Survivors (novel series)

Survivors

Boxed set containing the first three books
The Empty City A Hidden Enemy Darkness Falls The Broken Path The Endless Lake Storm of Dogs The Gathering Darkness: A Pack Divided The Gathering Darkness: Dead of Night The Gathering Darkness: Into the Shadows
Author	Erin Hunter
Illustrator	Julia Green
Country	United Kingdom
Genre	Children's fantasy
Publisher	HarperCollins
Published	21 August 2012 – present
Media type	Print, e-book

Survivors is a children's novel series written by a team of authors under the pseudonym Erin Hunter, who also wrote the Warriors series. Survivors follows the adventures of a group of pet dogs who form a pack with the help of Lucky, a lone dog, after an earthquake separates them from their owners. The first book The Empty City was released on 21 August 2012, and was followed by A Hidden Enemy, Darkness Falls, The Broken Path, The Endless Lake, and Storm of Dogs, released on 10 February 2015.

There are currently two sub-series, each containing six books. The first, Survivors (later retitled Survivors: The Original Series), was published from 2012 to 2015. The second sub-series, Survivors: The Gathering Darkness, is still on its third book and halfway finished. The first book of the second series, A Pack Divided, was released on 13 October 2015 followed by Dead of Night on 7 June 2016 and Into the Shadows on 7 February 2017.

Other books have been released in addition to the main series, including three e-book novellas entitled Alpha's Tale, Sweet's Journey and Moon's Choice, the latest novella, released on 5 May 2015. The Survivors series has been released in e-book format for popular e-readers such as the Barnes & Noble Nook and Amazon Kindle. The series has also been translated into several languages. In addition, the series has a website featuring games, promotional videos, quizzes, and news. Survivors has garnered positive reviews, with critics praising the pacing, characters, and "magical" style of writing while a reviewer called the story "confusing" due to its large number of characters.

Inspiration and origins

When the Seekers series was being created, it started as a request from HarperCollins to Victoria Holmes, saying that the team should develop another series about a group of animals, but this time not cats. HarperCollins first suggested that they write a book about dogs, but Holmes was reluctant to create stories that would be too close to Warriors, and dogs lived in packs, hunted for food, had a strict hierarchy, and guarded their territories, like the cats.^[1] Eventually it was decided that the series would be about bears instead. In another chat two years later, Holmes said that, though she was "happy to focus on cats and bears right now", she would consider doing a series about dogs.^[2] Gilian Philip said later that "dogs just felt like a natural progression" from cats.^[3]

The authors later invited Inbali Iselris, author of The Tygrine Cat, to write a new series about dogs called Survivors.^[4] She readily accepted the offer after learning that Philip was also writing the series. According to her, cats are more mysterious when compared to dogs, who are easily sociable and full of frentic energy.^[4] After joining Erin Hunter, she spent more time with her dog Michi, watching his behaviour closely. Some of his mannerisms that were noted were his tail wagging and his ears flicking back in excitement at the sight of his friends. These gave her lots of material to develop the character of Lucky and his companions.^[4]

While the earlier series had the preliminary plot written by a single author, a different approach was taken for the Survivors series. The whole team creates a detailed story outline and develops the characters together, and then the actual writing gets done by a single author, who is allowed to change something significant about the plot or characters if they feel that a certain character would not act in a specific way.^[5]

Books

The Original Series

The Empty City

The Empty City is the first book in the Original Series and was released 21 August 2012. It begins with the main character, Lucky, hearing a story of an apocalypse from his mother. Years later, the "Big Growl" strikes in the form of an earthquake. He escapes a cage and strikes out on his own, having dreams of the apocalypse, known as the "Storm of Dogs". Lucky and his friend Sweet escape the cages they have been trapped in; Sweet runs away soon after without an explanation. After saving his friend Old Hunter from being electrocuted, he takes a nap with steak. When Lucky wakes up, foxes have surrounded him. He is saved by his sister Bella and a group of former pets who are sure that their owners will come back for them. Lucky decides to join them temporarily and show them how to survive in this new world before going back to being a loner. After Martha, a Newfoundland, saves another dog from drowning because she has webbed paws, Lucky teaches the pack how to divide work based on their abilities. When the bulldog Alfie finds a place that there is food and other dogs just a little farther off, everyone but Lucky follows him. Lucky finds that the others were captured by three Doberman Pinschers. He uses trickery to help the other pack members escape and leads them to safety. He makes them bury any trace of their owners, but the Border Collie Mickey holds tight to his owners' son's baseball glove. Lucky leaves his pack, but wakes up the next morning to hear fighting.

A Hidden Enemy

A Hidden Enemy is the second book in the series and was released on 7 May 2013. It begins with Lucky hearing a story of a fight between dogs and wolves from his mother. After hearing sounds of fighting, he rushes to help his pack from an attack by the Wild Pack and realises that their Alpha is a wolfdog, who injures Alphie. A Big Growl occurs, causing the packs to scatter. Lucky rescues the Wild Pack's Beta, revealed to be Sweet, who was falling into the opening chasm. She invites Lucky but he declines the offer. Alfie dies due to his injuries and Bella makes Lucky feel guilty to make him follow her plan. Lucky goes to the Wild Pack and meets the patrol dogs Twitch, Dart and Spring, who attack him. Sweet stops them and takes him to the Alpha, who makes Lucky a patrol dog. During Prey Sharing, Mulch tries to steal a mouse, but Sweet snaps at him and threatens to demote him, shocking Lucky. He feels a sense of loyalty to the pack during Great Howl. Lucky becomes a Hunter after winning a challenge with Snap. Mulch is demoted to a patrol dog. Whine sees Lucky secretly meeting Bella, and asks him to frame Mulch for stealing prey. Mulch is scarred and demoted to Omega, while Whine is promoted to a patrol dog. Bella and the Leashed Pack attack the Wild Pack with foxes. The foxes kill Mulch and Fuzz, Moon's pup. The two packs together drive the foxes out. Alpha says he should kill Bella, while Moon and Fiery defend her. Sweet suggests to join their packs and leaves the decision in Bella's hand, but Whine reveals Lucky's secret, forcing him to choose which side he is on.

Darkness Falls

Darkness Falls is the third book in the series and was released on 3 September 2013. It begins with Lucky's mother telling him and his littermates that the Sky-Dogs and Lightning are only play-fighting during a storm but Lucky doesn't believe this. Alpha allows Lucky and the Leashed Dogs to stay but Lucky is demoted to Omega and about to be scarred, but Alpha is frightened after seeing a black cloud. Lucky takes charge and helps the pack. Twitch leaves after breaking his leg and Mickey leaves thinking the longpaws are back. Alpha banishes Lucky, thinking he was bad luck. Lucky finds Mickey defending his longpaws' home against other longpaws but his house collapses. Lucky and Mickey find abandoned Fierce Dog Pups whose mother is dead. They name them Grunt, Lick and Wiggle. They take pups to pack where Alpha allows them to stay relucantly, but leaves Lucky in charge of them as an Omega. Alpha puts the pups to test and asks them to follow Daisy's orders during the test. Suddenly, a giantfur arrives and is faced by Grunt bravely. Lucky and the Alpha rescue the pups and Daisy from the giantfur. Later, Blade the Fierce Dog traps the Wild Pack and takes the pups away to his pack. Sweet tells Lucky that she will forgive him if he forgives her, making Lucky angry to be treated like he is not loyal. To prove his loyalty, Lucky challenges Snap again but loses. One day, Lick arrives in the Wild Pack covered with scratches and says that Blade murdered Whine and Grunt is staying in his pack. Hearing this, Alpha allows Lick to stay in the Wild Pack.

The Broken Path

Coming soon

The Endless Lake

It begins with young Bella and Lucky having a race. Lucky falls into a pit and is saved by his mother, who tells him that the Earth Dog protects them.

Development

Mythology

The authors knew ahead of time that spirituality was going to be a large part of the lives of the dogs, and that domestication and wildness would affect their dependence on it, and the characters' varying degrees of belief and dependence on religion would vary throughout the course of the series.^[5] The Leashed Dogs do not really believe in the pantheon the same way Lone and Pack Dogs like Lucky do, but as they become more wild they become more spiritual, shown when they bury their owners items as an offering to Earth Dog.^[6] The dogs have a pantheon of gods for different natural elements, like forests and earth.^[6] The series begins with Lucky as a pup being told the story of the "Storm of Dogs", when this pantheon would fight and trap living dogs in the middle; this becomes the "Big Growl" which the story is centered on.^[5]

Hierarchy

There are multiple different kinds of dogs, with various hierarchial systems. Leashed Dogs are pets, Lone Dogs are stray but live without dependence on other dogs, and Pack Dogs are stray and live dependent on their leader and packmates. After the Big Growl, most of the Leashed Dogs have lost their owners.^[5] The main characters are part of the "Leashed Pack", a group of dogs that are all dependent on one another but without a complex social structure; it can be construed that Lucky is their leader (alpha).^[6] The Wild Pack has a stricter hierarchy, with the wolfdog as a leader; Alpha, Beta, and Omega are referred to by their titles, while hunters and patrol dogs are given different names to distinguish.

Terminology

There was a large group effort put into the terminology that the dogs used, as it was to be vastly different from the terminology that the cats used.^[5] As opposed to "twoleg", humans are referred to as "longpaws", and their vehicles are called "loudcages" instead of "monsters".^[6] The dogs refer to cats themselves as "sharpclaws". In addition, there are four types of dogs: a Pack Dog, who is part of a pack; a Leashed Dog, who belongs to a human; a Lone Dog, who is a stray dog living on their own; and a Fierce Dog, which is a dog bred to fight or defend.

Themes

Philip has said that a main theme of Survivors is "fitting in", as Lucky is a Lone Dog at heart and feels out of place in his Leashed Pack.^[3] Philip says that the theme is especially relevant to many of the young readers, who are trying to find "their own place in the world and at the same time keeping hold of their new identity".^[3] Philip has also said that an advantage of writing stories is that "[y]ou can do all the romance and war and friendship and loyalty. You can do all that human stuff through animals."^[7] Philip has said that an advantage of writing about dogs is that they "are so much less self-reliant than cats", which she believes will "make for some good stories".^[8] Another main theme of the series is the complex canine pack structure that is different, but is also familiar to a human family.^[3]

Publication history

The first book The Empty City was first published as a hardcover by HarperCollins on 21 August 2012^[9] and released as an e-book on the same day.^[10] It was released in paperback on 7 May 2013.^[11] The sequel to The Empty City, A Hidden Enemy, was also published on 7 May 2013 as a hardcover^[12] and released as an e-book on the same day.^[13] It was released in paperback on 11 February 2014.^[14] The third book in the series, Darkness Falls, was published as a hardcover on 3 September 2013^[15] and released as an e-book on the same day.^[16] It was released in paperback on 3 June 2014.^[17] The fourth book in the series The Broken Path was first published as a hardcover on 11 February 2014 ^[18] and released as an e-book on the same day.^[19] It was released in paperback on 10 February 2015.^[20] The fifth book in the series The Endless Lake was also published as a hardcover on 3 June 2014^[21] and released as an e-book on the same day.^[22] It was released in paperback on 2 June 2015.^[23] The sixth book Storm of Dogs was published as a hardcover on 10 February 2015^[24] and was released as an e-book on the same day.^[25] It was released in paperback on 13 October 2015.^[26]

The first book of the second arc A Pack Divided was first published as a harcover on 13 October 2015^[27] and released as an e-book on the same day.^[28] It was released in paperback on 7 June 2016.^[29] The second book Dead of Night was first published as a hardclver on 7 June 2016^[30] and released as an e-book on the same day.^[31] It was released in paperback on 7 February 2017.^[32] The third book Into the Shadows was also first published on 7 February 2017^[33] and released as an e-book on the same day.^[34] It will be released in paperback on 3 October 2017.^[35] The fourth book Red Moon Rising is set to release in hardcover on 3 October 2017.^[36]

Three e-book novellas have released in addition to the arcs. The first e-book novella Alpha's Tale was released on 29 April 2014.^[37] The second novella Sweet's Journey released on 10 February 2015.^[38] The third Moon's Choice was released on 5 May 2015.^[39]

Critical reception

Reviews of Survivors were initially positive, while they began to take on a more negative tone as the series progressed. Booklist enjoyed the "fast-moving" plot and the characterization of the first book. The reviewer also said it was a "promising start" to the Survivors series.^[40] Kirkus Reviews gave the novel a starred review, writing, "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".^[41] The Horn Book Magazine criticized the first book for its large number of characters, but added that its "action-packed suspense" makes a "promising start" to the series.^[42] Voice of Youth Advocates stated that the new set of words used may puzzle readers, adding that the cliff hanger ending will leave readers "eagerly awaiting" the next book.^[42] The second book received another starred review from Kirkus Reviews, calling it "perfectly crafted".^[43] Booklist commented on the cliffhanger, stating that it will leave "avid" fans waiting for the next installment, but many readers will be "jarred" by the lack of a satisfying conclusion.^[44] The Horn Book Magazine writes that "the large number of characters is hard to keep track of" but states that Lucky's dilemma "adds suspense".^[45] In a review for the third book, it comments again about the large number of characters but says that the action will "please fans", calling Lucy a "sympathetic protagonist".^[46] It repeats the statement in a review for the fifth book The Endless Lake,^[47] and comments about the number of characters again in a review for the sixth book Storm of Dogs.^[48]

The Horn Book praised the first book of the second arc A Pack Divided, calling it a "winsome, adventurous installment" of the series.^[49] It stated that new readers would have trouble tracking the characters and backstories in a review for the second book, but comments that "Hunter devotees will appreciate how the dogs' saga deepens in this Survivors spinoff series.^[50]

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 Bravelands
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