Survivors: The Empty City

Survivors: The Empty City by Erin Hunter
HarperCollins - August 21, 2012
288 pages

Lucky is a golden-haired mutt that's always had a nose for survival and a preference to stay a Lone Dog. No packs or humans could hold him back. Then the Big Growl strikes, splitting a hole in the ground, causing humans to flee, and resulting in utter chaos among the dogs. Lucky attempts to survive on his own again, but when he sees a pitiful "pack" made of former Leashed Dogs hoping that their owners will come back and including his sister Bella, he sees that he has to help them.

Warriors was so excellent that I tore through the books. Seekers was so horrible I couldn't get through the first book. So I eagerly dove into the first book in the Survivors series hoping for the best but anticipating the worst, especially since it was by a new Erin Hunter. I was surprised but not, I should mention, disappointed with the result. I was expecting something hardboiled and realistic, considering how close dogs are to humans. Instead I got a more mythological book, with dogs being the true sky, sun, lightning, river, forest, and earth and with different roles (Forest-Dog is the trickster). The wide variety of dogs with their personalities highlighted make it interesting. The only major problem I had with this was the vocabulary. I find it hard to believe that a cat who spends its life avoiding humans knows more terms than a dog who lived with them all its life. (spoiler alert!)I did a little investigative work, and if you get confused when Daisy passes out in her backyard, there was a gas leak in her humans' house.(spoiler end). With enough deduction, you can figure it out, but it shouldn't pull you away from the novel too much.

Grade: A-