than use this over-represented outdated one.

Overall, though, I much preferred book two to The Empty City when it comes to Survivors. It’s not quite there yet, but it’s at least a well-paced strong second installment that hopefully leads up to an even stronger rest of the arc!

Rating: 3/5

Book Three: Darkness Falls

Book three, Darkness Falls, focuses on the now two united packs under Alpha’s rule. Lucky accepts the role of Omega, but soon leaves the pack with Mickey, who really wants to go back to the city to see if his owners have returned. On their way back to the pack, however, they come across a litter of abandoned Fierce Dog (Doberman) pups, which they take back to the pack, not knowing that this is the start of a long war between the Fierce Pack and the Wild Pack.

This book was another kind of solid one, if you ask me? I’m really on the fence about how much I like it and whether to give it three or four stars. Let me explain.

The good: actual character development. Lucky talks to Bella and is still cross with her for using him, he has a fallout with Sweet. Both Martha and Mickey get their time to shine, whereas before they were just kind of there. We also get introduced to the currently simple yet still interesting Fierce Dog pups, which are an interesting new addition to our pack.

If I could complain about one of the characters, it would be Alpha. He just doesn’t feel like, well, much of anything, really. He really just feels like a very, very generic antagonist/villain in these books so far. There is nothing about his personality or way of acting that sets him apart from any other arrogant antagonist characters. He’s just that. I’m not saying that Warriors always had the best villains, but at least the ones like Tigerclaw felt like a legitimate intimidating threat, whereas Alpha just feels very much like a blank slate of a villain. More like a character trope than an actual thought out villain.

The pacing is rather slow in this one, but I was okay with it. I was dreading a long trip to and back from the city, but it went by quite fast, and at least the way back was a lot more interesting with the discovery of the Doberman pups. This also finally sets our main plot in motion, because the conflict with the Fierce Pack is what drives the last three books. It’s a bit late for a main plot setup, but I’ll let it slide for now and may get back to it later, depending on how well the three later ones handle this conflict.

I guess I do have to bring up an inconsistency I think I spotted? Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Bella supposed to become Omega in book two? And then suddenly in book three they insist on Lucky becoming one? Either I missed something or this really is an inconsistency, you decide.

For now I think I like this book, but it’s severely lacking in the action part and the Alpha still isn’t developed any more, so I’ll give it three stars, mostly for the character development and setup we get.

Rating: 3/5

Book Four: The Broken Path

In book four, our Pack travels further again, and comes across a disorganized rival pack led by a mad and sick dog named Terror. They now have to face them, while Lucky is also deeply worried about Lick’s status in the pack.

This one was definitely stronger than book three, if you ask me. It has more action and memorable moments, at least for me.

This time the character of Twitch gets developed, and even Fiery gets featured prominently. Lucky still isn’t my favorite, but he’s okay. I really like what they’re doing with Lick, even if it is retreading slightly familiar ground (her character arc is somewhat similar to Bramblepaw’s in arc one of Warriors).

Terror maybe wasn’t the most memorable villain out there, but I’d place him about Alpha big time. He at least had a significantly different take on the dog lore, and acted very different from the antagonists we’ve dealt with in Survivors up until now. He may have been a one-off character and only been majorly featured in this book before his death, but I will definitely remember this villain. His death is also really, really epic, by the way.

I guess I also spotted another inconsistency? In this book, Lucky says that he’s not ready to forgive Bella, but I distinctly remember it saying book two that “he’d forgive her, but not forget”. I’m starting to get the impression that, like with the Warriors Erin Hunters, this is being written by multiple authors, and that the communication doesn’t go the smoothest. Either that, or there’s really some inconsistencies the writers and/or editors didn’t pick up on.

This was just a book I mostly enjoyed. I still don’t think it’s quite on part with Warriors arc 1 just yet, but at least things are starting to look better.

Rating: 4/5

Book Five: The Endless Lake

Book five is where I felt things really were improving.

In this installment, we follow the pack as they search for a new place to live, and they arrive at the beach near a sea, dubbed the “Endless Lake” by them. The Fierce Dogs are back, however, and try to do everything within their might to get their fangs on Storm, whose temperament is tested by all this immensely.

This is really what I wanted from the time I first started picking up these books. Interesting conflict, seeing more of the main villains and them actually being a threat, development for Sweet and Storm, exploring neat abandoned locations and coming across new things. This is really what I was looking for all along.

Is it perfect? No, it’s still flawed, don't get me wrong. We still have some characters that have very little personality or are just almost forgotten about (seriously, I forgot Whine was still in the Wild Pack at some points because he has so little mentions in this entire book), but at least we’re finally getting down to the main battle that has been build up from the start.

I really liked these environments a whole lot more, too. Since we travel so much and never linger for long in one place in Survivors, I did spot a problem that Warriors didn’t have, which was getting attached to the surroundings. In Warriors, we felt totally at home in the old forest, because it’s where most of the entirety of arc one and a part of arc two takes place.

But in Survivors, we constantly move about, and the environments aren’t very well-described, either. At least, not until here. I really felt more immersed in this book than ever before in this series. Before it was usually just generic post-apocalyptic city or abandoned forest for the most part. But here we get an actual town that does feel lost, a fairground without people to explore, the beach which most dogs haven’t been to, a new part of the forest to explore, a lighthouse, caves, the list goes on. I just wish we could’ve gotten this from the start, but we can’t have everything.

The buildup to the final conflict is also getting better. We really see tensions rising between the Fierce Dogs and the Wild Pack, heck, even within the Wild Pack themselves. I really hope that they’ll be able to defeat the bad guys in the last book.

Storm’s and Sweet’s developments were probably my favorite in this book, as were Fang showing a bit of his softer side and Twitch becoming Alpha. Our wolfdog Alpha (who later becomes Omega for the Fierce Dogs) still feels very generic, so I’ve at this point given up on him becoming a more rounded and interesting villain, but at least getting rid of him as leader of the Wild dogs helped put Sweet more in the spotlight.

What else can I say? This was a solidly-written, solidly-paced book with solid character development and buildup. So far, this is definitely the strongest out of all of them.

Rating: 4/5

Book Six: Storm of Dogs

Storm of Dogs marks the final book out of the original arc. In this one, the Wild Pack and Twitch’s pack work together to formulate a plan and take care of the Fierce Dog pack once and for all.

I think this is another really solid one. Maybe not as good as the last one, but it has proper buildup, character development and plenty of thrills as the final battle takes place.

First things first, we actually get a motivation for the Fierce Dogs in this book. Blade thinks she is communicating with the dog gods and that they told her to kill Storm, which finally gives us an answer as to why she was so set on killing her and her brothers. It’s not the most thrilling revelation, but still at least gives a simple yet proper depth to our villains and what they’re acting out of: fear of the end of the world.

There’s some pretty devastating character deaths in this one, but it overall kept things nicely balanced. I was most sad to see Martha go here, because she was such a maternal figure to Storm. Many of the villains obviously die, too. I actually thought it was kind of interesting that to take down the main villain wasn’t our protagonist’s task. Instead, it was yet again Storm that slayed Blade. Lucky settles for killing the Wild Pack’s previous Alpha instead in a pretty cool battle.

This book just did most things right, to the point I can’t find much wrong with it. It’s just a nice balanced ending to this series that had an admittedly pretty mediocre start. Just another strong series.

Rating: 4/5

Some other thoughts about the series here:

I’m not too keen on them using stereotypically “bad” dogs as villains, such as Terror having pitbull blood and the Fierce Pack being all-Doberman, but at least for the Dobermans it’s somewhat averted later on as Storm proves her loyalty. I still just wish we didn’t have Doberman-only main villains. I’m more okay with Alpha being a central antagonist due to wolves recently making a comeback and not having that bad a reputation anymore, but the status of amstaffs and Dobermans is still fragile, as a lot of people still view them as “evil” or something along those lines. The book series didn’t need to re-enforce this stereotype so much, even if one or two characters avoid it.

Something I like Warriors doesn’t do often: central female characters that are strong. Lucky doesn’t end up as leader, it’s Sweet who ends up taking control, and she does a very good job at it. Storm goes through a very empowering arc and kicks some major villain tail, and we have a central female villain, which I just thought was awesome, considering we’ve only had like a few for Warriors in a sea of male villains.

The relationship writing, however, wasn’t too strong. I literally felt like Sweet and Lucky only got together out of pack obligation, not because they had a strong bond. This honestly could work, I think it’d be interesting to explore a relationship like that that isn’t meant to be romantic. But the book makes it clear that they’re supposed to be romantically involved. Yet they barely at all have any chemistry whatsoever. We do get some jealous and romantic thoughts from Lucky throughout the arc, but none of it felt very major, and I just felt like there were no feelings from Sweet like that whatsoever. She seemed to have picked him as her Beta because he was the most sensible option and dog best for the job, not because of how much she loved him. I wouldn’t be complaining about it if this was the type of relationship they wanted to explore, but the books make it clear it’s not, and there I have to fault it for lackluster writing. Sandstorm and Fireheart had clear chemistry. Sweet and Lucky do not.

Final Thoughts

My overall thoughts? An admittedly weak start to the series, but it becomes really strong in the last five books. Is it on par with Warriors arc 1? Not if you ask me, but I also have a massive nostalgia for this series, whereas I didn’t get into Survivors until relatively recently.

If you’re looking for something that feels exactly like Warriors but with dogs, I’m not even sure if I’d recommend it. The structure of the Packs and world/setting is just vastly different for a lot of time. I personally enjoyed it fine, but it doesn’t feel the same as Warriors when reading it.

Whether you want to pick up this book series or not is ultimately up to you. You will have to sit through the first three which are relatively just okay, but I definitely think it’s worth it for the payoff in the later books.

A series that is overall far from perfect, but the goods outweigh the bads for me. I will carefully recommend it here, if you're prepared to sit through the first books that are still okay but not as good as the rest.