This one pissed me off. I liked it more when I was younger, but after rereading it, I can't ignore some of its serious flaws. An orphaned ferret baby Veil is raised by "kind" Redwallers who emotionally abuse him and constantly discriminate against him, then kick him out. His adopted mother, the only mouse who didn't hate him, follows him as he sets out to find his father, the evil warlord Swartt Sixclaw, who abandoned him. He finds his father, the mouse finds them, the Swartt throws a spear at the mouse in an attempt to kill her, then Veil jumps in front of the spear and gives his life to save his adpoted mother. Then the mouse "realizes" that her adopted son was pure evil after he sacrificed his own life to save hers. WTF!?! I didn't like the "good guys" because they were prejudiced and their behavior can't be excused. This book shows a negative side of the Redwall inhabitants (though I don't think this was intentional), but I think the reader is supposed to accept that the Redwallers were right to treat the ferret the way they did and he was evil only because he was a ferret, and it had nothing to do with his horrible upbringing.

This book had a lot of potential to explore the nature v. nurture debate, but failed terribly. Could the ferret have been good if he had been raised by kind, loving creatures? We'll never know.

I give it one star because I hated the storyline about the outcast, and the storyline between the Sunflash the badger and the ferret warlord (which took up the majority of the book, despite its title) was equally enraging. I hate it when fictional characters do idiotic things that no one would do in real life. This happens here when Swartt captures Sunflash but doesn't kill him when he had the chance. Instead, he ties up the badger, then the badger escapes and immediately kills the ferret.

In conclusion, I was disappointed. Very disappointed. One star.

not a Brian Jacques fan in general, but this one - ack! where to start? I'd say this forgets/rejects the possibility of redemption, but it doesn't even get that close. Creatures fates are determined by what kind of creature they are and who their parents are. Environment doesn't matter, nore does nurture. It is entirely nature, and nature is not individualized. :P

This one took me a while to finish, I just wasn't getting into it the same as the other Redwall books in the series.
I think it's because of how it played out, we met a lot of different characters, but they didn't come together until almost the very end. The pacing was really off for me.

Spoilers ahead!!!!

The book starts with the introduction to Sunflash, the main hero, and his companion Skarlath - we see them meet, and bond, and choose to journey together. The whole time we follow Sunflash in the book, we're reminded of and shown how strong his bond with Skarlath is, and yet in the final few chapters when Skarlath is killed, aside from a brief mention of Sunflash wanting vengeance, we don't really see any kind of grief at all, or at least not grief I'd consider strong enough for the bond they supposedly had.

We have a similar situation with Bryony when Veil dies - she's supposed to have loved him like a mother, except the book spent most of the time showing us how evil Veil was and how he couldn't be redeemed (until his last moments, that is) and yet during the ending she seems almost relieved he's gone.

I think my main annoyance with the book is that the pacing is very off, and that affects both the story and the characters.
We've had time jumps in other Redwall books, but it's always been a lot more seamless - this book, we keep jumping ahead for random periods of time, and it's not always made clear how long the jumps last or why its significant that so much time has passed. Its like the author is trying to skip everything except the action, but in missing out the bits in between it means we lose the meaning of why the action is important in the first place. The battles happen because the characters want to protect their home and their peace, and by jumping over the peaceful parts and seeing the characters in their home, we're denied a deeper connection as to why they want to protect these things.

Overall, it's not a terrible book - I finished it, and I found that once I did get into it then I wanted to reach the end, if only to see if the finale was worth the rest of the book. I thought the ending was sweet, seeing Bella (who we've encountered in other Redwall books) finally reunited with her son, who she's spoken about many times, was a very well written - if short - scene.
Not one I'll pick up again, but I'm glad I finished it.

This book broke my heart, I loved Marlfox and to be honest this is the only other one I read, but I loved the Redwall books. I can understand why it is rated so low, yes their is reference and inference to racism, but you don't have to look at it that way. I certainly did not, which is why this book for me was totally heart breaking!! Despite breaking my heart for many reasons it was also a beautiful tale with the same wonderful creatures we all have come to expect from Briam Jacques. If you can just let yourself get lost in tale and not worry about what may or may not have been meant to be racism or what have you, you will enjoy the story as much as the other other books in this series.

It's a fun little story, clearly intended for younger audiences, and I've no regrets having bought it second hand.

BUT

You could have clipped off nearly a hundred pages if the author didn't feel compelled to give you a highly detailed account of every single meal - including many feasts - had by characters big and small. Holy mother of God do you come out of this knowing a lot about the diets of the various woodland creatures, with their meadowberry pies and etc.

I love all Redwall and would consider myself a first generation when much of these books were first published. However, Outcast is probably my least favorite.

While these books were intended for children, there are some questionable choices made during this story. Its great to have a book that doesn't directly involve the abbey, but Swarth is probably the worst warlord ever to wander Mossflower wood.

His capture of command was so shaky that the fox maiden did most of the work so why didn't we follow the fox in the first place? Swarth and his revenge was not well written and caused so many mistakes I'm surprised that any rats even followed as far as Salamandastron.

Veil could have been a great character but I couldn't understand the writing behind him. I absolutely could believe that Veil was probably teased constantly as a dibbun just for being a ferret, yet Jaqcues offers nothing in terms of explaining Veil's evil nature aside from, "whoops he's a ferret they like to poison and steal oh well no reason why he should do that."

Briony raised him from a baby, not even a ferret or a rat raised so young could live in Redwall for so long and not have some understanding of morals and enjoying a good feast and not starving as part of a horde. Then you have Veil stealing, nearly killing the head cook, and when he's imprisoned he suddenly goes crazy. He goes on a mini crime spree until he finally meets his father, and even then Veil didn't even make a good horde beast. The sacrifice for Briony annoyed me, why was he not written with redemption?

If I had my way, there should have been some explaining about how Redwall was still recovering from old tales and battles like Tsarmina and were always untrustworthy of vermin. There should have been a chance for Veil to learn and to explain why he always felt so ostracized.

Even the end of Swarth was anticlimactic. Overall this was not the best tale, but I still will finish every tale of Redwall if only to see, maybe one day a rat could be good.

Should have read this series MUCH earlier.

I've always loved this book. And rereading it brought many pleasant memories. Hoping my reading pace picks up again now that I've finished it. However rereading a book as an adult does change the way you view it and though my love for the series remains, I don't think I'll revisit other redwall books soon.

the duality of badger...

nrtc

5 stars. I wasn’t sure if I would love this because it sounded so different from the other Redwall books—which it was. It starts with a random badger and hawk escaping a wicked warlord ferret, and chronicles their adventures for a while. Redwall doesn’t even show up until about 50% in. In the end, though, I ended up pretty fond of it.

So, as I mentioned, this book is pretty different. The setting, for starters—partly random woods, partly Redwall, and partly Salamandastron. Most of it is the woods, though. Then the characters. It took me a while to get into the characters, even if I was ecstatic that my wish came true and Sunflash was having his own story! But even if it was slow, his story was pretty sweet and definitely original. Swartt was also an original villain with his wife (that poor girl—I wanted more to her story!) and his kid, Veil, who himself was a very original character for Redwall. A vermin babe raised at Redwall?! Yes, indeed. And Byrony was such a sweet foster-mother. I desperately wanted Veil to turn out right, and although things didn’t go as I wanted, his ending was satisfying and perfect—well done, Jacques.

It’s been a while since I read this and I read it over a couple days, so I forgot a lot of it; but everything wrapped up perfectly, I loved the ending, and it was a fun, original tale I can’t wait to read again.

Review to be updated; content list & quotes to be added upon reread.

*Outcast of Redwall* by Brian Jacques is a gripping tale of redemption, set against the familiar backdrop of Redwall Abbey. The story follows the young mouse, Veil, who is exiled from the peaceful world of Redwall after being branded an outcast. As he seeks a place where he belongs, he faces danger, betrayal, and personal growth. Meanwhile, the villainous ferret, Ferahgo the Assassin, threatens Redwall’s safety, and Veil must decide where his loyalties truly lie. Themes of forgiveness, identity, and the search for belonging make *Outcast of Redwall* an emotional, action-packed addition to the series.

What a disappointment.

What starts, in Book 1, as a genuinely interesting, focused look at the rise of a Badger Lord, and the rise of a Warlord, whose destinies are interwoven, takes an arrow through the knee in Books 2 and 3 with a side plot that actively undermines some of Redwalls most important themes.

Veil's storyline is...in my opinion...just as plainly bad as he is. I understand Jacques' usual stance, that we need good for the sake of good, and evil for the sake of evil, in children's literature, but the way that Veil is presented, our good creatures in Redwall are punished, and presented as being stupid, for daring to try to be good to a beast. The core tenet of Redwall Abbey, that they will offer aid to those in need, gets spun on its head for reasons that don't pay off in any satisfactory way. Veil's own "redemption arc" is painfully thin, ultimately feels like we're being force-fed a dead, molted crow's worth of a storyline.

Want a deeper dive into what I'm talking about? Check out for the Books and Badgers podcast, where Trevor, Tiff, Collin, and I elaborate on all of this, and talked about how the Outcast fits into the broader plan for REDWALL as a whole. But for now, we'll set sail for the Pearls of Lutra!