This was very excellent. The plot was grand and mayhap the dialects and accents were grander.

Easy and cute book to read. Fun storyline, enjoyed the difftent animals cultures and especily accents. I enjoyed it as a good reset butten. Like a sweet orange after eating ice cream, refreshing, easy, and enjoyable. Not too challengling but fun to read, as a whole 3.5/5. Great book to refresh with if life is stressful.

Jacques takes the journey into Mossflower to a whole new level in this excerpt of the Redwall epic. While his works always pit a clear good vs a clear evil there was always a line; the presence of predatory creatures that did not openly prey on their 'weaker' counterparts.

While a weasel might eat a mouse in real life - not so in Mossflower.

However, Gulo the Savage brings a whole new realm of evil to Redwall. Jacques crosses that line and it is grisly.

A great read - I always enjoy his Highlander characters - and Tam's brash willingness to leap to the fray is as challenging as any Redwall Warrior. Might be my new favorite Redwall book - definitely in the top 3.

"All the best plans are a bit risky..."

Gulo the Savage, ruler of his homeland in the hard and cold North, is searching for a relic known as the Walking Stone, which has been stolen by his brother Askor. The titular character Rakkety Tam and his best friend Wild Doogy Plum are given the task of bringing the stolen royal banner home to the King and Queen in exchange for their freedom. Meanwhile in Redwall Abbey, Sister Armel has had a vision of long dead Martin the Warrior, who tells her to take his sword and deliver it to Tam, who in turn vows to protect the Abbey from those who would threaten it.

When I was young, I thought the Novels of Redwall were some of the best advanced-reader children's novels on the market. They have all the hallmarks of a good children's novel. Always including poetry, songs and riddles, Brian Jacques was the master of rhyme. The characters are all talking animals, stereotypically cast again and again in predictable roles: we know mice, squirrels, and hares are likely heroes, while rats, foxes, and weasels are likely villains.

Even though the stories jump between characters, the books are generally easy to follow. There's always a quest involved, characters setting out on an adventure for various reasons. Set seemingly in medieval times, with swords and slings as weapons, the adventures can be best described as swashbuckling romps through the woods. Whether they're searching for justice or each other, each quest ultimately ends in an epic battle between good and evil.

As with most fantasy, the attention to detail is everything. The world building is great. Each book opens with a map of the location where the quest is taking place so we can follow the characters journey. And as our characters journey, no stone, stream, thicket or swamp, is left undescribed, nor are the creatures that live in such places left unimagined. Each species is given their own accents, making a story of talking animals richer, providing them with not just a voice, but a culture. And Brian Jacques must have been a foodie because his descriptions of the meals that the creatures are eating, are pawsitively decadent.

The one thing I notice as an adult, that I didn't notice as a kid, was how graphically violent these books can be, which is probably why they're market toward young adult readers instead of being advertised as straight up children's lit. But aside from the violence and maybe the length of the novels, I see no real reason why kids wouldn't or shouldn't read them. As with all things, the responsibility lies with the parent to decide whether or not their child is mature enough to handle squirrels and foxes killing each other with swords and spears... And when I put it that way, it sounds quite silly.

Rakkety Tam follows the same archetype as the rest of the books in the series, but with the epic battle being replaced by a duel. And despite the model it's based on, it reads like its own original story, as most in the series do.

I quite liked this installment in the series and am awarding it its five stars.

A good book by a wonderful author!

#17 in the series - on the home stretch for reading this series, a favorite of my kids when they were young.

I am positive that you will enjoy yet another tale from Brian Jacques, Rakkety Tam. This book has a new take on the Redwall series. In a new twist to the series, the main characters are highland squirrels, named Rakkety Tam MacBurl and Wild Doogy Plumm. They have differing severities of the highland accent, which is actually Scottish. I would guess it is called a highland accent because Scotland is in the highlands of the UK.
There is a new species introduced, the Wolverine. There is an insane one called Gulo the Savage. For reference, Wolverines are basically bears the size of badgers. Gulo is tracking his brother, Askor, who stole something called the Walking Stone, which is the symbol of power in his homeland. He is leading an army of albino ermine, who devour their enemies after they slay them.
tWhile on the warpath to recover the Walking Stone, which Gulo believes is in the famed Redwall Abbey, he manages to piss off a number of creatures, including The Long Patrol, which is an army of hares located in the mountain fortress of Salamandastron, where the great Badger Lords have dwelt for time immemorial. Gulo had slain 8 hares and 30 squirrels, stealing a prized drum from the hares, and the banner of the kingdom from the squirrels.
I should explain about the squirrels, as it pertains to the past of Rakkety Tam and Doogy Plumm. In the woodlands up north in Mossflower, they were inserviced to the self-proclaimed “squirrelking” Araltum. Ever at odds with him and his mate, Idga Drayqueen, his rude words land him in jail for the ceremony of the day. While the rest of the squirrels are parading about the woods, they are attacked by Gulo and his vermin, leaving 30 dead and the banner stolen. Not surprisingly, Araltum and Idga run back to the central kingdom, crying and screaming about how their banner was stolen. Not one word about the 30 brave squirrels murdered. So Tam and Doogy set off on a quest to retrieve the banner.
On the sands of the Western Coast, 8 hares, which are escorting a giant drum to Redwall, are ambushed and killed by Gulo and his vermin. This causes Salamandastron to send out fivescore more hares to help hunt down Gulo and bring him to justice. And bring the drum back. All of this escalates when Gulo comes to Redwall, and is about to attack it when everything comes to a head. But I’ll let you read it to find out what happens.

Rakkety Tam- A squirrel warrior with perfect tactic and strategy, yet has a brave heart, rushing into places and fights where he oughtn't have tried; yet he remains undefeated. Brian Jacques put a real gem into this story- it's in my opinion, a shining star in the Redwall series, a for-sure 'read again'.

Lovely fun book with an introduction to some darker themes of death and war. The accents were a little hard to read at the start, but got much easier as the book went on. I was definitely living for the abbey food life.

It's hard to be objective because this was my favourite series as a kid and the nostalgia is STRONG. But it was full of blood and guts and adventure, so really, what wasn't to love?! So much decapitation for a children's book, lmao. Oh, and cannibalism, I can't believe I almost forgot about that!

What is more fun then reading a book about squirrel warrior?

I didn't get into this one as much as the others. The riddle wasn't as good. The characters blended together with all the past characters. Nothing too exciting.