I didn't really connect to this one as much as the original. Even though I can't remember as much as I'd like from the original Redwall, having read it 6 years ago now, I distinctly remember loving Warbeak and couldn't really say the same for any particular character this time around.

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Update (2018-05-10):
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This book is still very nice, but also rather longer than I thought…

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original review
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This book is massively well done and, as such, is wonderfully enjoyable. The plot was fun, the characters most hilarious, and the setting was… you know, a setting. There is naught to define the absolute goodness of a setting that I can think of in my current unenlightened state, but it worked well with the other aspects of the book.

This is an excellent entry in one of my favorite series. I find it hard to resist talking animals

Much loved by yours truly, as usual.

ძალიან კარგი წიგნი გამოდგა მოულოდნელად.

ბევრად უკეთესი ვიდრე პირველი იყო. ისტორიაც უფრო გაშლილია და მეტ ლოკაციებს მოიცავს და ბევრად უფრო ეპიკურია. მეტი საინტერესო პერსონაჟით და ისტორიით

ერთი სიტყვით საკაიფო წიგნი გამოდგა ^^

I was immersed in this book from the beginning! I loved the pacing and how events flowed together.

I really hoped that Boar the Fighter would come back to Mossflower and defeat Tzarmina, but it was fab that Martin was the one to do it.

It was a really sad bit when Martin had to tell Bella that Boar had died. I felt so sad for her knowing that he wouldn't be there to help defeat Tzarmina and she'd never see him again.

I loved that Gingivere got his happy ending too, and was able to break away from Tzarmina.

I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.

Just as good as the first one!

Continuing my Redwall journey with my 6-year-old son. You can feel Jacques growing as a writer in this second book. Characters are richer. Storylines are paced better. The action has higher stakes and more satisfying conclusions. If only the central villain matched the thoroughness of the other pieces. Ultimately, her development is superficial and unsatisfying. Still, I look forward to continuing the series, which, as I recall, boasts much more interesting enemies in the near future.

As good or better than when I read it as a kid.

Picture the scene, if you will. Here's your erstwhile reviewer, aged twenty-four and about to have her first tooth removed. Gifted with three hours to kill before the dental happening, she sets off in search of vittles and something new to read, having been stuck in the waiting room so long she's already made it through the two books she brought with her. Lo, she went a wandering in W H Smith's and her gaze chanced upon Mossflower, the first and greatest of her Redwall loves, her favourite childhood book, her original copy having long since departed for the Dark Forest, thanks to a combination of some overenthusiastic borrowers and one too many accidental dunks in the bath-tub. Seeking a source of comfort in those orally painful hours, she makes the purchase. But what did she discover? Was it to be nought but a pleasant trip down memory lane, or a painful discovery that it really wasn't as good as she remembered? Turns out it was neither.

There's a reason Mossflower was my favourite book as a kid. There's a reason it got me hooked on the Redwall books and a reason it's not just the best book about Martin, but the best book of the series. Because it's bloody fantastic.

Mercifully free from the Early Instalment Weirdness that plagues Redwall on re-reads but without any of the tropes that bogged down later books in the series,those that were almost suffocated by Dibbuns, songs and prophecies, Mossflower is a smart, exciting page-turner stuffed to the gills with likeable characters. These are the pre-Abbey seasons, not only are the woodlanders living wild and under constant threat, there's no cosy stronghold for them to retreat to when things get tough. Sure, it's a kid's book and you're fairly certain that things will turn out for the best but when the book opens, in the dead of Winter with the eerie Kotir and its wildcats rulers holding sway over the lands it genuinely looks like things are never going to right themselves. Tsarmina is far and away the best foe ever conceived by Jacques, she's nasty, insane and oh, let's not forget she's about five times as big as Martin the Warrior, which makes her eventual defeat at his paws all the more impressive. Her soldiers are an excellent mix of the truly evil and the punch-clock archetype, but there's room in Mossflower for more than the Vermin=Chaotic Evil that became so prevalent later in the series. And let's not forget Martin himself, fresh from his heart-break in the Northlands, the original and the greatest of all the Redwall warriors. Sure, he gets a Disney death, but let's cut him some slack because this book is dark. Dark as balls. Just read Bella's first conversation with Abbess Germaine for proof. It's a little along the lines of "everyone we ever knew is dead or dying a horrible, horrible death". And some of these deaths come straight out of left-field; even on this re-read I found myself getting all misty eyed when the Mask cops it. Boar's death is also spectacularly unexpected because he's the blimmin' hero! There are tons of well-written female characters whose motivations don't revolve solely around becoming Abbess, a couple that actually seem like they're in love rather than being paired off together in the epilogue for some reason and Gonff. Gonff is supreme. Prince of Characters.

Sure, it's all a bit twee when you remind yourself that most of the cast are soft fluffy animals and like all Redwall books it goes on about food in a way that would give George R R Martin a run for his money. If you're not a fan of anthropomorphic battle mice than nothing I said here is really going to convince you but hey, it's wonderful not to have a memory tarnished, but enhanced, by a re-read of one of your favourite books. Brain Jacques at his best.

Oh, and I was going to do my standard Evil Fat Character count but I can't because Jacques LITERALLY DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE OR DEMEAN OVERWEIGHT CHARACTERS IN ANYWAY. How's about that then, matey?

Nothing spectacular for me personally, but had some cool badger lore so that was interesting!

This was one of my favorite books when I was little, and it’s even better than I remembered it