There's a sort of appeal to a Clan of cats fighting for survival in the wilderness with a soap opera drama touch. The Warriors series (with four segments, Warriors, The New Prophecy, The Power of Three, and the not-yet-released The Fourth Apprentice) is amazing—the first series was enrapturing, and I enjoyed the second series immensely as well. Therefore, I had high expectations for the third series. While there were a few decent characters and a gripping plotline (in the beginning, at least), the final book, Warriors: Sunrise, was a bitter disappointment.
Sunrise is the conclusive—or rather, inconclusive—ending to The Power of Three. It begins with the protagonists trying to solve the mystery of a Clanmate's murder and the identity of their parents. This is great and all, but as it turns out, the identity of the murderer didn't fit in with the series' plotline at all, and the identity of their parents was so heavily hinted that it hardly came as a surprise. Erin Hunter has tried too hard to raise tension for this final book, and in doing so, also gave too much away. As diligent readers, we already suspected the truth—and so the “gripping” conclusion wasn't nearly as gripping as we would have liked it to be. Nobody likes an anti-climatic book, and I'm certainly no exception.
In addition, none of the loose plot ends were tied. Characters were dealt heart-breaking dilemmas, life or death situations, and great blows of shock, then never heard from again for the rest of the novel. And not only that! Some of the characters were so ridiculously out of character that one has to gape at the pages and wonder if this is truly the same person one read about in the previous novels. Books like that leave readers flipping through the book, irritated and wondering what has become of those characters.
I am one of many people who like to read a book and actually understand what is happening. Unfortunately, Sunrise didn't provide me with that luxury. And while I'm all for cliffhangers, this wasn't a good cliffhanger—it was a bad ending.