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Redwall Series Review
13 years ago
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So I’ve finally got around to finishing the entire Redwall series. And now you get to find out whether or not the series is actually worth reading. Take note that there may be a couple spoilers here and there. And since this is a review of a book series based on TWENTY-TWO BOOKS, it is going to be very long. In fact, this is my longest journal to date.
RATING: 7/10. For those of you still interested, keep reading.
Instead of the usual PROS and CONS, I’ll just do THE GOOD, THE BAD, and ON THE FENCE, a.k.a., what I can’t decide between being good or bad. And of course, I’ll be using TV Tropes here and there.
THE GOOD
1. The premise. Redwall is a book series about an abbey full of peaceful woodland critters who offer aid and care to anyone who needs it. But when shit hits the fan, these peaceful critters are not afraid to kick ass in order to protect their beloved abbey. …Do I really need to say more?
2. BADGERS. Dear God, if you thought badgers were badass before, Redwall will basically turn your vision of badass badgers into gods. I am not joking. You know that pistachio commercial showing a honey badger cracking open a pistachio with a dead snake? Yeah, it’s pretty much like that. What I really love about the badgers is that despite how large they are (the book makes them sound like giants X___X) they’re very kind and cuddly creatures. Just, y’know, when they’re not pissed off. If you piss off a badger, they will enter a mindless and blood-crazed trance called the Bloodwrath and kill anything and everything in sight. Pissing off a badger is like pissing off Jack Bauer or Chuck Norris. You’re better off shooting yourself in the face than standing up to them.
3. The villains. Now keep in mind, as the series progressed, some of the villains started to become boring or cliché, or were just a big fat pussy. But some of the old Redwall villains, like Cluny the Scourge or Ferahgo the Assassin, THOSE are the villains who pretty much made the series. Villains like Cluny were badass and smart and just downright evil or cool-looking. It was always fun or interesting to see what their next dastardly plan was. And even if some of them were complete assholes who killed their own soldiers just for shits and giggles, you can’t help but marvel at how evil some of them are. At least…before the villains started to become Smug Snakes. >___>
4. Almost none of the plots are exactly the same. You may think that all the Redwall books are about some evil warlord trying to take over Redwall, but in reality, there are only two books that initially start out with the antagonist trying to take over the abbey. With many other books, the main villain wants nothing to do with Redwall, but once they hear about all the “treasure” stored there, that’s when the plot suddenly revolves around Redwall. Some of the books, like Salamandastron and The Bellmaker, have very little to do with Redwall itself (short of subplots that the books didn’t need). So don’t think all twenty-two books are about a bunch of vermin trying to overthrow Redwall.
5. The surprisingly violent nature in all the books. Every book is laden with battles and violence and named characters dying. Because of this, the series seems dark and mature enough for both kids and adults to enjoy, like Toy Story 3. While I do like the violence and high death count, the fact that this series is targeted for kids is what I’m also on the fence about. Because every now and then, I’d stumble across a death that was a bit too graphic, even for me. Like the stoat from Lord Brocktree that is swarmed by thousands of spider crabs and is reduced to a skeleton. X___X
6. Vocabulary. For a book series aimed for kids, Redwall seems to have a lot of vocab words you’d expect only a college student (or professor) to know. Thanks to Redwall, I wound up learning over fifty new words, and even went out of my way to construct a list of said words and define them all (which is good, since I’m a writer and all). In the very last book, two characters blatantly introduced two new words that have never been used in the entire series and define them for the readers. It’s pretty obvious that the author wants his readers to learn something. Maybe it’s just different for children in the U.K.; I haven’t noticed any top-notch vocab in the Warrior Cats series, and I’m finished with the first arc.
7. The first half of the series. Everything that came before The Legend of Luke is just awesome. Out of the first eleven books, I only disliked two, maybe three of them (still trying to figure out why I didn’t like The Long Patrol >___<). Everything in the first half of the series gave us awesome villains with equally awesome or badass protagonists. And unlike the second half of Redwall, many of the protagonists went through character development, unlike heroes such as Triss, Tiria, and Deyna, who were all pretty much born to be the good guys. The rabbits—
“We are not rabbits, sah! We’re hares from The Long Patrol, wot!”
Oh my God, I’m so SORRY. >___> The HARES in the first books were both badass and funny, despite being complete gluttons. After books like Taggerung some of the hares became seriously annoying and were just there to eat food or complain about something. Thankfully, The Rogue Crew changed all that.
8. The female characters are more than just Redwall cooks or mothers nursing the Dibbuns (the Redwall children). Many female characters (like Mariel for one) are capable of putting up a fight or doing something worthwhile in order to aid the heroes. Some of them have shown to be even more badass or more likeable than the central protagonists themselves. Russa Nodrey, in particular, is a nomad who traveled around Mossflower using nothing but a long stick for a weapon.
9. Taggerung. This is arguably the least violent book in the series. Which is a good thing; that right there tells me that the books don’t have to be loaded with blood and gore and death to be awesome (even though Salamandastron had all of that, which is probably one reason why I like it so much). Taggerung is pretty much a cat-and-mouse game between the protagonist and a group of badass vermin (excluding Gruven, who is the biggest piece of shit ever >___>). I will admit, in hindsight, the Redwall subplot in this book turned out to be useless filler (shocker -___-), the ending was a HUGE deus ex machina Anti-Climax (I’d even go as far as calling it an Ass Pull), and Gruven was the biggest piece of shit ever.
10. Anyone Can Die. Yes, I know I’m a morbid bastard, but I like it when shows, movies, and books bend the rules. Why should every book have to be about a bunch of good guys killing all the bad guys and suffering no casualties? Instead, let’s throw in a character, make him or her develop, and then kill that character right when the audience begins to love them. In other words, you don’t know who’s gonna live or die in the end, and a sudden and shocking death is enough to make the audience realize that the situation is getting serious. And Redwall does that quite well (at least until after Lord Brocktree; by that point very few major characters died). Even though the main protagonist rarely ever dies, chances are, someone the protagonist is really good friends with or is really attached to is the one who ends up biting the dust. And all the Redwall fans found that out the hard way after reading Salamandastron and Martin the Warrior…
11. The Sable Quean. My God, this book was OUTSTANDING. It’s without a doubt the best book in the second half of the Redwall series (which many fans don’t like very much). Brian Jacques, the author, pretty much said this:
“Okay guys, I’m well aware that the Redwall books I’ve published over the last nine years have all sucked ass except Rakkety Tam and maybe Doomwyte. HERE.”
He gave us this delicious, wonderful book called The Sable Quean. This novel had everything that seemed to be absent from many of the previous books: no boring-ass filler Redwall subplot, an awesome protagonist who goes through some character development, villains you actually care about, a plot that (at first) didn’t fixate on Redwall, and Zwilt the Shade. Zwilt the Shade is hands-down the greatest villain in the second half of the Redwall series. This guy was literally as badass and as cool and as smart as Cluny. And even though this guy nearly stole every scene he was in, he didn’t do it to the point where he was the only character I cared about (unlike Plugg Firetail from Triss). And to top all that off, the Dibbuns in the series actually did something besides drowning the readers with their cuteness. This book was amazing from start to finish. …And then The Rogue Crew came out. >___>
12. Marlfox, and the Marlfoxes. Before I even start I know some Redwall fans are probably thinking “I didn’t like Marlfox because it’s pretty much the same as the first Redwall book but with foxes.” To which I have to say, “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” This book had an entire family of antagonists, not just one evil vermin leading an entire army. And their goal originally wasn’t to take Redwall under siege. The Marlfoxes just wanted to steal Martin’s legendary tapestry. It isn’t until one of the Marlfoxes is killed that they say “You Redwallers must pay for this death with blood! We’re gonna break into your beloved abbey and slaughter everyone in sight!” If anything, the reason behind the Marlfoxes' siege on Redwall is more justified than the original Redwall book. The Marlfoxes wanted to avenge someone’s murder. Cluny wanted to take over Redwall just cause he’s evil. And with the exception of Mokkan and the Marlfoxes who don’t set foot on the battlefield, all of them were brave, excellent fighters.
THE BAD
1. The second half of the series. A lot of the books seemed somewhat blah after Marlfox. Comparing the first half of Redwall to the second half of Redwall is like comparing Pixar Animation to DreamWorks Animation. It’s just not of the same caliber. I’m not saying DreamWorks hasn’t produced any good movies—and I’m not saying the second half of Redwall has no good books—but if you randomly pick out a book from the second half, chances are it’ll be lackluster, or suck ass.
2. TRISS. I already bitched about this unbearable novel in a previous journal. So I’m not going to say anymore, or else I’ll end up ranting again. >___>
3. Annoying and usually unimportant Redwall subplots. I understand that the series is Redwall, but if the main plot has nothing to do with Redwall at all, don’t bore us with pointless filler. So many books have happy, sappy Redwall subplots that were only thrown into the novel to make them longer and so the author could talk about more food. It started to get very aggravating, especially when some of these subplots simply revolved around solving a riddle. Apparently the Redwall ancestors were too fancy to just say, “I buried this shit here. Go dig it up.” Even if it’s not possible to leave out these subplots, they could’ve at least been cool and/or short, like the flu subplot from Salamandastron.
4. Villains became a waste. Later on in the series, some of the coolest-sounding villains or supposedly badass villains turned out to be Smug Snake. A Smug Snake is pretty much a pussy pretending to be a hardass. A Smug Snake is more than likely a douchebag, but if you punch this douchebag in the face, he’ll curl up in a ball and cry like a bitch. This series is FILLED with Smug Snakes. And it’s a really big disappointment when some of the books’ biggest and most feared enemies turn out to be cowards. I had high hopes for bad guys like Lask Frildur from Pearls of Lutra, but in the end Lask was just a cowardly lizard with bad breath who pronounced the letter “s” like a “z.” That’s literally all I can say about the guy, which is really sad. And the antagonist in that book, Emperor Ublaz, was an even bigger coward. But none of them are as bad as this guy…
5. Gruven. Yes, I am counting one character from a book series with over 1000 named characters as an ENTIRE CON. …Where do I start? Okay, uh, take Malfoy from the Harry Potter series, turn him into a talking stoat, and take away his ability to do magic. That’s Gruven Zann in a nutshell. This guy was without a doubt the most annoying and incompetent villain in the series. Even Ublaz was bold enough to face Martin when he was backed into a corner. But Gruven Zann? In order for Gruven to kill you, you have to be unarmed, he has to trick you into getting killed, or he has to attack you when your back is turned. Seriously, a ten-year-old with a BB gun could subdue Gruven. I am not even joking. There were times in the book Taggerung when Gruven literally broke down and begged and pleaded for his life as he cried like a little bitch. That was the only thing I enjoyed about this piece of shit. The fact that he managed to nearly last the entire novel is shocking, even for me. And unfortunately, his death is not that great either. I wanted him to break down into a sobbing wreck again, but instead, he’s swiftly killed and the author spends two or three sentences describing his death. This character is just as annoying, if not more annoying, than Scarum from Triss.
6. The deaths started to tone down and some of the plots became predictable. After Lord Brocktree, not too many characters died on the good guys’ side. I’m not saying I want all the good guys to die—I am not that morbid—but if I’m reading a book that has fifty bad guys and forty good guys, at the very least keep the death toll even on both sides. In several novels, nearly all the antagonists died, and then one or two good guys—maybe of whom were minor characters—got offed. And to me, that took away some of the suspense and shock from the novels.
7. Anti-Climaxes and Anticlimax Bosses. I do not expect every novel to end with a fifty-page-long chapter of an epic fight between the good guy and the bad guy, but seriously, if the “fight” against the main antagonist is over in a mere paragraph, then that is very bad. I know that in the real world, things happen and fights aren’t as long as they should be, but if a fight ends because the enemy you’re facing trips and falls on her fuckin’ sabre, the reader is going to be pissed. Out of the twenty-two books in the series, only six of them end with an outstanding fight between the main villain and the hero. SIX. Out of TWENTY-TWO BOOKS. >___> And then on top of that, some books ended on a rather abrupt tone. Taggerung has the biggest deus ex machina in the whole series; it’s pretty damn obvious that the author was thinking:
“I am tired of this book. I’m just gonna throw in some random bullshit and end it right here and the readers will have to sit there and deal with it.”
He had to be thinking something like that. And I know he was; I could tell, me being a writer myself. I admit I’ve even done this a few times for the same reason. But with me it’s:
“I am tired of the story. I’m just gonna throw in some random bullshit ending because I’m sure whoever read this started masturbating on page three, and blew their load on page four. And this is a fucking thirteen-page story.”
8. Little character development. When it comes to Redwall books, most of the conflict is only external, and the central protagonist is usually perfect. And that’s usually not what a reader wants. You either need a protagonist who isn’t perfect but eventually becomes badass and wise, a protagonist who’s a cocky douchebag who eventually becomes nicer and less of an asshole, or you need a protagonist who is perfect, but suffers a tragedy at some point in the novel and must learn how to deal with it, thereby introducing internal conflict. As the books progress, more characters just came out perfect and at most had to deal with the death of a minor character, which they usually got over very quickly. The only character I felt fully developed in the series was Matthias, who went from being a hard-headed act-first mouse to a smart and badass hero over the course of Redwall and Mattimeo.
9. No angst. As the novels progress, the Redwallers seem to accept or flat-out ignore characters dying. There was a disturbing part in Loamhedge where a badger uses a dead searat’s body as a fucking flail and kills other searats with the carcass right in front of the Redwallers. And after he finishes, the Redwallers aren’t even remotely creeped out at the badger. If a character died, the Redwallers would get upset for one or two paragraphs and then get over it. There were even some cases where the Redwallers thought the best solution to a tragedy was to hold a feast. …I’m serious. I did however like how one of the characters from The Rogue Crew explained why a warrior or leader couldn’t show any sorrow or angst. After he lost someone close to him, the character said that he couldn’t spend the rest of his life grieving; he needed to lead his army into battle. There was nothing he could do but bury the relative’s body, have a funeral, grieve briefly, and get back into the action. So at the very least the author gave a decent explanation as to why the warriors in this series don’t grieve as much.
ON THE FENCE
1. Veil Sixclaw. Okay, I am going to try and explain this without spoiling anything, so I apologize if I spoil something important by accident. >___< So the plot for Outcast of Redwall centers around a ferret who’s the son of a warlord named Swartt Sixclaw being taken in and raised by Redwallers. But after Veil does something unforgiveable at Redwall, he’s banished. Now Veil must decide whether or not he should join his neglectful father’s army, or warn the Redwallers about his impending attack and defend them. Yeah, that’s the premise. Sounds interesting, right? No. Veil was not even born in Part 1 of this book, and in Part 2, he’s a complete asshole and deserved to get banished from Redwall for trying to poison someone. And this is all the first few things he does in the book. So it’s pretty much like:
“I tried to kill a Redwaller! That’s right, this is the first important thing I’ve done in the first few chapters I’ve been in which means this is the setup for my character which means the readers are gonna have to care about me based on this, and I don’t think that’s gonna happen!”
Yeah, that’s Veil in a nutshell. This guy was an ASSHOLE to virtually everyone, and his subplot had nothing to do with the actual plot. See, Veil Sixclaw is a Decoy Protagonist; the real protagonist is Sunflash the Mace, a badger (you know that’s already awesome) who was held prisoner by Swartt but escaped. This novel is about Swartt trying to hunt down and kill this badger; Redwall had nothing to do with the antagonist. He actually tried to take over Redwall but failed miserably in a single chapter and said, “Fuck this; let’s go back to hunting Sunflash.” And that pretty much made me wonder why Redwall, let alone Veil Sixclaw, even existed. Redwall and Veil could’ve been eradicated from existence and this book still would’ve been perfectly fine, if not better. What I find odd about Veil is that many people feel sorry for him and like him, while others (like me) hate his guts, for all the right reasons. Then at the end of the book, out of nowhere, Veil arguably does something to “redeem” himself. But after doing this, he realizes he can no longer go back to Redwall. And after Veil is banished, Bryony, Veil’s foster mother who went out on a journey just to find Veil and bring him back, pretty much said,
“Redwall is better off without Veil. I know now only after he did one good thing in his life that he was evil down to the core.”
…Are you fucking serious? You spent THE WHOLE GODDAMN BOOK looking for this asshole, and right after he does one good thing in his life that saved your ass, you suddenly say that he’s evil and doesn’t belong in Redwall? What kind of bullshit is that?! How the fuck do you stand there and finally decide—okay I’m ranting now. Let me just get to the next part. >___<
2. The animated TV series. It had pretty much everything. Some great voice acting, cool animation, a medieval theme to it, actually taking many scenes from the book, and more. What I really love is that they nailed Cluny and especially Basil’s voices down perfectly. The voice I imagined in my head for Basil is the exact same voice used in the cartoon. His character, his attitude, his humor and accent—it was all portrayed right down to a T. The TV series even had violence in it, like the actual books.
“I don’t get it. Why’s this show on the fence then?”
Because the TV series is a kids show that actually feels like it’s for kids. Even though Redwall is a children’s book series, it is chalked full of violence and death and blood and gore. The TV series doesn’t have as much violence, hardly any blood, no gore, and annoying off-screen deaths. For instance, in Season 2 of the show, Stonefleck tries to run away from battle when Log-a-Log throws a sword into his back. Right when the rat gets hit, you hear him groaning, you see one of his paws twitching, but you don’t actually see him die because a large tree is blocking his body. This is known as a Gory Discretion Shot, and the animated TV series is full of them. I’m not saying the animated series is bad at all. I’m just saying not too many adults will find it as appealing as the books because the books are much darker and bloodier.
3. Loamhedge. The problem with this book was that the villain was just a generic searat with a hook for a paw and the plot was all over the place. There’s Subplot A, which involves Lonna Bowstripe, the protagonist, and Raga Bol, the antagonist, Subplot B, which involves Redwall, and Subplot C, which involves a random gang of vermin. The main plot starts out with Subplot B, but Subplot C merges with Subplot B, whilst Subplot A isn’t important at all. A new subplot is spawned from Subplot B, and Subplot A quickly overthrows Subplot C and clashes with Subplot B. Meanwhile, Subplot D is just pointless filler, but it involves the two protagonists from Subplot B, therefore making it seem as important as Subplot A, which originally didn’t matter, and which is now heavily involved with Subplot B. You see the problem here? X___X What I really hated was that two of the protagonists in this story venture across Mossflower to find something that’ll help another character, Martha, walk again. But a little halfway through the novel, something happens to Martha which not only nullifies the subplot these two characters are in, but turns these two characters into decoy protagonists you don’t care about that much anymore.
4. No one is ever mentioned going to the bathroom. I know, it’s a stupid thing to bring up, and this didn’t really bother me until I read Eulalia! and noticed that the protagonist was forced to drink lots of rainwater while tied to a mast. My brain told me that since no one touched him, he wound up pissing his pants at least once. And yet they never mentioned that. You would think with the twenty-two books out there, they would mention at least once when or where someone goes to the bathroom. And I’m not talking about toilet humor either; I mean, just saying that it happens. Like in the novel Jake’s List, Jake mentions to one of his friends that he needs to take a shit, even though I thought he only said that because he was getting uncomfortable when his friend kept wondering if he was gay. But the book actually said that Jake really went into the bathroom and took a dump. It’s little things like that I never saw in this series, which makes me wonder if everyone just pisses and shits on the floor and doesn’t give a damn… >___>
5. Some of the accidental innuendo and implied sex jokes. Everytime something perverted popped up I tried not to think in that direction. But after I read The Long Patrol and read how one of the vermin was going to “do that pair ‘ard’n’slow afore dawnbreak,” I stopped reading the book for five minutes just so I could ponder how that wasn’t ass-rape. But in the end, that comment wound up coming across as gay ass rape to me. >___> And then there’s some of the sword motifs that pop up in the series. Y’know, how some warriors have really long “swords”? And then there was that incident in Doomwyte where a snake got trapped inside the mouth of a tunnel. That didn’t really bother me until I saw it was mentioned on TV Tropes. And then I thought more clearly. And now I get it. >___>
6. The Rogue Crew. To sum it down, this book is about a badass otter named Skor Axehound who teams up with a badass hare named Captain Rake Nightfur and together Skor and his band of badass otters called the Rogue Crew travel through Mossflower with Captain Nightfur’s band of badass Long Patrol hares in order to defeat Razzid Wearat and his evil band of pirates. Is the novel badass? …Not really. Sure, some awesome things happen here and there, but the otters and hares are mostly just walking through Mossflower and talking and encountering little problems that are solved quickly. I do like how the book displays that even if you’re badass, you won’t always do badass things; it makes it more realistic, to some degree. Sometimes you’ll just walk somewhere, or climb something, or talk to kill time, etc. That doesn’t make part of this book less boring or slow-paced though. But towards the end of the novel, one of the major characters dies and shortly after that, the final battle happens inside Redwall. Now that part IS epic, and almost enough to make up for the slow parts. One of the worst things about this book was Uggo Wiltud. He went from being a main character to being a minor character with little lines who everyone thought was annoying. And unlike Scarum, he’s actually quite tolerable. But at some point I kept asking myself, “why are you still here?” If Uggo just dropped dead, I wouldn’t have cared at all. And then at the end of the book he has the perfect opportunity to increase his level of badassness. And he fucks it up. Spectacularly. >___> All in all, Part 1 of the book is great, Part 2 is kinda slow, and Part 3 is also a bit slow, but the major character death and the amazing battle at the end makes up for it.
So would I recommend this book series? Absolutely! This is one of the most badass animal novel series out there you will ever hear of (yes, even more badass than the first arc of Warrior Cats). Now, while I do recommend this book series, I do not recommend all twenty-two books. Do not do what I did and buy every single novel without at least reading a couple reviews or asking someone how it is. At some point Redwall becomes either boring or cliché, or both. Many of the protagonists are cardboard cutouts of the original ones, and as I stated earlier, they come out perfect, so don’t expect much character development. But also keep in mind that some of these books don’t need development because all the badass external conflict will make up for it. And some of the villains like Ferahgo and Badrang and Cluny the Scourge and Slagar the Cruel and the heroes like Matthias and Martin the Warrior are simply too iconic for someone to not know who they are. But the problem with this series is that many well-loved characters only appear in one book, so when you read the next book, you’ll find out that everyone died of old age, and that they’ve all been replaced with new characters you may not give a fuck about.
If you’ve never heard of Redwall and you think it may interest you, I recommend getting the first six books—seven if you like Mariel. After Martin the Warrior, that’s when by subconscious kicked in and I realized that the plot’s the same and so are many of the characters. If you have heard of Redwall and have read a few books and you are a really big fan, then buy the first eleven books. After Marlfox, the Redwall charm began to go away somehow. However, I will say that Lord Brocktree, Rakkety Tam, Doomwyte, and ESPECIALLY The Sable Quean also deserve to be read. If this book series sounds interesting but you’re not a big reader, at least buy the very first book. The original Redwall book is arguably the best in the whole series. That or Salamandastron, because the hero in that book is a FUCKING BADGER. Not to mention that Salamandastron is one of the books that managed to make all the subplots blend together really well halfway through and towards the end of the novel.
If you don’t even wanna touch the books or you’re just too lazy to read past page ten, then watch the animated TV series. It’s on Netflix and YouTube (unless YouTube took it down).
“But I thought you said the TV show is too kid-friendly?”
And therein lies the problem. If you’re an adult, you might not like the TV show. I did, but only because I really like Redwall and because the show is actually a kids show that kids won’t be scared or disturbed of and because of some of the voice acting: Cluny’s voice, Basil’s voice, Matthias’ voice in the second season, etc. They even got Tim Curry to voice Slagar the Cruel! And it was incredible! Everytime I read Mattimeo I pictured Tim Curry’s voice in my head when Slagar spoke, and it made the antagonist that much more likeable. Voice acting aside, some people on this website just prefer to stomach through a kids show as opposed to reading a book, even though the book series is much more violent and serious, and therefore more appealing to adults.
“What if I don’t wanna do any of these?”
I dunno, watch the Abridged series on YouTube? Only eight episodes are up there, but the Abridged series is funnier than I thought it’d be, to the point where I laughed almost hysterically on multiple occasions. So if none of this suits you, you can always have a few laughs by watching that.
So that’s it. I’m finally finished. (This was a long-ass journal. X___X) I might review the first arc of Warrior Cats too, but I’ll worry about that later. Hope you’ve enjoyed this incredibly lengthy review…for those who stomached through it all. XD
RATING: 7/10. For those of you still interested, keep reading.
Instead of the usual PROS and CONS, I’ll just do THE GOOD, THE BAD, and ON THE FENCE, a.k.a., what I can’t decide between being good or bad. And of course, I’ll be using TV Tropes here and there.
THE GOOD
1. The premise. Redwall is a book series about an abbey full of peaceful woodland critters who offer aid and care to anyone who needs it. But when shit hits the fan, these peaceful critters are not afraid to kick ass in order to protect their beloved abbey. …Do I really need to say more?
2. BADGERS. Dear God, if you thought badgers were badass before, Redwall will basically turn your vision of badass badgers into gods. I am not joking. You know that pistachio commercial showing a honey badger cracking open a pistachio with a dead snake? Yeah, it’s pretty much like that. What I really love about the badgers is that despite how large they are (the book makes them sound like giants X___X) they’re very kind and cuddly creatures. Just, y’know, when they’re not pissed off. If you piss off a badger, they will enter a mindless and blood-crazed trance called the Bloodwrath and kill anything and everything in sight. Pissing off a badger is like pissing off Jack Bauer or Chuck Norris. You’re better off shooting yourself in the face than standing up to them.
3. The villains. Now keep in mind, as the series progressed, some of the villains started to become boring or cliché, or were just a big fat pussy. But some of the old Redwall villains, like Cluny the Scourge or Ferahgo the Assassin, THOSE are the villains who pretty much made the series. Villains like Cluny were badass and smart and just downright evil or cool-looking. It was always fun or interesting to see what their next dastardly plan was. And even if some of them were complete assholes who killed their own soldiers just for shits and giggles, you can’t help but marvel at how evil some of them are. At least…before the villains started to become Smug Snakes. >___>
4. Almost none of the plots are exactly the same. You may think that all the Redwall books are about some evil warlord trying to take over Redwall, but in reality, there are only two books that initially start out with the antagonist trying to take over the abbey. With many other books, the main villain wants nothing to do with Redwall, but once they hear about all the “treasure” stored there, that’s when the plot suddenly revolves around Redwall. Some of the books, like Salamandastron and The Bellmaker, have very little to do with Redwall itself (short of subplots that the books didn’t need). So don’t think all twenty-two books are about a bunch of vermin trying to overthrow Redwall.
5. The surprisingly violent nature in all the books. Every book is laden with battles and violence and named characters dying. Because of this, the series seems dark and mature enough for both kids and adults to enjoy, like Toy Story 3. While I do like the violence and high death count, the fact that this series is targeted for kids is what I’m also on the fence about. Because every now and then, I’d stumble across a death that was a bit too graphic, even for me. Like the stoat from Lord Brocktree that is swarmed by thousands of spider crabs and is reduced to a skeleton. X___X
6. Vocabulary. For a book series aimed for kids, Redwall seems to have a lot of vocab words you’d expect only a college student (or professor) to know. Thanks to Redwall, I wound up learning over fifty new words, and even went out of my way to construct a list of said words and define them all (which is good, since I’m a writer and all). In the very last book, two characters blatantly introduced two new words that have never been used in the entire series and define them for the readers. It’s pretty obvious that the author wants his readers to learn something. Maybe it’s just different for children in the U.K.; I haven’t noticed any top-notch vocab in the Warrior Cats series, and I’m finished with the first arc.
7. The first half of the series. Everything that came before The Legend of Luke is just awesome. Out of the first eleven books, I only disliked two, maybe three of them (still trying to figure out why I didn’t like The Long Patrol >___<). Everything in the first half of the series gave us awesome villains with equally awesome or badass protagonists. And unlike the second half of Redwall, many of the protagonists went through character development, unlike heroes such as Triss, Tiria, and Deyna, who were all pretty much born to be the good guys. The rabbits—
“We are not rabbits, sah! We’re hares from The Long Patrol, wot!”
Oh my God, I’m so SORRY. >___> The HARES in the first books were both badass and funny, despite being complete gluttons. After books like Taggerung some of the hares became seriously annoying and were just there to eat food or complain about something. Thankfully, The Rogue Crew changed all that.
8. The female characters are more than just Redwall cooks or mothers nursing the Dibbuns (the Redwall children). Many female characters (like Mariel for one) are capable of putting up a fight or doing something worthwhile in order to aid the heroes. Some of them have shown to be even more badass or more likeable than the central protagonists themselves. Russa Nodrey, in particular, is a nomad who traveled around Mossflower using nothing but a long stick for a weapon.
9. Taggerung. This is arguably the least violent book in the series. Which is a good thing; that right there tells me that the books don’t have to be loaded with blood and gore and death to be awesome (even though Salamandastron had all of that, which is probably one reason why I like it so much). Taggerung is pretty much a cat-and-mouse game between the protagonist and a group of badass vermin (excluding Gruven, who is the biggest piece of shit ever >___>). I will admit, in hindsight, the Redwall subplot in this book turned out to be useless filler (shocker -___-), the ending was a HUGE deus ex machina Anti-Climax (I’d even go as far as calling it an Ass Pull), and Gruven was the biggest piece of shit ever.
10. Anyone Can Die. Yes, I know I’m a morbid bastard, but I like it when shows, movies, and books bend the rules. Why should every book have to be about a bunch of good guys killing all the bad guys and suffering no casualties? Instead, let’s throw in a character, make him or her develop, and then kill that character right when the audience begins to love them. In other words, you don’t know who’s gonna live or die in the end, and a sudden and shocking death is enough to make the audience realize that the situation is getting serious. And Redwall does that quite well (at least until after Lord Brocktree; by that point very few major characters died). Even though the main protagonist rarely ever dies, chances are, someone the protagonist is really good friends with or is really attached to is the one who ends up biting the dust. And all the Redwall fans found that out the hard way after reading Salamandastron and Martin the Warrior…
11. The Sable Quean. My God, this book was OUTSTANDING. It’s without a doubt the best book in the second half of the Redwall series (which many fans don’t like very much). Brian Jacques, the author, pretty much said this:
“Okay guys, I’m well aware that the Redwall books I’ve published over the last nine years have all sucked ass except Rakkety Tam and maybe Doomwyte. HERE.”
He gave us this delicious, wonderful book called The Sable Quean. This novel had everything that seemed to be absent from many of the previous books: no boring-ass filler Redwall subplot, an awesome protagonist who goes through some character development, villains you actually care about, a plot that (at first) didn’t fixate on Redwall, and Zwilt the Shade. Zwilt the Shade is hands-down the greatest villain in the second half of the Redwall series. This guy was literally as badass and as cool and as smart as Cluny. And even though this guy nearly stole every scene he was in, he didn’t do it to the point where he was the only character I cared about (unlike Plugg Firetail from Triss). And to top all that off, the Dibbuns in the series actually did something besides drowning the readers with their cuteness. This book was amazing from start to finish. …And then The Rogue Crew came out. >___>
12. Marlfox, and the Marlfoxes. Before I even start I know some Redwall fans are probably thinking “I didn’t like Marlfox because it’s pretty much the same as the first Redwall book but with foxes.” To which I have to say, “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” This book had an entire family of antagonists, not just one evil vermin leading an entire army. And their goal originally wasn’t to take Redwall under siege. The Marlfoxes just wanted to steal Martin’s legendary tapestry. It isn’t until one of the Marlfoxes is killed that they say “You Redwallers must pay for this death with blood! We’re gonna break into your beloved abbey and slaughter everyone in sight!” If anything, the reason behind the Marlfoxes' siege on Redwall is more justified than the original Redwall book. The Marlfoxes wanted to avenge someone’s murder. Cluny wanted to take over Redwall just cause he’s evil. And with the exception of Mokkan and the Marlfoxes who don’t set foot on the battlefield, all of them were brave, excellent fighters.
THE BAD
1. The second half of the series. A lot of the books seemed somewhat blah after Marlfox. Comparing the first half of Redwall to the second half of Redwall is like comparing Pixar Animation to DreamWorks Animation. It’s just not of the same caliber. I’m not saying DreamWorks hasn’t produced any good movies—and I’m not saying the second half of Redwall has no good books—but if you randomly pick out a book from the second half, chances are it’ll be lackluster, or suck ass.
2. TRISS. I already bitched about this unbearable novel in a previous journal. So I’m not going to say anymore, or else I’ll end up ranting again. >___>
3. Annoying and usually unimportant Redwall subplots. I understand that the series is Redwall, but if the main plot has nothing to do with Redwall at all, don’t bore us with pointless filler. So many books have happy, sappy Redwall subplots that were only thrown into the novel to make them longer and so the author could talk about more food. It started to get very aggravating, especially when some of these subplots simply revolved around solving a riddle. Apparently the Redwall ancestors were too fancy to just say, “I buried this shit here. Go dig it up.” Even if it’s not possible to leave out these subplots, they could’ve at least been cool and/or short, like the flu subplot from Salamandastron.
4. Villains became a waste. Later on in the series, some of the coolest-sounding villains or supposedly badass villains turned out to be Smug Snake. A Smug Snake is pretty much a pussy pretending to be a hardass. A Smug Snake is more than likely a douchebag, but if you punch this douchebag in the face, he’ll curl up in a ball and cry like a bitch. This series is FILLED with Smug Snakes. And it’s a really big disappointment when some of the books’ biggest and most feared enemies turn out to be cowards. I had high hopes for bad guys like Lask Frildur from Pearls of Lutra, but in the end Lask was just a cowardly lizard with bad breath who pronounced the letter “s” like a “z.” That’s literally all I can say about the guy, which is really sad. And the antagonist in that book, Emperor Ublaz, was an even bigger coward. But none of them are as bad as this guy…
5. Gruven. Yes, I am counting one character from a book series with over 1000 named characters as an ENTIRE CON. …Where do I start? Okay, uh, take Malfoy from the Harry Potter series, turn him into a talking stoat, and take away his ability to do magic. That’s Gruven Zann in a nutshell. This guy was without a doubt the most annoying and incompetent villain in the series. Even Ublaz was bold enough to face Martin when he was backed into a corner. But Gruven Zann? In order for Gruven to kill you, you have to be unarmed, he has to trick you into getting killed, or he has to attack you when your back is turned. Seriously, a ten-year-old with a BB gun could subdue Gruven. I am not even joking. There were times in the book Taggerung when Gruven literally broke down and begged and pleaded for his life as he cried like a little bitch. That was the only thing I enjoyed about this piece of shit. The fact that he managed to nearly last the entire novel is shocking, even for me. And unfortunately, his death is not that great either. I wanted him to break down into a sobbing wreck again, but instead, he’s swiftly killed and the author spends two or three sentences describing his death. This character is just as annoying, if not more annoying, than Scarum from Triss.
6. The deaths started to tone down and some of the plots became predictable. After Lord Brocktree, not too many characters died on the good guys’ side. I’m not saying I want all the good guys to die—I am not that morbid—but if I’m reading a book that has fifty bad guys and forty good guys, at the very least keep the death toll even on both sides. In several novels, nearly all the antagonists died, and then one or two good guys—maybe of whom were minor characters—got offed. And to me, that took away some of the suspense and shock from the novels.
7. Anti-Climaxes and Anticlimax Bosses. I do not expect every novel to end with a fifty-page-long chapter of an epic fight between the good guy and the bad guy, but seriously, if the “fight” against the main antagonist is over in a mere paragraph, then that is very bad. I know that in the real world, things happen and fights aren’t as long as they should be, but if a fight ends because the enemy you’re facing trips and falls on her fuckin’ sabre, the reader is going to be pissed. Out of the twenty-two books in the series, only six of them end with an outstanding fight between the main villain and the hero. SIX. Out of TWENTY-TWO BOOKS. >___> And then on top of that, some books ended on a rather abrupt tone. Taggerung has the biggest deus ex machina in the whole series; it’s pretty damn obvious that the author was thinking:
“I am tired of this book. I’m just gonna throw in some random bullshit and end it right here and the readers will have to sit there and deal with it.”
He had to be thinking something like that. And I know he was; I could tell, me being a writer myself. I admit I’ve even done this a few times for the same reason. But with me it’s:
“I am tired of the story. I’m just gonna throw in some random bullshit ending because I’m sure whoever read this started masturbating on page three, and blew their load on page four. And this is a fucking thirteen-page story.”
8. Little character development. When it comes to Redwall books, most of the conflict is only external, and the central protagonist is usually perfect. And that’s usually not what a reader wants. You either need a protagonist who isn’t perfect but eventually becomes badass and wise, a protagonist who’s a cocky douchebag who eventually becomes nicer and less of an asshole, or you need a protagonist who is perfect, but suffers a tragedy at some point in the novel and must learn how to deal with it, thereby introducing internal conflict. As the books progress, more characters just came out perfect and at most had to deal with the death of a minor character, which they usually got over very quickly. The only character I felt fully developed in the series was Matthias, who went from being a hard-headed act-first mouse to a smart and badass hero over the course of Redwall and Mattimeo.
9. No angst. As the novels progress, the Redwallers seem to accept or flat-out ignore characters dying. There was a disturbing part in Loamhedge where a badger uses a dead searat’s body as a fucking flail and kills other searats with the carcass right in front of the Redwallers. And after he finishes, the Redwallers aren’t even remotely creeped out at the badger. If a character died, the Redwallers would get upset for one or two paragraphs and then get over it. There were even some cases where the Redwallers thought the best solution to a tragedy was to hold a feast. …I’m serious. I did however like how one of the characters from The Rogue Crew explained why a warrior or leader couldn’t show any sorrow or angst. After he lost someone close to him, the character said that he couldn’t spend the rest of his life grieving; he needed to lead his army into battle. There was nothing he could do but bury the relative’s body, have a funeral, grieve briefly, and get back into the action. So at the very least the author gave a decent explanation as to why the warriors in this series don’t grieve as much.
ON THE FENCE
1. Veil Sixclaw. Okay, I am going to try and explain this without spoiling anything, so I apologize if I spoil something important by accident. >___< So the plot for Outcast of Redwall centers around a ferret who’s the son of a warlord named Swartt Sixclaw being taken in and raised by Redwallers. But after Veil does something unforgiveable at Redwall, he’s banished. Now Veil must decide whether or not he should join his neglectful father’s army, or warn the Redwallers about his impending attack and defend them. Yeah, that’s the premise. Sounds interesting, right? No. Veil was not even born in Part 1 of this book, and in Part 2, he’s a complete asshole and deserved to get banished from Redwall for trying to poison someone. And this is all the first few things he does in the book. So it’s pretty much like:
“I tried to kill a Redwaller! That’s right, this is the first important thing I’ve done in the first few chapters I’ve been in which means this is the setup for my character which means the readers are gonna have to care about me based on this, and I don’t think that’s gonna happen!”
Yeah, that’s Veil in a nutshell. This guy was an ASSHOLE to virtually everyone, and his subplot had nothing to do with the actual plot. See, Veil Sixclaw is a Decoy Protagonist; the real protagonist is Sunflash the Mace, a badger (you know that’s already awesome) who was held prisoner by Swartt but escaped. This novel is about Swartt trying to hunt down and kill this badger; Redwall had nothing to do with the antagonist. He actually tried to take over Redwall but failed miserably in a single chapter and said, “Fuck this; let’s go back to hunting Sunflash.” And that pretty much made me wonder why Redwall, let alone Veil Sixclaw, even existed. Redwall and Veil could’ve been eradicated from existence and this book still would’ve been perfectly fine, if not better. What I find odd about Veil is that many people feel sorry for him and like him, while others (like me) hate his guts, for all the right reasons. Then at the end of the book, out of nowhere, Veil arguably does something to “redeem” himself. But after doing this, he realizes he can no longer go back to Redwall. And after Veil is banished, Bryony, Veil’s foster mother who went out on a journey just to find Veil and bring him back, pretty much said,
“Redwall is better off without Veil. I know now only after he did one good thing in his life that he was evil down to the core.”
…Are you fucking serious? You spent THE WHOLE GODDAMN BOOK looking for this asshole, and right after he does one good thing in his life that saved your ass, you suddenly say that he’s evil and doesn’t belong in Redwall? What kind of bullshit is that?! How the fuck do you stand there and finally decide—okay I’m ranting now. Let me just get to the next part. >___<
2. The animated TV series. It had pretty much everything. Some great voice acting, cool animation, a medieval theme to it, actually taking many scenes from the book, and more. What I really love is that they nailed Cluny and especially Basil’s voices down perfectly. The voice I imagined in my head for Basil is the exact same voice used in the cartoon. His character, his attitude, his humor and accent—it was all portrayed right down to a T. The TV series even had violence in it, like the actual books.
“I don’t get it. Why’s this show on the fence then?”
Because the TV series is a kids show that actually feels like it’s for kids. Even though Redwall is a children’s book series, it is chalked full of violence and death and blood and gore. The TV series doesn’t have as much violence, hardly any blood, no gore, and annoying off-screen deaths. For instance, in Season 2 of the show, Stonefleck tries to run away from battle when Log-a-Log throws a sword into his back. Right when the rat gets hit, you hear him groaning, you see one of his paws twitching, but you don’t actually see him die because a large tree is blocking his body. This is known as a Gory Discretion Shot, and the animated TV series is full of them. I’m not saying the animated series is bad at all. I’m just saying not too many adults will find it as appealing as the books because the books are much darker and bloodier.
3. Loamhedge. The problem with this book was that the villain was just a generic searat with a hook for a paw and the plot was all over the place. There’s Subplot A, which involves Lonna Bowstripe, the protagonist, and Raga Bol, the antagonist, Subplot B, which involves Redwall, and Subplot C, which involves a random gang of vermin. The main plot starts out with Subplot B, but Subplot C merges with Subplot B, whilst Subplot A isn’t important at all. A new subplot is spawned from Subplot B, and Subplot A quickly overthrows Subplot C and clashes with Subplot B. Meanwhile, Subplot D is just pointless filler, but it involves the two protagonists from Subplot B, therefore making it seem as important as Subplot A, which originally didn’t matter, and which is now heavily involved with Subplot B. You see the problem here? X___X What I really hated was that two of the protagonists in this story venture across Mossflower to find something that’ll help another character, Martha, walk again. But a little halfway through the novel, something happens to Martha which not only nullifies the subplot these two characters are in, but turns these two characters into decoy protagonists you don’t care about that much anymore.
4. No one is ever mentioned going to the bathroom. I know, it’s a stupid thing to bring up, and this didn’t really bother me until I read Eulalia! and noticed that the protagonist was forced to drink lots of rainwater while tied to a mast. My brain told me that since no one touched him, he wound up pissing his pants at least once. And yet they never mentioned that. You would think with the twenty-two books out there, they would mention at least once when or where someone goes to the bathroom. And I’m not talking about toilet humor either; I mean, just saying that it happens. Like in the novel Jake’s List, Jake mentions to one of his friends that he needs to take a shit, even though I thought he only said that because he was getting uncomfortable when his friend kept wondering if he was gay. But the book actually said that Jake really went into the bathroom and took a dump. It’s little things like that I never saw in this series, which makes me wonder if everyone just pisses and shits on the floor and doesn’t give a damn… >___>
5. Some of the accidental innuendo and implied sex jokes. Everytime something perverted popped up I tried not to think in that direction. But after I read The Long Patrol and read how one of the vermin was going to “do that pair ‘ard’n’slow afore dawnbreak,” I stopped reading the book for five minutes just so I could ponder how that wasn’t ass-rape. But in the end, that comment wound up coming across as gay ass rape to me. >___> And then there’s some of the sword motifs that pop up in the series. Y’know, how some warriors have really long “swords”? And then there was that incident in Doomwyte where a snake got trapped inside the mouth of a tunnel. That didn’t really bother me until I saw it was mentioned on TV Tropes. And then I thought more clearly. And now I get it. >___>
6. The Rogue Crew. To sum it down, this book is about a badass otter named Skor Axehound who teams up with a badass hare named Captain Rake Nightfur and together Skor and his band of badass otters called the Rogue Crew travel through Mossflower with Captain Nightfur’s band of badass Long Patrol hares in order to defeat Razzid Wearat and his evil band of pirates. Is the novel badass? …Not really. Sure, some awesome things happen here and there, but the otters and hares are mostly just walking through Mossflower and talking and encountering little problems that are solved quickly. I do like how the book displays that even if you’re badass, you won’t always do badass things; it makes it more realistic, to some degree. Sometimes you’ll just walk somewhere, or climb something, or talk to kill time, etc. That doesn’t make part of this book less boring or slow-paced though. But towards the end of the novel, one of the major characters dies and shortly after that, the final battle happens inside Redwall. Now that part IS epic, and almost enough to make up for the slow parts. One of the worst things about this book was Uggo Wiltud. He went from being a main character to being a minor character with little lines who everyone thought was annoying. And unlike Scarum, he’s actually quite tolerable. But at some point I kept asking myself, “why are you still here?” If Uggo just dropped dead, I wouldn’t have cared at all. And then at the end of the book he has the perfect opportunity to increase his level of badassness. And he fucks it up. Spectacularly. >___> All in all, Part 1 of the book is great, Part 2 is kinda slow, and Part 3 is also a bit slow, but the major character death and the amazing battle at the end makes up for it.
So would I recommend this book series? Absolutely! This is one of the most badass animal novel series out there you will ever hear of (yes, even more badass than the first arc of Warrior Cats). Now, while I do recommend this book series, I do not recommend all twenty-two books. Do not do what I did and buy every single novel without at least reading a couple reviews or asking someone how it is. At some point Redwall becomes either boring or cliché, or both. Many of the protagonists are cardboard cutouts of the original ones, and as I stated earlier, they come out perfect, so don’t expect much character development. But also keep in mind that some of these books don’t need development because all the badass external conflict will make up for it. And some of the villains like Ferahgo and Badrang and Cluny the Scourge and Slagar the Cruel and the heroes like Matthias and Martin the Warrior are simply too iconic for someone to not know who they are. But the problem with this series is that many well-loved characters only appear in one book, so when you read the next book, you’ll find out that everyone died of old age, and that they’ve all been replaced with new characters you may not give a fuck about.
If you’ve never heard of Redwall and you think it may interest you, I recommend getting the first six books—seven if you like Mariel. After Martin the Warrior, that’s when by subconscious kicked in and I realized that the plot’s the same and so are many of the characters. If you have heard of Redwall and have read a few books and you are a really big fan, then buy the first eleven books. After Marlfox, the Redwall charm began to go away somehow. However, I will say that Lord Brocktree, Rakkety Tam, Doomwyte, and ESPECIALLY The Sable Quean also deserve to be read. If this book series sounds interesting but you’re not a big reader, at least buy the very first book. The original Redwall book is arguably the best in the whole series. That or Salamandastron, because the hero in that book is a FUCKING BADGER. Not to mention that Salamandastron is one of the books that managed to make all the subplots blend together really well halfway through and towards the end of the novel.
If you don’t even wanna touch the books or you’re just too lazy to read past page ten, then watch the animated TV series. It’s on Netflix and YouTube (unless YouTube took it down).
“But I thought you said the TV show is too kid-friendly?”
And therein lies the problem. If you’re an adult, you might not like the TV show. I did, but only because I really like Redwall and because the show is actually a kids show that kids won’t be scared or disturbed of and because of some of the voice acting: Cluny’s voice, Basil’s voice, Matthias’ voice in the second season, etc. They even got Tim Curry to voice Slagar the Cruel! And it was incredible! Everytime I read Mattimeo I pictured Tim Curry’s voice in my head when Slagar spoke, and it made the antagonist that much more likeable. Voice acting aside, some people on this website just prefer to stomach through a kids show as opposed to reading a book, even though the book series is much more violent and serious, and therefore more appealing to adults.
“What if I don’t wanna do any of these?”
I dunno, watch the Abridged series on YouTube? Only eight episodes are up there, but the Abridged series is funnier than I thought it’d be, to the point where I laughed almost hysterically on multiple occasions. So if none of this suits you, you can always have a few laughs by watching that.
So that’s it. I’m finally finished. (This was a long-ass journal. X___X) I might review the first arc of Warrior Cats too, but I’ll worry about that later. Hope you’ve enjoyed this incredibly lengthy review…for those who stomached through it all. XD
King_Kangaroo
!kingkangaroo
Is this for sale at Books A Million stores?
tcyk89
~tcyk89
OP
I don't know. I got it from Amazon.
King_Kangaroo
!kingkangaroo
Ok, I didn't you had a limit to details of gore and death. I thought that the death gore dream in FD was the max you could go, but now I see that you do have a limit on gore and death.
tcyk89
~tcyk89
OP
FD isn't targeted for children. It can be as gory as it wants. When you read about a searat getting his spine snapped by a giant wheel and then being left to die while he's screaming for help in a kids books, it's unsettling. >___<
King_Kangaroo
!kingkangaroo
oh dear... I don't think this author went to the right publishing group and got the right audience.
tcyk89
~tcyk89
OP
The series has sold millions of copies of books, so I guess he did something right. Warrior Cats also has its share of violent and unsettling deaths as well. I guess the U.K. is more tolerant of violence in novels.
King_Kangaroo
!kingkangaroo
that makes sense since the UK is more violent on everything bloody.
Foxpiper
~foxpiper
I thought your review of the Redwall series was very detailed and well-written. You touched upon many of the main aspects of the series and expanded upon them with a good analysis.
tcyk89
~tcyk89
OP
Why thank you. It took me a while to write all this and try to get all the aspects I wanted mentioned. X___X
lokiking
~lokiking
nice work well writen and good points. not sure if i should read more of the series but well see, hope y find more books like it or even better
tcyk89
~tcyk89
OP
Actually I hear Welkin Weasels is somewhat similar to Redwall. Although I haven't read it yet. The series is much shorter though, and not as popular.
tcyk89
~tcyk89
OP
Yes...it's a shame really. But what can you do? Even though the series became a little less enjoyable with the last handful of books, I get the feeling Jacques would still be writing more Redwall books if he were still alive today. And I'd still be buying them.
