Yea, verily, a young mouse yclept Matthias doth live peacefully in the walled city of Redwall, wherein reside all manner of goodhearted animals like mice, badgers, squirrels, etc. (not to be confused with the mean villain predators like rats and foxes). It comes to pass that their bucolic lifestyle is disturbed, nay, gravely threatened, by an incursion of an evil cohort of rats. Mayhap Matthias will rise to the occasion and become the heroic warrior that will save his people animals in their time of greatest need!

This is a fairly enjoyable middle grade/YA medieval fantasy in a world populated entirely by mice, rats and other woodland creatures, with nary a human in sight.

So I was maybe a little too old for this one when I read it; it's more for the younger teens and tweens. I think I might have adored it as a 10 or 12 year old. Anyway, it has many thousands of fans and has spawned like a million sequels, so if you haven't read it yet and it sounds interesting, you may want to give it a try. The language in Redwall isn't as archaic as my review may make it sound. :)

So here's the deal, I have heard so many great things about this one and was so eager to read it. In fact I bought the first 3 on Kindle expecting to like them...and I did. They were so cute, but I dnf for some content issues. There was some minor cussing and evil characters threw Satan's name around-I would have preferred to not have that in the book but it didn't bother me much. Here's when things went downhill...

Martin, who died hundreds of years ago, is talking to our MC in his dreams.

Martin, who is still dead, starts APPEARING to our MC.

Martin's spirit in tapestry form holds some sort of power over Redwall to protect it, I mean, come on!

But the final straw is the adder that possesses Martin's sword is named after the demon who represents lust!!! That is most certainly too much. I am in no way going to possibly affect the spiritual atmosphere of my home and invite demonic presence in because I read a book where a hypnotic snake chants his demon originated name!

I only wish Mr. Jaques knew what he was doing! How many parents have read this book aloud to their unsuspecting children and chanted anot evil name in their home opening a door of lust?!

I know many of my GR friends love this book, so let me say that this is purely my personal opinion, however I would warn you away from this. To some it may seem like a little thing, but uttering such heavily demonic names in your home opens large doors that will leave you unhappy with the results. I am not trying to be controlling, rather I wish to warn you of a very real danger.

Loved the story, hated content!

Redwall was a book I read many years ago just before I entered into private schooling after going through six fun years of home schooling. Six years of being at home and getting an education does have the benefit of allowing an avid reader such as myself time to build up the reading speed and vocabulary (I did little else but read books in those formative years in fact but I digress). Now I must admit that I loved Redwall when I first read it as a ten year old. I thought it was the coolest thing since The Hobbit. I haven't gone back to this first book in a while but I do know that my last summation was that it is a decent enjoyable read for children (and adults) but compared to other books in the series it lacks.

I do love the fact that Brian Jacques as a storyteller went out to tell a story using talking European animals as his characters. Some of my favourite stories have been told through such interesting characters (take Pixar and Toy Story, Monsters Inc or Finding Nemo). So the idea is a good one. Personally I don't feel that he executes it as well in this first novel as in later additions to the series.

For one thing the aspect of animal sizes is not consistent in this story compared to others. And it is the one story to use a horse as one of the creatures (an apparently dumb animal which does not suit the storytelling as well). I did love the heroic main characters and the villain (the idea of having a tail with a poisonous comb is pretty darn cool - more villains should get them. It would make a nice addition to the Joker's arsenal for instance).

So in summary I would state that the subsequent books (up to around book eight or nine) are superior. After book eight however Jacques seemed to run out of fresh ideas and kept his Redwall storyline going by adding different animal characters as villains and heroes knowing that he would still sell his stories. It's not poor storytelling but it does feel too familiar. However the first eight books are definitely favourites of mine and books I have and would read again. And it is a hope of mine that a 3D animated film version of these books could be made (I think it would be even better film material than it is as a book).

Ugh! I'm sorry I'm sorrryyyyyyy I just did not enjoy this book at all. I have no idea how a child or teenager would be able to focus and read all the way through. Each page and chapter was such a drag I really should have made it a DNF but I felt bad since Redwall is so well known and loved. But alas, I did not like it.

The story is VERY basic... Redwall Mathias mice vs. Cluny's rats, back and forth and back and forth through this tug of war... with Martin's sword and Martin's tapestry as a trophy during the war.

This book is so basic I would recommend to children but then it's so frikkin long it has to be at least teenagers who read it. Also it's quite gruesome and there's lots of death and murder which I definitely wouldn't want my child to read.

This book felt similar to Watership Down by Richard Adams, because it's a basic story that's meh but it's way too long and drawn out that it sucks. I don't think I'm a fan of reading about animals anymore lol it's just too juvenile.

A distinctly children's book, with a simplified children's plot, simplified children's characters, and a simplified children's theme. If you focus on the plot and don't think the word "nuance", it can be quite enjoyable.

But alas, I am an adult, and I couldn't help trying to figure out the scale of the book in a literal sense. Are the mice supposed to be mice sized in a largely human world, a la Disney animated movies? Or are they supposed to be human sized in a world without humans a la furries (sans the sex)? Are badgers substantially bigger than the mice or not? This bizarre in between Disney and furries state really left me a bit disenchanted with the series.

See this review and more like it on www.bookbastion.net

This book was actually one of the first chapter books I read as a child, but because that was so long ago and at the start of my life as a reader, my brain had pretty much deleted all of the details of it - save for the fact that I enjoyed it when I was young. I'm happy to report that I found the book just as enjoyable as an adult reader; perhaps even more so, for the aspects of it I'm sure I appreciate more as an adult reader that would have flown over my head as a child.

As a middle grade fantasy story, this is quite well done. Jacques centers the plot around Cluny the Scourge's days-long siege of Redwall Abbey and uses this conflict to introduce some fairly standard fantasy tropes to young readers unfamiliar with the genre. Good vs. Evil; The Chosen One and Political Machinations between courts are all covered here in ways that remain faithful to the genre without boring the children that this series is written for. Particularly well done is the way the various woodland animals overcome their differences in order to work together against their common enemy, Cluny.


As an adult reader of this series, one thing I was surprised by was the way it does not flinch from violence or the devastating effects of warfare on the people who live and die during it. With a lot of middle grade books, there's a tendency for authors to sort of skim over death, or fake the reader out before resetting everything to the way things were before. Here, Jacques unabashedly kills off characters left and right, and it makes for some pretty compelling reading. Knowing that the danger is real and permanent in this series ups the ante considerably. At times I felt like I watching an all-animal version of Game of Thrones, which I suppose makes Matthias the Jon Snow of his world?


Speaking of the all-animal cast, I couldn't help but wonder where humans factored into all this. It's quite confusing to have riderless horsecarts and gigantic fortified Abbeys built from bricks and no mention of how they got there. Doing some digging on my own I read that Jacques intent was the show a world where humans didn't exist at all, but I didn't think that was particularly well conveyed given the fact that the entire cast called a place that would have been physically impossible for them to build their home.

The only other thing that brought my rating down was that in some moments it seemed as though the seriousness of the situation was forgotten by the characters. There were a number of moments where Redwall was under direct siege by the enemy, and certain characters were either eating or sleeping and otherwise unconcerned, which was a tiny bit frustrating. But these are minor complaints in a sea of other positives that makes it them very easy to overlook.

I love finding Middle Grade series that would speak to young boys in particular, as I think they are an oft-neglected demographic in the reading world. While the action, characters and plot movement in this series is sure to entertain most readers in any demographic, I think Matthias is a wonderful role model for young male readers in particular. I happily recommend this book to as a good starting point for fans new to fantasy.

★★★★ = 4/5 stars

It has been several years since I first read this book. Never did finish the series, but enjoyed reading with my children at that time. Still a positive book for kids.

After I finished this book my overall impression wasn't very good. But in retrospect I think that was mostly due to the fact that it's written for a ten-year-old audience. There's nothing wrong with the book when viewed as a kid's book. The writing is competent, and the story is exciting and interesting enough to keep a ten-year-old engaged. I imagine there are a lot of adults who are fans of this book, just like there are plenty of adult Harry Potter fans (though I didn't enjoy this one as much as Harry Potter). But while I readily recommend this book for kids, I can't really rationalize recommending it for adults.

Suspenseful, good vs evil, lots of interesting characters and layers, fascinating writing style.

Longer than it needed to be and more violence on the page than I'm used to reading to my kids. They all seemed to enjoy the story though.

Audiobook - 5/5

I loved this series as a kid and had a very enjoyable time revisiting this book 20 years later.

So, I've read the first seven books in this series, but it was years ago when I was working at Barnes and Noble. I'm amazed I got past this one though - the plot holes and one-dimensional characterization are egregious. I think when I read, as opposed to listening, I go so quickly sometimes that I can gloss over plot and character problems, but when I listen they're just so glaring, due at least in part to the slower pace, that I can't ignore them.

Matthias starts the book as a bumbling fool but then appears to morph into a warrior with absolutely no effort - did he ever find sandals that actually fit? Despite the fact that he'd never even heard of Asmodeus until a few days before he actually confronts the snake, Matthias takes the lead in directing the shrews with his expert snake hunting skills - where did he get those? When the battering ram appears to be close to succeeding in breaking down the main abbey gate, the defenders decide they have to do something about it, but since they knew over a week in advance that a battering ram was part of the attack plan (thanks to the double dealing foxes) wouldn't they have already come up with some sort of plan to deal with a ram? Those are just a few of the things that bothered me. The characterization problems could in part be due to the narration. Despite the fact that Selah the fox is supposed to be an expert in espionage, the voice actress deliberately makes it clear Selah is untrustworthy with her sly tone and inflections; if she's an expert, you wouldn't hear that so clearly in her voice. Of course, despite her "expert" status, it soon becomes clear Selah's actually quite inept at the spying game so maybe that doesn't matter. Overall, this was quite the disappointment and I can't decide if I want to give the Mossflower audio a chance or just let this series go for good.

Listened to the Random House full cast audio edition. This was not my favorite full cast audio production - the accents and exaggerated voices made it hard to understand at points and a little tiring. Previously read.

Another reread: read it through with my son, who loved it. I loved that.

Brought back a lot of good memories. This was the first series I got totally wrapped up in as a kid.