And here we have our first 1-star Redwall book.

This book leads off with the escape of Triss and her cohorts from slavery with the promise to return to free the slaves they left behind and here in is the biggest issue with this book: she doesn't do it through the course of the story. One the final "chapter" of the book (epilogues of writings from Redwall recorders and letters from others not withstanding), she sets out with new friends to go free the slaves. One could forgive this if she had been intentionally marshaling might for an attack on the slavers' stronghold, but every action throughout the book seems to be accidental with no plan towards actually realizing her promise.

Eventually, we find out that she does free the slaves, but only in the epilogue, which while fulfilling the promise to the slaves, doesn't fulfill the implied promise to the reader of Triss being a liberator as we are told second hand that she actually did it. That was what this story should have been, and it wasn't. It wasn't about anything.

Worse still, even IF Jacques had fulfilled the promise to his readers of a liberation story, it would have been nearly the same sequence of events as Martin the Warrior meaning Triss was a doomed venture before Jacques ever set pen to page.

Beyond just an unrealized plot, this book lacks any personality. Every one is drawn from Jacques's bag of stock characters, even the single personality that leaves a lasting impression: Scarum. Like all hares in the Redwall series, Scarum has a massive apetite, but while it is attempted to be played for comedic effect (an attempt fully realized in Basil in Redwall), Scarum goes overboard into one of the most egregious displays of gluttony ever seen. At multiple points throughout the book, Scarum's gluttony endangers the lives of his friends and others. It's not funny; it's a massive character defect played for laughs. In the setting and situations his eating-disorder comes out strongest, it isn't any better than a drinking problem and, again, is played for laughs and is meant to leave the reader shaking their head with naught but a tick of the tongue and an "Oh, Scarum!"

Any lasting impression this book leaves is a negative one and while I can typically find the high point of a book (see Martin the Warrior and Outcast of Redwall), Triss leaves nothing of importance behind.

A squirrel AND otters? Say less. What a sweet little adventure. Would definitely be a fun one to read to kids someday.

Every Redwall book is an enjoyable trip down memory lane for me. Five stars all around!

OMG YES PLEASE. There are several tropey plot points in here, but I still feel like this was a pretty fantastic Redwall story. 4.75/5 stars. Shame the author died a few years back because it sounds like it'd have been nice to meet him in person.

Another wonderful Redwall story. I do have a few issues with it, but it's still worlds better than a lot of other books. I think the villains aren't very interesting, Triss doesn't have enough page time for being the titular character, and Scarum is frankly annoying. But the heart is there in the quest to free the slaves from Riftguard. And the part with the snakes is spine chilling.

Bryan Jacques really outdid himself with his fifteenth Redwall book Triss. this book was exiting filled with good characters and interesting plot lines. I find it awesome that he can consistently make new and exiting books hat all tie into each other. at the same time, however, he manages to make a story that is unique and interesting. I love that he is not afraid to remove major characters which keeps us guessing at what will happen next. Peace island and also the monster were well placed and did there part in symbolism and plot. I also loved how he made the end goal important but not the over all focus effectively make the journey the important part not the end goal. All in all, one of my favorite Redwall books. Would read again.

Good ol’ RedWall. Always fun to return for another swashbuckled visit. This one’s no exception!

It was amazing! It was my favourite in the whole series. It had a lot of adventure in it. I couldn't stop reading it!

The reason this one is four starts instead of the usual five is that I struggled to really get into the story and understand what was going on until 1/3rd through, which isn't typical. It was still a beautiful story (Triss reminded me so much of my Fiona), and I loved it, but it felt almost like there was *too much* going on. There were a lot more plotlines than usual and many characters had similar names so it was hard at times to really follow the story. It wasn't very streamlined, almost like Brian was trying to do too much. That said, I still enjoyed it and look forward to reading it again during summer; it just didn't feel as succinct as the other Redwalls I've read so far.

reread june 2023: discovered that the fully voiced Redwall audiobooks are the only kind I can listen to on roadtrips and had a grand time reliving my childhood into the bargain. still one of my favorite in the series. number of previous reads is approximate.

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I have read many of the Redwall series to my son. This is our favorite! I won't list the others on my shelf because we have read so many they all blur and I can not remember which others we likes and which we didn't real well.

It is a violent series played out among forest dwelling creatures. But, the voices of the characters (especially the moles) are hilarious and for an older boy they were a great read! I started reading them when my son was 7 or 8.

We got bogged down by the first one "Redwall" and didn't particularly care for it. So I would not recommend starting w/ that one even though it is the first in the series.