Charming, could have been half as long.

I first read the Redwall books years ago and I still enjoy them when I recently re-read them. I love the world building and the creativity with which these animals were anthropomorphized. The level of description is really well done and very detailed. So adventurous and so very entertaining.

"Three and a half stars. I liked that this book was about characters I already knew and liked, but why did so many other people have to die?"

I am biased so disregard this review.

So much of my childhood has been spent here and therefore I can't really be objective here.

World: The world is dense and fully lived in and magical. It's the most beautiful of forests and adventures are high stakes but not really. This time we travel to the north to learn the origins of Martin's father Luke. It's a tale of the high seas and it's beautifully described.

Story: Follows the Redwall formula and doesn't really stray. Although the framing of the tale within a tale is present here to present both Martin and Luke's perspective. It's good. I do feel that there was enough time for us to get to know Martin's group but we switch to Luke's tale in the bulk of the middle so the love for the Martin group could have been better.

Characters: Magical. It's simple, black and white and so descriptive. The new characters fun but also fall safely into the Redwall mold. Nothing out of place here.

An adventure that fits snugly into the rest of Redwall.

Onward to the next book!

The Redwall Book that Learned Me How to Cry in Brand New Ways

A neat little story. I haven't read any of the others, this was just the only book in the psych ward that wasn't a romance. Probably going to go back and start at the beginning of the whole series, to understand who these animals are, and why I should care.

Really enjoyed the slower pace of this one at the start. It felt a bit more "epic", a little like the Hobbit in terms of the pacing which was fun. The mystery of what happened to Martin's father was a good hook and I found the payoff to be well done.

I also liked that it was all from the heroes POV and there was no main baddy for Martin and company.

Luke's story was exciting and tragic but everything you'd hope for in a legendary history.

The only thing that let it down was the last section of the story where Martin and co travel home. There was too much space given to Redwallers having a picnic for no reason which could have been used for a bit more adventure for the actual heroes.

Also there was no explanation to the motivation for the Legendary Martin to change from a warrior to a pacifist. His transformation is kinda at the heart of many of the other books but it was handled in a couple of sentences on the last page "oh btw he'd rather play with the kids now so hes hidden his sword". If his willingness to forsake his sword was because of what a warriors path had cost his father etc etc then that would have given the decision some weight.

Ah well. I really enjoyed it all despite that.

The crazy otter folgrim was an interesting addition to the story, as was Trimp. Chugger on the other hand...wasn't so bad for a dibbun.

The goshawk and Gonff were very fun too.


Overall 8/10. Good fun and a change of pace, if a little disappointing on the wrap up.

My husband read this series as a child, so I picked one up to see what it was about. The plot was fine, maybe even good (hence 2 stars instead of 1), but I couldn't get over all the negatives, which made this truly painful to read.

There was too much filler (including the entire final 1/4 of the book), too many songs, too many feasts (as bad as the songs), too much 'eye dialect' creating difficult-to-parse accents. The casual sexism, which was probably normal at the time this was published, was obnoxious. No main female characters, but the closest was Trimp, who was a badass adventurer but EVERYONE who met her could only (often creepily) talk about how pretty she was (gag). She also got stuck babysitting a child while the men were all battling in some scenes, which was disgraceful.

There's also a lot of violence and bloodshed - including full-on massacres of entire villages and depictions of slavery - for a book aimed at young kids.

Avoid.

The story of Martin the Warrior continues as he returns to the shores where he was born to learn the fate of his father, Luke the Warrior. Luke's story is an adventure in itself.

The ultimate sacrifice done by Martin the Warrior's father, Luke. At least there is some closure as to what happened to Luke, as Martin has been thinking about his father for a long time.

One of the very best in the series... It's emotive, surprising and full of those wonderfully likeable characters that Jacques does so well. Plus the excessive lists of food consumption are OFF THE SCALE!

Another enjoyable entry in the Redwall series. Main drawback was it being a story of two different characters. Luke, Martin of Redwall’s father, had a fairly good devotion of the story in the middle, but Martin’s journey felt less compelling. No real conflict and hard to remember his new companions after taking a break from them for half of the book.