I loved diving back into the Redwall series, and this is up there for one of my favorites!

Mariel: The mouse, the MYTH, the legendddd.

I loved this, but I’m just a big fan of Redwall’s sturdy heroes and horrible yet incompetent villains in general. The rich storytelling interweaves an intimate intermingling of the forest and creatures of Mossflower with feasting, prophecies, jokes, and good ole resolve.

The audiobooks are also a big plus because the author narrates with a cast of readers for the character voices. This makes the songs so much better than reading them in text.

Despite the main protagonist being my favourite character in the Redwall universe, which is enough for me to maintain a five-star rating for Mariel of Redwall, I don't agree with how the book is titled.

Simply put, it's a misnomer.

Mariel is as much a creature of Redwall as the Long Patrol hares were. She spent all of a month or so at the abbey for the duration of the novel, both to start with and after her great adventure. She never truly resided nor originated from there. So the title tying her roots to the abbey is a bit baffling, nevermind her own declarations of affiliation in the story itself.

Granted, in defence of the author, it was the fourth book written in the series and the first to introduce a truly new cast of characters. Perhaps the connection, at least in the title, was meant to tie it together for younger audiences in a series still finding its footing.

Mariel of Redwall introduces its universe's first mousemaid warrior at its centre, after a string of female mice mostly playing damsels in distress to the male warrior protagonist. So the gender bend was a refreshing change of pace for this girl who just wanted a female character that can legitimately kick ass. That her weapon was a knotted rope whereas Dandin wielded Martin the Warrior's sword sort of undermined her position as the fighter, but one can give space to it still being early days to Brian Jacques' anthropomorphic creation and the early 1990s to boot.

I think the thing that really drew me to Mariel though was how sassy, fierce and confident she was portrayed, both in her amnesiac state as Storm and when she was just the bellmaker's daughter. It was everything I wanted to be and more, but struggled with while in that awkward teen phase. And perhaps this is what leant both the attachment to her as well as the love of her story as a whole.

From Mariel and Dandin to Gabool the Wild, the characters in this story were some of the most memorable for me. Gabool in particular made for a memorable antagonist, especially with his descent into madness, haunted by the bell he had purloined. The villain's name was well composed also.

Overall, I enjoyed this story immensely, certainly more than Salamandastron as it lacked much of the petulance that weighed that book's characters down. That isn't to say the story is particularly ground-breaking or original. For a long time still, all any Redwall book was was a continued rehash of the hero's journey Jacques leaned heavily on to keep the abbey from constantly being the setting for a standoff.

That said, even Mariel of Redwall couldn't avoid a semi-proper seige of the building, even as our main heroes popped off for a bit of exploration and then liberation.

But for me, all its shortcomings aren't deterents. Books and your interpretation of it is different depending on when and how you are consuming it.

The point of this reread was to revisit what was once a favourite literary haunt. And to also recapture the magic that made me purchase every Redwall text I could afford.

I wanted to find comfort in a place that takes me back to my childhood, however awkward that space was for me. That nostalgia is what brought me back to visit with old friends. And to grasp at a happier and simpler time when a knotted rope was viewed as a competent weapon.

Loved this one. Best battle sequences in the series so far. The whole concept of Mariel taking the rope tied to a stone that was intended to drown her, and using it as a weapon? *Chef's kiss*

I'm giving all these books a 4, because they basically GOT me hooked on fantasy I think. I read all of these in elementary school, and still have fond memories floating around. The rad legendary weapons, (with the channels etched in for blood flow, which i found super hardcore). The foods, the booze, honey mead and apple wine or whatever. Come to think of it, these books might also be a little responsible for my alcoholism, too.

Note to self: If ever have daughter? Name her Mariel

This was decent if not outstanding, I don't think the story of this one is on the same levels as most of the others.

Gabool totally losing his shit with the Bell, and becoming somewhat unhinged did make me laugh at times and the full cast audio, as always gives the story a star on its own

Mariel of Redwall is a pretty frustrating entry in the Redwall series, with some of the coolest bits in any of the early books while simultaneously struggling with poor pacing and dull plot beats. It oscillates wildly from great action and tension to rote journeying and adventure.

Let's start with the bad: Gabool is a great character largely wasted in the background to the rest of the book's plot, which serves to cheapen some of the overall effect of the story. Whereas previous entries featured strong villains at the forefront of the story, Gabool is given some really interesting character traits while forgotten for a solid fifty percent of the narrative. Compounding the poor utilization of characters is the book's major mouse warrior from Redwall, Dandin, who is one of the most boring warrior archetypes in the series to date. The titular Mariel stands out as an interesting character in her own right, but she is quickly overshadowed by many other characters with richer interactions or stronger moments of action. Most damningly, the whole middle-third of the book is a slog of boring "adventure" as Mariel and friends make their way through the heart of Mossflower on their way to Gabool's Terramort Isle.

But for all the tedium of Mariel's journey, the book introduces a whole lot to love. The book's hook is a lot of fun, and the primary conflict between Gabool and Graypatch opens up a corsair plot that is a genuine delight. The high seas adventures of Graypatch and Gabool's fleet is great fun, leading into one of the coolest siege battles against Redwall in any of the first four books. Jacques also expands on the roles of Salamandastron and the Long Patrol in a way we haven't seen since Mossflower, and if the previous book was a promise, Mariel of Redwall is the delivery. The back third of the book is propulsive story telling, full of high seas adventure and a couple of heart-stopping action sequences that are some of the best in the whole series.

Even twenty years after I first read this book, I vividly remember the pulse-pounding excitement I felt at the storming of Fort Bladegirt or in the last stand of Colonel Clary's Long Patrol. Although I didn't remember these parts belonging specifically to this book, I definitely remembered the story beats--and that fills me with tremendous joy these twenty years later.

But for all that I love the final third of the book, it is still saddled with a dull roadtrip and stock characters that don't quite stand out from what came before. I think it's tragic that some of my favorite parts of the series came from this book, but I didn't remember that it was Mariel of Redwall that delivered the goods. I think that's because so much of the rest of the book was such a chore to read, leaving me conflicted on how I should really feel about this book.

My resulting evaluation of Mariel of Redwall is that it is a flawed adventure that occasionally manages to break out and deliver some deeply satisfying moments. Taken as a whole, the book feels clumsy and unrefined, but I also think I'm willing to accept its flaws on the strength of what it does best.

I have to keep reminding myself that these books are written for children. Also. I chose to read these in publication order rather than cronological order which I feel like maybe was the wrong choice for me? The stories are cute and the little things Jaques does to keep you in the world of critters, like "slowly sneaking on tip paw..." or "a lending paw" so so cute! However I found myself losing interest in this particular one. As well as the previous one, Mattimeo. Maybe I'm reading them too close together, or maybe these two books just didn't hit as well as the first few. I shall press on through the series in my valiant attempt to get through all 20 something before the end of this calendar year!!

I really enjoyed this 4th book in the Redwall series...the only complaint that I do have is that I felt like the story focused on Mariel quite a bit & less on her father, Joseph & wish that the story had focused on him as well. It just felt like I got a little glimpse of Joseph as a character at the beginning of the book & at the very end of the story, but felt like right smack dab in the middle, it was like he completely disappeared.
This was still a good read for me & am glad that I am taking the time to slowly make my way through reading this series!

I wasn’t completely all in starting this particular tale of redwall abbey, but Mariel is one of if not potentially my favorite of all the main protagonist’s thus far. I mean she comes from terrible hardship and loss, even without her memory she knows right and wrong, her bullwacker rope is just such a cool and badass weapon and punch for punch she shows that the female creatures of the world can be just as fearsome and formidable. Not to mention the wonderful addition of high seas, pirates and swashbuckling just gave the whole adventure tv at much more of a lovely flair. To top it off, without spoiling anything, the ending to this particular novel is genuinely so sweet and is probably my favorite closing of the series as well so far. Eulalia!

Are vermin attacking redwall? Check.

Is there a badger mother? There is.

Is there an entire B plot where people venture out from Redwall to accomplish their own quest? For sure.

Are Long Patrol hares ridiculous? Oh most definitely!

Is there a mouse hero saving the day? Of course.

Does the male mouse end up with the female mouse? How could they not?

Is there ample deus ex machina? As if there were a mouse god.

Are rats, stoats, ferrets, and weasels uniformly bad whole everyone else is uniformly good, if only by acting in their nature? You know it.

A hero spoken to by Martin the Warrior? Duh.

This book is nothing if not Redwall and might not be anything but Redwall. In four books, Jacques wrote the same story three times and the only reason it wasn't four is because Redwall didn't yet exist in "Mossflower".

The happenings of this book were so circumstantial, I had to go back and listen to parts again because I thought I'd missed something. I hadn't though and random creatures popping up at the most opportune moments to save heroes only to bow out is par for the course rather than luck.

It's almost the luck of Bilbo Baggins, but in "The Hobbit", luck is directly mentioned as an element of Bilbo's character, not a random set of happenings as it appears to be in "Redwall."

The only thing that makes sense is that Mossflower has a sort of protective spirit towards Redwallers and their allies that perpetually keeps them safeguarded against both the non-cognizant monsters that lay within Mossflower and the outsiders that would infiltrate its borders.

The hard-and-fast nature of evil and good being tied directly to species is extremely problematic, even in fantasy. It was problematic in Tolkien and it's problematic in this book and in the Redwall series a whole.

"Mariel of Redwall" is better than "Mattimeo", an easy assessment as the two are nearly identical in structure, but it falls short of "Redwall" and "Mossflower".