Of the Redwall books I've been rereading this is definitely the weakest. We have the legendary Martin the warrior yet he feels like a lesser Mathias. The lack of an Abby also felt like mossflower was a lesser place. Only the otters and squirrels were pretty awesome.

Our enemies are ineffective and easily tricked. Even the eagle felt no more dangerous than many a bird we have encountered before.

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Mossflower

Tsarmina is a savage wildcat, ruling the castle of Kotir through cruelty and fear. And she seeks to enslave the creatures of Mossflower Woods. However, while the creatures of Mossflower may be kind and gentle, when threatened they will rise to defend what is theirs. But Tsarmina’s forces will overwhelm them unless help arrives. Martin the Warrior, Gonff the Mouse Thief, and Kinny the Mole embark on a quest to Salamandastron, where the badger Boar the Fighter resides. With his help, they hope to defeat Tsarmina and bring peace to Mossflower Woods.

Brian Jacques has created such an in-depth world, without over-explaining or over detailing anything. The way the world-building is woven into the main storyline is so well articulated. Each animal has their own culture brought into the story, down to even their favorite food and the habits they have as creatures of the woodlands. And there’s nothing quite like listening to a full cast narration of Mossflower. The voice actors did a fantastic job bringing the various accents and dialects to life. Each animal has their own way of speaking. Being able to hear it all increases the awareness of their different cultures. I highly recommend the full cast BBC audiobook.

The descent of madness portrayed in Mossflower was masterfully done. Brian Jacques carefully wove it into the plot, dropping subtle hints here and there, slowly building up the character’s downfall. As a reader, you won’t notice it at first. The habits the character begins with seem to be normal for them, even when they begin to show some questionable traits. Brian Jacques used the preconceived archetypes of the animal to make these reactions seem normal to the reader. And of course, the audiobook accented this descent into madness by allowing readers to hear the increase in volume, the cracking voice, and even the tics in dialogue the character began to develop.

Gonff was one of my favorite characters. The audiobook made his character shine as he broke out into song throughout his adventures with Martin and Kinny. His songs balanced the tone of the story and brought humor into the fold to break the tension. He was also such a jolly character. Even in the toughest of situations, he kept his head up and urged his friends to keep moving forward.

Brian Jacques shows the embodiment of friendship with the characters of Mossflower. It is such a humbling experience reading about their commitment to each other and the success of Mossflower Woods. It’s also written in a way that readers young and old will enjoy the story. This series is such a treasure, I encourage anyone who reads fantasy to pick it up.

This book was entertaining, but had several typos. My 6 year-old son loved the action and adventure of the animal-based story. I had to edit some parts to make it more age appropriate as I read it out loud to him, mostly unkind insults being lobbed between the villain’s incompetent stooges. Otherwise, fun and quick-paced story. It’s fascinating to reread stories I read growing up, now to my own children.

While it may not quite achieve the sublime heights of Redwall, mossflower is a pretty darn good time

4 Stars

I loved this book, but it was not quite as special as the first in the series. I did adore all the side characters, but I was pretty underwhelmed at Martin’s character. He is such an iconic, heroic, and admired character to all of Redwall in book 1; I think I just expected too much of his character. He was certainly a true hero, but he did feel a little flat and underdeveloped at times.

Still, the plot was incredible! The entire time, I could never predict what was coming or just how things would end. That same sense of danger and thrill that was so great in the first book continued to be present in this second book. Also, it was super cool to learn the stories about some of the ancestors of my favorite characters from book 1.

Overall, this book was amazing just not quite as amazing as the first book. I am still planning on reading the entire series, I just hope that any future Martin centric novels showcase his character a bit more and make me love him just as much as I love Matthias.

3.75? Really. I enjoyed it and it's a fun little "young adult before the harry potter young adult boom and is now classified closer to middle grade" book, but I don't think I'll read again. Hard to say, though; it might have more meaning if I finish the entire series.

I wanted to read Redwall first, but I saw this on a list of books that were published the year I was born so I decided to go ahead and read it for book club this month. I'll go back and read Redwall and then continue on in publication order, since that seems to be the general consensus among fans of best reading order.

This book can be summed up with: anthropomorphic animals in a typical old English type of fantasy setting. The main hero is a little mouse from north of the Mossflower woods - a warrior mouse of all things, and part of the book follows his journey of courage and exploration across parts of the world on a quest. So you've got the quest that he undergoes and some fun Voyage of the Dawntreader style mini-adventures. Meanwhile, in Mossflower, you've got a tyrannical wildcat ruling over the woodland creatures with weasels and foxes and stoats and such making up her army, while the usually peaceful woodland creatures fight back for their freedom with their own militia of sorts (made up of squirrels, otters, moles, hedgehogs - which you have to be careful when hugging because of their spikes even if they're very lovable critters - mice and a female badger sort of looking over all of them).

The characters are a delight. I am at times both laughing and annoyed at the mole speech, but I think overall it's definitely a plus. I can see children enjoying it if you were to read this story out loud to them. (It IS a lot easier to read the molespeech out loud than it is to read it in your head, even if it slows down my reading speed to do so). I think they can be a little cookie-cutter, but considering the publication period and age group this series is aimed at - it's pretty typical.

Would definitely recommend to any children that love animals, old school fantasy quests, or both. (Or to adults who are interested in some lighter reading with these enjoyable quirks).

I was pleasantly surprised to find just how much I enjoyed Redwall, the first of Brian Jacques’s fantasy novels that I had ever read. In comparison, I did not enjoy its prequel Mossflower quite as much, which was disappointing.

Although the second novel that Jacques wrote about his woodland creatures of Mossflower County is certainly full of action and adventure, I could not take seriously the threat posed by the self-involved cat Queen Tsarmina and her incompetent army of rats and stoats. Although he was a rather stereotypical villain, at least Cluny the Scourge was not laughable and his plots were not as easily ruined by bungling troops. There are a few more serious and gruesome battles between different woodland creatures and Tsarmina’s forces, but since most of the fights are brief and the efforts of the rats and stoats are usually fairly absurd and unsuccessful, these battles were not enough to create the feeling that the woodlanders were truly in peril. Tsarmina and her forces seem more like a nuisance than a danger. Of course, some might find the more light-hearted tone of Mossflower enjoyable, but part of what I really enjoyed about Redwall was the combination of the adorable woodland creatures with the truly sinister villains.

Additionally, the characters were not as well-developed in Mossflower as they were in Redwall. I found myself very drawn to the aspiring warrior mouse Matthias in Redwall, who had several quirky little traits and adorable moments before he grew into the confident hero of the novel. In Mossflower, however, Martin the Warrior is not nearly as distinctively developed, and although I wanted to feel an affection for the main character of the novel, I found myself much more fond of Gonff, the self-proclaimed Prince of Mousethieves. Making up little ditties before, during and after each adventure, the joyful and musical little mouse was much more adorable and interesting than his companion Martin.

As for many of the other characters, there were so many mice, otters, squirrels, hedgehogs and ferrets running around in this novel that it started to feel as though Jacques was just enjoying the sheer size of the world he was building and his growing cast of characters – and consequently he did not have time to imagine and describe any of them in any great detail or depth. There are a lot of potentially really interesting characters and plot elements in Mossflower – Boar the Fighter and his mysterious ability to “see what is written,” the otters, Gingervere the cat, “the Mask,” the sea rats – but Jacques tries to cram so many creatures into the novel that we don’t learn enough about any one of them to really get attached to them.
Similar to how Jacques jumps too quickly from one character to the next, he also jumps from one event to the next in Mossflower. Although the quest that Martin and his band undertakes – the journey to Salamandastron – certainly involves many adventures, I didn’t find any of them as involving as the much more well-developed unraveling of the riddle and resulting quest for Martin the Warrior’s sword that Matthias undertakes in Redwall. I was intrigued by the initial riddle that the group had to tackle to determine the route to Salamandastron, but it turned out to be far less complicated and interesting than the search that Matthias had to carry out right within the abbey.
This is not to say that there is nothing enjoyable about Mossflower – I was still somewhat entertained by the novel and I enjoyed Redwall, so I’m not ready to give up on the series yet. I can see why kids would enjoy the many adventures and quick pace of Mossflower. I hope that Mattimeo and Mariel of Redwall will be more well-developed, though.

What can I say? It's a Redwall book. It's excellent.

It was weird getting thrown back to the days before the first Redwall story, but I greatly enjoyed reading it and getting to meet all the new characters and go on their adventures with them. The beautiful thing about these stories that you rarely find nowadays is the beautiful, pure simplicity and joy that are in these books. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, and the differences are clearly shown. Plus, the adventurers and descriptions of food are absolutely amazing. I wish I could have discovered these stories sooner. Can't wait to get to the rest of the series!

(c/p from my review on TheStoryGraph) 4.5 This book could also be called "How Martin the Warrior learned to be So Goddamn Extra TM." The prequel is maybe not as strong as the first one but I still love it. I actually like the antagonist more in this one because there is a little more depth to them. I like that Martin is in it but also that we see the teamwork of a group of people oppressed for too long. I am really enjoying rediscovering these books. They are a lot of fun and I can easily remember being absolutely riveted when I read them years ago.

TW for this book include: Death (including death of a parent and sibling), Violence, Animal death (again pretty obvious because like.... all the characters are animals.), and Blood.

The last time I read this book was fourth grade- and it's held up. This series of books is something that I would consider 'Cozy Fantasy', because it follows traditional fantasy/ adventure tropes. It also is pretty binary in terms of Good vs. Evil. You're probably going to be able to guess what happens next, or how the story is going to play out, but it's akin to walking down a well-known path you love, and spotting familiar trees as well as some new plants on the way. The audiobook is what fully sealed the deal, featuring a full cast, music, and narration from the author, making it a fully immersive reading experience. I'm excited to continue reading more books from this series.

When Brian Jacques passed last month, it was a gut-punch for me. I can't tell you how many times I read his first few books, how eagerly I awaited the new hardcovers each year. I can't say I've read them all-- the point came, round about book seven or eight, when I'd figured out the formula, and they started getting old. But when I was just the right age, these were perfect.

Mossflower was my favorite of the lot as a kid, and upon reread, I can still see why. Tsarmina is a terrific kid's villain, vicious and entitled, an image of adult self-regard but marred by childish flaws. The picaresque aspects of the book provide frequent, exciting climaxes, often based on the characters' deployment and manipulation of much stronger forces (the Gloomer and the pike; the toads' giant eel; Salamandastron itself)-- another way I was able to start thinking about power. Martin the Warrior flattens into his strange-mouse-comes-to-town archetype a bit, but at the end of the day, he's a mouse who kills a cat, and that's just badass.

Jacques overwrites to an almost Dickensian degree. It's probably from him that I first picked up that baleful habit. But for a hearing audience-- which, after all, Dickens shared with Jacques-- those redundant adjectives and frequent motifs create strong, familiar images. This book leans less heavily than some of the others on feasting, but if you've read any of these at all, you'll remember the food. If anything, I see lessons in this prose for preachers. Literary spareness is no help in the pulpit, but sensual vividness, especially for taste and smell, will stick.

This isn't a defense on the merits. I wouldn't even know how to do that. But it's my own small tribute. Pour a 40 of elderberry cordial, and read one of these to a nine-year-old.

This second installment in the Redwall series is actually a prequel. Here we learn the history of Martin the Warrior and see the eventual founding of Redwall Abbey. Our story begins with the creatures of Mossflower being severely taxed and oppressed by Lord Greeneyes, the wildcat king of Kotir, a fortress in Mossflower Wood. Upon his death Tsarmina, his even more evil and far crazier daughter, takes his throne and vows to suck the larders of the forest creatures dry and force them to labor for her. Obviously, any animal dwelling outside of the fortress heartily disagrees with this plan, and a war ensues.

The action in the series is pretty basic, as are the narratives. However, Jacques excels in two areas: description and characterization. What I remembered most about this series from reading it as a child, aside from the anthropomorphic animals with weapons, are the descriptions of food. These novels shouldn’t be read on an empty stomach, because the descriptions of feasts and even “basic” picnics or breakfasts scattered liberally throughout each novel will make you incredibly hungry. Everything sounds delicious. Jacques originally wrote these stories to tell to students at a school for the blind, and you can tell. I also suspect that he was quite the foodie, because again, all of the dishes described in the series sound truly, mouthwateringly scrumptious.

The other area in which Jacques excels is in his characters. While his villains tend to be one-dimensionally evil with no redeeming qualities, his heroes and their supporting casts are wonderfully easy to root for. Mossflower is a fantastic example of this. Gonff, mousethief and poet extraordinaire, is a delight on every page. The Mask, an otter who is a mast of disguise, was fascinating. Colimbine, the Loamhedge mouse whom Gonff loves, Bella the badger, Young Dinny the Mole, Logalog the shrew, the hares from Salamandastron, and even Tsarmina’s peace-loving brother, the wildcat Gingivere, were all lovely characters. And then there’s Martin. Martin is a truly epic character, a larger-than-life hero packed into a tiny package. He’s noble and fierce and kind and fair, and he never backs down from a challenge. He’s also a very good friend. Who could help but love him?

Mossflower is a worthy sequel to Redwall, and even improves upon the story in various ways. While the characters are incredibly black and white, and the stories can be a bit simplistic, I have to remind myself that children are the target audience here. And for fantasy starring animals written for children, these hold up remarkably well as an adult rereading them. It’s a world that I’ve never forgotten, and revisiting Mossflower Wood and beyond, reacquainting myself with charming characters and experiencing once again their lavish feasts, has been an incredibly cozy experience.