REVIEW: The Redwall Series

For over twenty years, the Redwall series—fantasy novels featuring anthropomorphic animals—has been on the shelves, and has entertained generations of readers. And you gotta admit—badgers and rats and otters and monitor lizards and hares and wildcats (et cetera) making war on each other with a variety of weapons is very cool. %-)

British author Brian Jacques originally wrote Redwall for the children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool. His descriptive style catered to his first audience; Jacques wished to paint words for his listeners so they could see his stories unfold. When his former English teacher read Redwall, and sent it to a publisher without Jacques’ knowledge, Jacques received a contract to write the first five books in the series. Ever since, the tales of Redwall have been published and read all around the world.


Redwall has been made into an animated TV series (Redwall: Season One), a stage musical (The Redwall Opera), a graphic novel (Redwall: The Graphic Novel), dramatized audio books (such as Mariel of Redwall), and there have been numerous spin offs of the series, including the Tribes of Redwall booklets, the Redwall Map and Riddler, the Redwall Cookbook, Songs from Redwall, and several gorgeously illustrated pictures books such as The Great Redwall Feast, and A Redwall Winter Tale. The series has been published in over fourteen languages, has routinely made the national bestseller lists.

Mr. Jacques is also the author of several short story collections (Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales and The Ribbajack) and his Castaways series (Castaways of the Flying Dutchman, The Angel's Command and Voyage of Slaves).




There's a lot of information about everything Redwall related at the official site, Redwall Abbey.




The series includes:

Redwall (A young mouse goes from bumbling novice to hero while he fights to save his home. Bonus: snakes!)

Mossflower (Classic rebel alliance against evil empire, and stars Martin the Warrior. Bonus: Mask, one of the coolest otters in the series.)

Mattimeo (The direct sequel to Redwall--all the kids at Redwall are kidnapped by a masked fox who's seeking revenge on Matthias. Bonus: an underground kingdom collapses and EXPLODES. Can we say cool?)

Mariel of Redwall (Here there be pirates, arrrg. Mariel sets out to avenge her father and kill the pirate king, Gabool the Wild. Bonus: Insane pirates.)



Salamandastron (Salamandastron is besieged by the army of the blue-eyed assassin weasel warlord and his son. A personal favorite. Bonus: Assassins. Wait, I already said that... okay, plague!)

Martin the Warrior (The story behind Martin's past and his PTSD. Bonus: cannibal lizards AND the pirate stoat Clogg.)


The Bellmaker (Mariel and her boyfriend get into trouble with the local fox warlords; Joseph the Bellmaker comes to aid her. Bonus: a maelstrom and ships get crunched.)



The Outcast of Redwall (A baby ferret abandoned outside Redwall is adopted and raised by one of the Abbeymice--until he's outcast for his crimes. Another personal favorite. Bonus: You mean aside from Veil?)



The Pearls of Lutra (A Legolas-wannabe otter chick seeks revenge for the slaughter of her holt, which was destroyed for six exotic pearls. This one has the monitor lizards and a pine marten who does hypnosis. Bonus: poisonous sea snakes.)

The Long Patrol (A young hare runs away to join the famed Long Patrol and much battling ensues. Bonus: badgers jumping off cliffs! (Again!))

Marlfox (The tapestry of Martian is kidnapped--again--and it's up to a band of young Redwallers to track down the Marlfoxes who stole it. Bonus: pwetty foxes.)


The Legend of Luke (What really happened to Martin the Warrior's father... and no, he didn't get sidetracked to Vegas. Bonus: everybody dies. Almost.)

Lord Brocktree (The origins of stuff at Salamandastron. Sorta. Bonus: Blue vermin. No, seriously, they're all dyed blue.)

Taggerung (An otter raised by vermin seeks his true family. The book that had some of the most shiny potential was a huge, huge disappointment. Bonus: Roagan Boar (a fox). The adjective "drool-worthy" comes to mind.)

Triss (A squirrel chick wants revenge. Merc sets her hair on fire for even reading this--IMO, it's one of the worst books in the series. Bonus: the pirate fox Plugg.)

Loamhedge (Redwallers go on a Quest. There are Riddles. People Die. Next. Bonus: ???)



Rakkety Tam (A mercenary squirrel seeks an escape from an oath he made, and comes to Redwall. This one features a wolverine as the antagonist, and the book was a little better than the previous few. Bonus: mercenary highlander squirrels.)

High Rhulain (More otters. More quests. Look, a feast at Redwall. Didn't see that coming, did you? Bonus: ???)

Eulalia! (Exactly what the title says. Badgers and hares run around whooping war cries and seeking Vengeance. Bonus: ????)




I must admit a certain fondness and sense of nostalgia for this series (don’t look at me like that; I’m older than I look, in demon years anyway). I grew up reading the novels and it was the world of Redwall that sparked my love of anthrofiction and furry stories ever since.


And it's true, I still do like a handful of the older books. Salamandastron, The Outcast of Redwall, and Mossflower,, for example. But the series--the world--as a whole has several Issues.


WHAT I LIKE
This is the kind of anthrofiction I love. Swashbuckling adventure, pirates, monsters, battles, and all done with fuzzy critters.

There are some characters in the series I like and care about, there are some great battle scenes, and while not always bloody, there is a good deal of gore on occasion. %-) Jacques' has a masterful grasp of language and he can paint gorgeous pictures with words.


There is also a fair amount of humor in many of the books. I mentioned the pirates, and it's because they are some of the most fun characters. ;) Cliched, true, and typically vermin (there are exceptions--rare though they are--just as there are the occasional exception to the Woodlander Rule [see below]) but some of them are just so over the top and brazen they're immediately likable. For example, Cap'n Tremmun Clogg (a stoat, from Martin the Warrior) and Cap'n Plugg Firetail (a fox—the only good thing in Triss).



The illustrations in the later books have been quite good, with detailed pen and ink illustrations to head each chapter and I love many of the covers (in both the US and UK editions--a note that the pictures here feature both UK and US editions).


The books have rich description, a strong vocabulary, and generally the plots—while nothing overly complex—at least build from beginning, middle, to end. The earlier books, at least, have had strong climaxes.

While perhaps the characters are more human than animalisitic in personalities and nature, the characteristics of the species do show through (if, perhaps, in predictable ways: otters are the good swimmers, squirrels are the climbers, moles are the diggers, hares are the runners, etc).

Though I personally am not found of the accents and dialects that 90% of the cast has, I do give Mr. Jacques points for coming up with a wide variety of dialects and more or less sticking with them. There's mole-speak (good luck), sparra (sparrow dialect), hare dialects, otter slang, vermin horrific speech patterns (one word: ugh), etc. It's easier to listen to, IMO, but the various speech patterns (littering the pages with apostrophes though they do) are part of the world and give it a sense of depth on occasion.

The coolest thing about the Redwall series has always been, for me at least, the weapons and warfare. I love the imagery of animals wielding pikes and scimitars and bows and claymores, and duking it out with each other.




While Jacques does use an omni-POV quite often, I find that it works well most of the time. I'm not found of it, but he has the skill to pull it off smoothly--he is a natural storyteller, and it shows in his writing.



WHAT I DON'T LIKE

Perhaps my biggest issue is that of species affiliation. The basic Law of Redwall is:

Woodlanders = Good
Vermin = Evil


("Woodlanders" being mice, hares, moles, squirrels, most birds, otters, badgers, voles, shrews, etc. "Vermin" are the rats, weasels, ferrets, wildcats, martens, all reptiles and amphibians, foxes, wolverines, etc.)

The worldview is black and white that's rarely touched with gray. What bugs me so much about this is that it MAKES NO SENSE. The species are good or bad because that's how they are born, apparently. *Merc sets Redwall's philosophy on fire*


Take Taggerung for example. The premise is that an otter is raised by a tribe of vermin. When I first read the blurb for the novel, I was excited beyonds words--I hoped SO much that we'd get an evil otter. (There's a borderline psychopathic otter in The Legend of Luke if I recall correctly, but this is different.)

Instead, Tagg is the epitome of Good. He may as well never have HEARD of murder, treachery, backstabbing, thievery, torture, slavery, wanton destruction, and abuse that everyone around him wallows in on a daily basis. ARGH.



This is the main flaw in the world. If you see a rat, you can assume that there's a 99.9999999% chance it will be Evil, probably have an ungodly accent, have a negative IQ and generally be the most useless thing around. (Warlords are the exception--they tend to be insane and smarter than the grunts, but that's it.)

Whereas you see a mouse, and there's about a 100% chance it will be Good (and good luck with the chances it will have, you know, flaws).

There have been some exceptions, yes. Veil's end choice (The Outcast of Redwall) is ambiguous--personally I think he turned back to the "light" at the end. ;) There are some good corsairs (such as Romosca in The Pearls of Lutra [please correct me if I misspell a name, or attribute characters to the wrong book--it's been awhile since I've read them all]) and some bad shrews. There's an occasional good rat and the odd bad squirrel.

But these are as rare as, hmmmm, Moby Dick. How many white whales show up every day? Yes, they're out there but they aren't the norm.

Aside from that, the books have become fomulatic. There is ALWAYS a riddle quest, a physical quest of some kind, a feast (sorry, but reading about food is NOT interesting--and especially not multiple times for pages at a time in EACH BOOK), and in the chronologically later books, Martin's sword (and spirit) are a staple.

The actual plots are recycled too often for my tastes now: some Evil Horde wants to take over or destroy Redwall (ain't gonna happen); ditto the EH attacking Salamandastron... or some variant of an assault on one of those two places. Or else there is a quest to free a Oppressed Woodland Representation (i.e. the rebellion vs the empire plot).

The earlier books had some distinct characters and antagonists. I've noticed one thing in the later books is that if the entire cast doesn't tick me off for being goody-two-paws, complete idiots, dibbuns [kids] that need to be strangled, pointless evil bullying "vermin, or is a hare, then they are forgettable.

All the Redwallers eventually blur into one homogeneous mass of Good, the vermin are all the same (except for the occasional pirate), and you may as well just call all the hares and badgers by the same name for the amount of variety we see in them. (I do admit the hares are probably the species with the most variance of personality, despite there being only different levels of how much they annoy me. Badgers--well, seen one in the Bloodwrath, seen 'em all.)

I haven't read the latest two books or Loamhedge because, to me, there's nothing special, new or memorable about the books anymore. It's one of those series that needs to be allowed to END.



IN CONCLUSION

I still do recommend the older books (go by publishing order, not chronological order), if you like animal fantasy and are looking for a good romp. The Redwall Series is an enjoyable anthro fantasy world, and while it does have it's flaws, a few books still stand out as being highly enjoyable reads that hold up to second and third reading.

While I do think the series needs to be allowed to come to a close, it's a pillar in modern day anthro fantasy and is well worth checking out if this is the kind of fiction you like.

~Merc