The Empty City

The Empty City is a 2012 children's fantasy novel written under the pseudonym Erin Hunter. It is the first in the Survivors novel series. A contest was held on the Warriors website to determine the cover of The Empty City that came down to a mock "vote" with the pets of HarperCollins staff members.

The books in the series are written by Gillian Philip and Inbali Iserles under the Erin Hunter name.

The plot chronicles Lucky, a sheltie-retriever and Lone Dog, who must help his littermate Bella and her half-pack of Leashed Dogs to survive on their own after an apocalyptic earthquake results in the townspeople driving away without their pets.

Reviews have been positive, with The Empty City being praised for the pacing, characters, and "magical" style.

Cover

Over fifty thousand Warriors and Seekers fans voted between two covers for The Empty City.^[1] Twelve pets of HarperCollins staff members "chose" their selection by tapping it with their nose or paw or by sitting on it in the case of one cat.^[1]

Plot

In the prologue, Lucky (then Yap), a golden-haired mutt, is with his Pup Pack when his Mother-Dog tells him the story of the Storm of Dogs, when all of the mythical dogs will fight and all living dogs will be caught in the middle. The Mother-Dog includes how this will begin with Earth-Dog splitting the ground open to capture dogs.

Years later, Lucky, now a Lone Dog, is in a shelter when the ground rumbles and cages are turned on their sides. He and another dog, Sweet, escape the carnage and part ways. When Lucky begins to get hungry. He smells steak and finds a man and his Fierce Dog (one of any breeds of guard dog), who chase him to where the ground has split open in an event called the Big Growl that would begin the Storm of Dogs. Around this time Lucky begins having dreams of the Storm of Dogs.

After searching, Lucky finds that the mall is left unguarded. There he sees Old Hunter, his friend. Old Hunter turns on him, saying that he needs to keep all the food for himself since there's no more. However, Lucky sees that Old Hunter's tail is getting dangerously close to a light switch in a puddle and saves him. Lucky then gets his first meal and he and Old Hunter depart. Lucky takes a nap with some more steak from Old Hunter, and when he wakes up foxes are there who want the steak. Lucky attempts to run away, but gets cornered. More dogs come in and save him, and they introduce themselves: Bella, his littermate; Martha, a Newfoundland; Mickey, a border collie; Bruno, a German Shepherd; Sunshine, a Maltese; and Daisy, a Westie and Jack Russell Terrier mix. Lucky discovers that all of these are Leashed Dogs, or pets, that were together before the Big Growl, and hold hope that their owners will come back for them.

Lucky makes the internal decision to temporarily join this "leashed Pack" to help his sister and her friends in this new world and to help them find their dog spirits, and later he decides that this will help stop the dreams. Overnight a house collapses nearby that houses the bulldog Alfie. Only Lucky and Bruno have the courage to go and save Alfie, and he joins the new pack. The other members become determined to help others more. Afterwards, Daisy falls unconscious when she goes back for something in her house and falls victim to a gas leak. Lucky uses this to show that the pack cannot hold on to the hope of their humans. He lets them take one item each that will remind them of their owners into the wilderness.

As Lucky begins to teach the other dogs how to survive in the forest, Bruno falls into the river and is rescued by Martha, as her breed has webbed paws. Lucky begins to see that each dog has a different talent and works them out to help the other members of the pack. After the pack begins to get settled into their new homes, Alfie has news that there are dogs and food farther away. Bella, Lucky, Alfie, and Daisy go to inspect, and though Lucky is suspicious of this place, the others accept it with naïveté. Bella and Lucky get into a fight about how safe it is, and Lucky storms away. The next morning he hears noises, and Bella, Daisy, and Alfie have been captured by Dagger, Blade, and Mace; three Doberman Pinschers that live there. Lucky uses quick maneuvers and trickery to help them escape, and they thank him and apologize for their behavior.

Lucky leads them to an area where he is sure the pack will be safe, and makes them bury their owners' items. However, Mickey refuses to give up the baseball glove that his owners' son had in hope that they will come again. Lucky then decides that it is time to depart, and the first night alone he has a horrible nightmare. He wakes up to hear dogs proclaiming that Bella's pack was on their land and the sounds of a fight beginning.

Publication history

The Empty City was first published as a hardcover by HarperCollins on 21 August 2012.^[2] It was released the same day for eBooks.^[3] It was released in paperback on 7 May 2013, the day that the sequel, A Hidden Enemy, is released.^[4]

Critical reception

Reviews of The Empty City were overwhelmingly positive. Kidsreads.com called it a "new and creative twist" for dystopian fiction, with clever names for human things and great emotion for animals in the writing. The reviewer calls it "a fantastically fun and furry adventure with a wild canine spirit".^[5] Kirkus Reviews gave the novel a starred review, saying that "Hunter expertly explores the tensions between responsibility and freedom; risk and safety; and loyalty and acceptance". The reviewer goes on to say that Lucky's point-of-view made "even the most mundane or familiar seem alive with magic".^[6] Booklist enjoyed the "fast-moving" plot and the characterization. The reviewer also said it was a "promising start" to the Survivors series.^[7] Common Sense Media gave it four stars out of five and said that it was an "[e]xciting start to [the] dog fantasy series".^[8]

Sequel

The sequel to The Empty City, A Hidden Enemy, was released on 7 May 2013.^[9] It has a black-and-white half-wolf, half Husky dog on the cover. The third book in the series, Darkness Falls, was released on 3 September 2013 and has Martha the Newfoundland on the cover.^[10]

References

Erin Hunter's Survivors series Survivors: The Original Series The Empty City (2012) A Hidden Enemy (2013) Darkness Falls (2013) The Broken Path (2014) Authors Erin Hunter Kate Cary Cherith Baldry Tui Sutherland Victoria Holmes Related series Warriors Seekers WikiProject