The Silver Horn

I was very excited to read this book. Adventures of a pine marten sound great! But - it wasn't great.

It has been very much influenced by Redwall. But being influenced and inspired by something doesn't make it as good.

There are some good ideas here. It ends well. Yes, I am somewhat interested in reading the rest of the story. But probably I won't. Because there were so many bad ideas there. Like - an evil owl wants the price, so you'll hide it in a tree. It's not as if owls flew, is it?

I am bothered by speciesism. The MC a pine marten, is a good animal. All the other pine martens are nice people. All the badgers mentioned in the book are good, and all the otters are good. But all the weasels, stouts, and ferrets mentioned are bad. So, what about minks? Are those “good” or “bad”? Or sables? What about skunks or wolverines?
And then foxes. The villain is a silver fox. Does Cherith know that silver foxes are red foxes who happen to be black? Is she aware that she made the melanistic form of a species evil, while the non-melanistic forms are good?

Then there's the “oh, they see me with these villains, so they won't like me...” “oh, there's no use trying to explain that I'm their prisoner and slave, they wouldn't believe me because I'm with them...” sigh What about not assigning attitudes and words to people before talking with them?

And lastly, the whole village immediately knew the fox and his gang were bad. Just as Vair knew immediately that the villagers were nice people.