Redwall

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Redwall

Welcome to Redwall Abbey, home of mice, badgers, and all manner of woodland creatures who live together in peace. That is until Cluny the Scourge sets his eyes on the abbey. Cluny is a vile rat who will not hesitate to kill to get what he wants. And he wants to claim the abbey as his own. Matthias, with the heart of a warrior, urges his fellows to rise up and defend the abbey. But can the untrained, and unprepared abbey creatures defeat a roaming band of villains?

Brian Jaques has a beautiful way with words. As he builds the foundation of the Redwall world, you can't help but feel comforted and at peace. Like you're walking into a warm home full of old friends and happy memories. Each character he spends just enough time with and the history of Redwall comes together in a heartfelt tale. You can't help but cheer the abbey creatures on as they defend their home.

As a teen, I loved the mystery element Brian Jacques included in Redwall. To defeat Cluny, Matthias must find the sword of Martin the Warrior. And reaching the sword involves solving a rhyme left by past abbey mice. When I first read this book, I wracked my brain trying to solve the puzzle. And it was satisfying to follow Matthias on his journey to retrieve the sword. But of course, nothing can be easy, and Matthias's quest to reclaim the sword is an exciting journey to undertake.

Redwall was one of the introductory fantasy worlds I fell into as a teen. As an adult, I enjoyed it just as much as when I first read it. If you have a teenager interested in the fantasy genre, give the Redwall series a try. It is age-appropriate, and while there are battles, Brian Jacques never goes too far with detail. Readers will find themselves immersed in a thrilling tale they will not want to put down.

Fun book from my childhood!

I don't think it's the best in the series, but lots of fun with plenty of wonderful characters. It gets surprisingly intense at some points, but also a little easy for the protagonists sometimes.

Pretty writing as always and lovely descriptions.

Somehow this book is about, like...working environments? The villains get into trouble because they create environments in which their employees are fighting for dominance and trying to get the promotion from each other. The protagonists do well because they work together and let people collaborate and cooperate. Definitely not what this book is about, but also it definitely is.

It's the rare book that my sons have recommended to me...the rare book whose author I have actually met and heard speak and adored...the rare book that is on hundreds of Must-Read lists...the rare book that has all these things going for it and yet remains on my TBR heap.

I was finally motivated to pull it out of the pile and give it a thorough read when my 1001 Children's Books list chose it for a group read in February.

Why, why, why, I thought as I finished the last page, why didn't I read this one with my sons? And is it too late to propose a readaloud with them at ages 27 and 30?

Don't make the same mistake I did. It's a story that will be fabulous as a readaloud with your children, even if they are too old to actually sit in your lap. Do it now. I urge you. You will not regret it.

There is something inexpressible in these books that makes me wish for more out of life. I love the characters and the setting and, maybe most of all, the descriptions of the food! What even is a cordial? I don't know, but I want one.

Age range: 10+
Older readers may find it a little juvenile, but if you're in the mood, it's worth the read.

I know what some of you are thinking: didn't I just review this book a few months ago? Am I trying to sneak this back in because it's the most convenient “wall” theme?[return][return]Yes and no. The book I wrote about a few months back is a novel... as in a book full of words and no pictures once you get past the Map of Redwall Abbey and the surrounding countryside. This one is the graphic novel version, aimed at younger readers, people who are scared by profusion of words on a page, or anyone who enjoyed Redwall.[return][return]To recap, Redwall Abbey is home to an order of mice who is committed to healing any creature who needs it. One of the founders is the great mouse hero Martin the Warrior, whom Matthias, the protagonist of this book looks up to. [return][return]When villainous sea rat Cluny the Scourge sets his eye on the Abbey, Matthias sets off on a quest to find Martin's legendary sword, said to be able to aid them in a time of need. In his journey, Martin meets a cast of animal characters like the sparrow princess Warbeak Sparra and the easy-going Basil Stag Hare.[return][return]The graphic novel is not a complete retelling of the novel. Like the end product of most book-to-movie efforts, some parts are lost in translation. There's an assassination attempt that I had hoped to see but it didn't make it into this version. You also don't really sense the passage of time here. Warbeak's time in the Abbey and Martin's time with the sparrows seemed a lot shorter than it is. [return][return]However, you don't really get the sense of how huge Constance the badger is next to all those mice until you see the picture. Or how high Jess the Squirrel has to climb to reach the Abbey's weather vane. Or how scary Cluny the Scourge really is. Which is good because if I get the neurotically insecure “Cluny the Scourge!” proclamation that comes out every other chapter in the book, I'd go bonkers.[return][return]This version would have been greater if it was in colour, but Bret Blevins's monochromic pencils and grey markers are still wonderful. [return][return]I picked up Redwall The Graphic Novel from a local book store's comic/manga section, but didn't notice any other copies. Sorry. MINE.

I remember all the Redwall series being very popular so I decided I'd give in and read them for myself. First off, these books are really boring. They're very slow moving and leave a lot of questions in the end. Plus, it's an unoriginal idea - talking mice, living human-like lives, saving all the woodland creatures from the (non-present) humans. [b:Watership Down 76620 Watership Down (Watership Down #1) Richard Adams https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405136931s/76620.jpg 1357456], anyone?

I truly didn't know what to expect going into this book. What I found was an enjoyable story with a character who aspires to make friends of enemies without compromising to evil. The characters in the book are strong and unique. Their interactions are often amusing. This story kept the third grader plugged in for evening story time for the entire 300+ pages. While Narnia continues to reign as my favorite children's story world, Redwall is a great addition to our story times together.

I listened to the audiobook and I'm so glad I did because it's narrated by Brian Jacques himself AND a full cast, which I love. So good. 

God this book is great. Matthias is such a brave little mouse and Cluny the Scourge was actually pretty scary for a rat in a children's book, not gonna lie. I was so invested in the inhabitants of Redwall Abby and the creatures of Mosswood that I never wanted to stop listening and felt a little abandoned at the end of the story. I even had a little cry. Good thing there are like, 21 more books or something.

The Redwall series has been one of my favourites for about twenty years. I can't recall exactly how I first learned about the books, but I do remember clearly my mother getting me out of school one day so she could take me to meet Brian Jacques when he came to the area to do a book signing. That was a truly delightful treat.

Despite my love for the series, it had been years since I last read Redwall, and the last time I tried I discovered I wasn't in the mood for that particular book, so I set it aside. Since it had been years, however, I decided to give it another try. I borrowed the audiobook from my local library to listen to during my commute. The full cast audio is delightful, and I really enjoyed listening to this story.

Thing is...I realise now that Redwall is probably my least favourite entry in the series, and in listening to it I've been able to pinpoint a few of the reasons why this is. Redwall is the first book in the series, and on the world-building front it just doesn't mesh cleanly with the later books. The various groups and tribes of creatures are still largely undeveloped. There are mentions of large animals like horses, pigs, and stags, all of which are completely absent in later books. In Redwall there seems to be some implication that the Abbey mice and various woodland creatures are living alongside humans (see the aforementioned farm animals, plus mentions of towns), even though humans are never actually mentioned in the story. Reading Redwall after reading other books in the series winds up being jarring for me, simply because it's a literary step backward.

I still like the book, and I'm sure I'll read (or listen to) it again. Knowing why it isn't my favourite helps me appreciate it for what it is: the foundation and starting point for an amazing series of books that I absolutely love.

The various creatures in Redwall Abbey are having a feast. It is a happy time for all but they are not aware of what is coming their way. Cluny the Scourge has an army of rats in a horse drawn cart hurtling in their direction. When Cluny sees Redwall Abbey he wants it for himself and he isn't going to give up. There is a young mouse though who is an admirer of Martin the warrior and he is determined to protect Redwall, no matter what the cost.

This was a re-read for the first time as an adult, to see how a childhood favourite held up. The Redwall books were a vital formative influence in my life, introducing me to good-versus-evil fantasy full of perilous journeys, ancient prophecies, and heroic battles, at an age when I wasn't quite ready to tackle The Lord of the Rings (and perhaps didn't have a full grasp on what fantasy was). I absolutely devoured and lived in these books, to a degree that I haven't really experienced with any series since.

It took a couple of years for the flatness of the books' worldview to wear on me. Why were mice always good and rats always bad? If otters and badgers were good, why were weasels and ferrets, their cousins, always evil? Where would mink (surely equidistant between an otter and a ferret) fit into this world? These were big thematic questions for me as a tween! The few books that dipped a toe into moral greyness never did enough to satisfy me. Though this black-and-whiteness was the author's intention, it bothered me, and pushed me towards books like Garry Kilworth's Welkin Weasels, which allowed for characters with more interesting ambiguity. But it's to Brian Jacques' credit that he got me thinking about that kind of thing at all.

Anyway, about this specific book. I love how uncertain and odd (perhaps even “bad”) the worldbuilding is compared to the rest of the series. In this iteration of the setting, we have horses and cows, French cuisine, and the implied existence of Portugal and Virginia. It makes no sense and the scale of the world is impossible to reconcile, which will bother some, but I really enjoy the almost fairytale-like ambiguity. It's like a bedtime story that the teller is working out as he goes along, fully committed to the drama but a bit hazy on the details.

All the hallmarks of a Redwall book are here: a sadistic villain, a stalwart hero, exquisite banquets, strange riddles, acts of derring-do, strong West Country accents, violent deaths, and a big climactic duel. The plot is straightforward and the characters don't hold up to much scrutiny, but I like that Jacques' formula hadn't yet calcified. In terms of prose, he was no slouch and didn't patronise his young audience – Redwall is written with a more ambitious vocabulary than some current fantasy for older readers.

The tone is all over the shop, and surprisingly dark in places, with death and violence described in unequivocal language. You go from cosy scenes of mice lunching on wholesome food to enemies lying in “a red mist of death”, getting slowly strangled, or being killed with boiling water. As a kid these deaths sometimes disturbed me. Reading them as an adult, I'm surprised and sort of impressed that Jacques would go there. It may be a cute little mouse's world, but the stakes are life or death and the body count is sky high.

Even though this entry isn't perfect and hasn't all aged well, I can totally see how the series sowed in me a love for books with rich descriptive language and a degree of darkness, even (or especially) when aimed at younger readers. It encapsulates so much of what I still look for in books and in my own attempts at writing. I'm thankful to Jacques for having me reading grisly deaths and looking up words like “legerdemain” and “alacrity” as a child. I never read his last few books, but maybe I'll finally get around to it now.