This book was a lot of fun. A simple story of good vs evil combined with interesting characters who are memorable!

My Synopsis:
The usually peaceful lands of Mossflower are in distress. An evil creature, Gulo the Savage, a wolverine, and his band of cannibalistic followers are on the hunt for his brother and the Walking Stone. Gulo will stop at nothing to reclaim the Walking Stone and kill his brother. Rakkety Tam, a borderer squirrel, finds himself, and close friend Wild Doogy Plumm, on a mission to find the banner of their king after half the kingdom is slaughtered by Gulo and his vermin. Along the way they make unexpected allies and form a new plan, save Redwall Abby and Mossflower Wood from the Savage.

My Thoughts:
I loved Redwall and a few other books by Brian Jacques, and I can say that this book did not disappoint. A great adventure with very well developed characters and mentions of characters from past books. I love all the detail that goes into these books. Like the accents, different languages like Mole, and descriptions of the food. I am always hungry after reading about the food in Redwall. The back and forth of characters and their location really fleshed out the story. I may have a new favorite Redwall book and I do not say that lightly.

Contents Warning:
Violence, War themes, Gore

This was underrated. I’ve never once heard anything about this book in particular and it was so good.

A bit slow...possibly because of the lacklustre villain and the numerous song interludes...

always interesting twists in these stories, lots of action, adventure, heroes and of course great feasts--this time we have invaders from the North, the land of ice and snow-- Viking type vermin!

Absolutely in love with this book now. Definitely one of my top five Redwalls. Redwall, but adding Scottish squirrels? Yes, please! Plus Tam is a total charmer. (And he reminded me a lot of my own Angus McCladden from my upcoming book, so win-win).

The only thing that I didn't like...was how Brian Jacques did his usual thing and killed off Brigadier Crumshaw (Brigadier Wot-Wot) just when I had really started to enjoy him and hope he would live T_T I also would have liked to see more of the goshawk. He seemed to sorta disappear by book three, and I wished he could have had more page time than just in the beginning. But those are minor complaints. This book is a treasure.

Best in the series.

This book features Rakkety Tam, a mercenary, who winds up having a huge change of heart when he encounters Redwall and the inhabitants. Rakkety Tam goes to war to protect his newfound family at the Abbey from Gulo the Savage, a wolverine who is in search of a relic and wants to pillage the abbey and residents in order to get ahold of it. I was so excited that The Long Patrol made an appearance in this book, and I thought the story was great. I love this series, and I am considering reading it all over again once I get my unread book number down some.

The book Rakkety Tam by Brian Jacques is about two soldiers for the squirrel king, Doogy Plumm and Rakkety Tam, who pledged their swords to fight for him. But when the king is attacked, and the banner is stolen they set out on a quest to gain back the banner and ultimately their freedom. They meet many along the way including the hares of salamandastron and join forces to fight for a common cause, to find the bandit and slay him. But when they learn that the he is heading to Redwall Abbey they must intercept him. At the same time, two different creatures depart from Redwall, Sister Armel and Brookflow, with the sword of Martin the Warrior knowing that the matters and interests of others should always be put in front of one’s self. Their task is to find the “warrior who lost who sword”, and provide aid to him.
Jacques makes the theme of the book clear and consistent throughout the whole book - The matters and interests of others should always be put in front of one’s self. For example on page 124 two creatures leave their home for the sake of others, who they have never seen before. The theme is also kept on page 153, when Rakkety Tam gives away his sword and his freedom to save others.
Another one of Jacques successful elements in his book is his interesting, elaborate, and sometimes mature word choice. Throughout the whole book phrases such as “top hole” and “wot wot” are used, keeping it interesting. On page 87 both of the phrases are used in ways that describe the mood. But he also uses mature and older words as on page 216 “Thou art a bravebeast, Zerig, but thy sense often deserts thee.”
Rakkety Tam is a good book that keeps readers reading and offers good morale on being nice to others and as as is on page 46 when the Father Abbot complements his recorder. Also there is a constant change in mood throughout the chapters. For example in chapter 19 the mood is sad when a hare is slain by the enemy, but despite the fact that one of their own was killed, in the next chapter there is a great feast held by the hares and it is a jolly mood. And at the same time the book has inquisitive word choice to keep it interesting and good for the older readers.

I didn't love this one quite as much as I used to, but it's still excellent. Tam will always be one of my favorite Redwall characters. Yoofus is more annoying than I recall, which is one of the main reasons this went down a few points.

Next day edit: Don't know why I marked this 4 stars. It's still a solid 4.75 stars, even if it's not quite a full 5. Again, that .25 stars off is mostly because of Yoofus. The rest of the book? Absolutely golden. And, for clarification, when I say "I didn't love this one quite as much as I used to", that means "It is no longer the #1 book on my list of favorite Redwall," partially because Mattimeo and Pearls have risen a bit. It's still in the top ten at least, probably the top five, for reasons including the following:

-Basically-Scottish squirrels.
-Said Scottish squirrels are probably among the most capable characters in any Redwall book, not gonna lie.
-The poems that bracket the sections of the book are awesome and I love them both narratively and aesthetically.
-Tergen.
-All the hares. All of them.
-But especially Crumshaw, Wonwill, and Butty Wopscutt.
-Seriously, though; Tam basically takes on the evil equivalent of a badger in SINGLE COMBAT and not only lives but WINS. Martin vs. Tsarmina is the only other fight I can think of that's on that same level of imbalance. Keep in mind, any time we see a badger die, it's usually from being set upon by multiple vermin. So if Gulo's the same power level . . . yeah. Tam's impressive, regardless of whether or not he had help from Martin.
-Also, the Long Patrol being the Long Patrol is one of my favorite things in Redwall books.

So, yeah. It's a really good Redwall book. Still one of my favorites. Just not as high on the list.

Rakkety Tam was my introduction to Redwall - and what an introduction! I listened to the audiobook while driving and from the first word, I was enchanted.... the accents of the voices of the author and the others were charming, and then came the songs and I was enthralled!

There are battles, feasts, a sword of destiny, politics and quests, and wit.

As always with the Redwall series, I loved this story! My second listen through, I deeply enjoyed it all over again. The physical books are fantastic, and the audiobooks cast is fantastic, just all around- enjoy it!