These really are paint by numbers fantasy. But I enjoy them. This one was my favorite of the 5 or 6 I had read in the past and I still found it enjoyable.

Nostalgic to return to this book. My inner child needed this!

I probably would have enjoyed this book as much as the previous two, had I not read those so recently. Starting to feel a burnout for the series, mostly due to how similar they are.

Kidnapping young ones, a journey of a few to rescue the young ones, trouble at home for the young and old tormented by birds that have taken over parts of the abbey. Can the traveling party rescue the young ones? Will Mattimeo grow up and take his place at the Abbey and with the young ones he is trying to lead and help while they are captives? Will the young, females and old at the abbey be able to regain control of the abbey without their warriors! All this in the pages of a wonderful juvenile fiction that is 446 page long... longer than most books the adults are willing to read for my book club! Wonderful characters, a plot that keeps you reading, excellent writing, and the Lovely Abbey setting as well as the wanderer's settings throughout the surrounding area. So happy to be re-reading this favorite from our homeschool days!

“Weapons may be carried by creatures who are evil, dishonest, violent or lazy. The true warrior is good, gentle and honest. His bravery comes from within himself; he learns to conquer his own fears and misdeeds."

Using this book for the The 52 Book Club 2025 Challenge prompt  #21 Character's Name is in the Title

Keeping on keeping on with the Redwall books in publish order, I have completed "Mattimeo". The huge caveat to this review may be the context in which I read it. Long story short, my wife and I have been in the process of moving, and the last month has been pretty hectic. Nevertheless, I was able to read "Mattimeo" with only one check-out renewal from our library! However, all this being said, I must say I did not enjoy "Mattimeo" as much as "Redwall" or "Mossflower". I think, in short, there was just one too many storylines going on for me to follow. The storyline with Mattimeo was certainly important and, therefore, the storyline with Matthias was also important. However, the additional storyline back at Redwall Abbey just seemed kind of overkill. I believe the storyline with Ironbeak, although entertaining, ended up taking away from what could have been a really cool side-by-side, with Matthias embarking on his last adventure before passing the sword to Mattimeo, and Mattimeo being forced to grow up and become the next Warrior Of Redwall. Instead, things felt rushed, and Mattimeo's coming of age came off as inauthentic and unbelievable. If Mattimeo was supposed to be to "Mattimeo" what Matthias was to "Redwall", then I think more depth was warranted in character development, particularly for Mattimeo.

My favorite book in this series but I have only read five of them so far.

IM SO CONFLICTED.

The great read-through of the Redwall series continues through Mattimeo, and...I don't know. For everything that was amazing, there was something that threw me off, to the point where I don't know what to do with a star rating here. So let's do it this way. Point, counter-point.

+ The Horror! There's body horror. Cosmic horror. Home Invasion horror. Cultists. The genres favorite "If he didn't die on screen, then he's not really dead" trope. Jacques gave me extra large helpings us my favorite subgenre
- It's the same plot. Again. The inciting incident is new and fun, with a child abduction (Horror!) But then we slip into the usual tower defense while a band of adventurers goes questing for *mystery location*. We just did this in Redwall and Mossflower. I need something new.
+ Warbeak. No words. No spoilers. But she's the heart of Redwall Abbey.
- Too many characters. Jacques seems to completely forget about some of his characters, like Jabez or Sam Squirrel, who arrive as deus ex machinas or other such moments, then go hundreds of pages without reference even though they're COOL CHARACTERS.
+ That ending though. For all its faults and pacing problems and inconsistencies, Jacques NAILS the last 100 pages in a way that Mossflower and Redwall wishes they could have climaxed.

So again. I feel weird about this one. But hopefully my friends on the Books N Badgers podcast will help me wrap my head around things more holistically.

Onwards to Mariel of Redwall!!

Good book

To quote from Larry the Cucumber, "I laughed, I cried, it moved me Bob."

I read this book immediately after Redwall, which I think is the best way to read the books. It was a wonderful sequel. I'm glad that Mattimeo wasn't a clone of his father, but his own mouse :).


RW Ratings:
Language: 5 stars. May have been a couple of instances of "h---".
Abuse: 4 1/2 stars. Lots of physical and mental abuse by the villians. Quite a lot of violence
Lust: 5 stars. No impure content of any kind

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Original review:
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I must say, this book was of a brilliant radiance that rivals the sun. That is, I would have to say that if I was planning to exaggerate a wee bit. But, seeing as the mood to exaggerate has not taken me, I shall instead say that this book was very well written and quite funny. I would have been sad to put it aside, except that I spurned it at the exact second that I finished in order to read n  Wrath of the Stormn, but that is not relevant, so I suppose I'll usurp my power and stop writing this review to avoid any more irrelevance. <---(EXCUSE)

I can see now after finishing this animal epic, why this is so many people’s favorite of the redwall series, because the story, pacing and even there side plot is so strong in the novel that there really isn’t a low point anywhere. Having Slagar be a call back to the first novel was genius, the slaver kingdom was so eerie and ominous, you absolutely have to adore the rhyming owl and the side story of iron break and the crows trying to take the undefended abbey is some of the best wit and humor the series has shown so far… cornflower as a ghost had me crackin up.

A good addition to Redwall, but it shares the issues of all books in this series- that is its predictability, and the sameness of characters from book to book. All the otters act pretty much the same, same for shrews and badgers, and hares and so on and so forth.
They all also have the same plot, of something is stolen from Redwall, or an evil horde comes to attack it. Despite this, it is still a good series, and there are a few books to break the mold, Martin The Warrior and Taggerung off the top of my head.
I highly recommend this to fans of Wind in the Willows and/ or Watership Down, or for reluctant readers. It is middle grade writing, with a few harder words, but they are easily definable from context, and the fact that there are so many in the series lends itself to lots of reading if one is liked.
For adults reading it, I would suggest interspersing it with other books die to the similarities between books.