3.8/5

My New Year’s resolution for 2024 included more reading, and what a better way than to start on a 22 book journey rereading a nostalgic childhood series: Redwall. I wanted this to be a fun little project, where I would give a review, as a now adult, on each of the books. Feel free to follow along my completely “objective” and not at all biased reviews of each book. Don’t worry, the reviews will be spoiler-free.*

*It does depend on what you consider spoilers I suppose, but major plot lines and conclusions will not be spoiled.

So, where to start? Redwall is a children’s book about a society of peaceful woodland creatures who are suddenly forced to defend their home from a horde invasion and the infamous Cluny the Scourge. I didn’t remember the plot or writing style from those many years ago reading it, so I was pleasantly surprised with the depth of the writing. While there are certainly elements tailored to children, the author didn’t hold back in his imagery. Whether that be the details of an intricate feast (never had a book make me feel so hungry while reading it!), or the gruesome deaths of characters, it was hard not to picture the scenes being described. The plot, while not perfect, was solid and in my opinion came to a satisfying conclusion. Redwall is at its core a story about the forces of good vs evil, and it delivers on its promises in a satisfying way with plenty of adventure and fighting. What more could you ask for?

Now, I’m not completely blinded by nostalgia. Of course, I approached this book with the knowledge that is is primarily for children. That said, I found myself struggling with certain aspects. For example, the story felt too morally simplistic at times. I needed more from the antagonist to really buy his motives. Cluny is choosing to attack Redwall because he is just evil and that’s what he does? Why is he the way that he is? Similarly, “good” and “evil” are represented by certain animal species, without any individuals breaking that norm. (Ex. All rats are just evil. That’s that). As a reader, it would be way more engaging to understand individual character motives and let that define their actions, not just what species they happen to be. In the end, these didn’t detract from my experience, but I couldn’t help but think about them.

Hence, my rating is a 3.8/5. I had a good time reading it, and for the most part it holds up as a good read as an adult. I’m excited to continue on this journey to finish reviewing the series, because I distinctly remember liking other books much more than the first. Until next time!

Die Redwall-Serie ist im angelsächsischen ein gerne und viel gelesener Klassiker der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur. Im deutschsprachigen Raum gibt es zwar seit vielen Jahren eine Übersetzung, dennoch blieb die Serie eher unbekannt. Das ist wirklich schade, denn Redwall ist eine äußerst spannende Abenteuergeschichte, an der viele Kinder (vor allem auch Jungs, die ja leider häufig wenig lesen) große Freude haben könnten. CROCU bringt die Bücher nun in einer Neuauflage heraus.
Redwall ist eine Mischung aus Fantasy und historischem Roman, sämtliche Figuren sind Tiere. In diesem ersten Band wird die Abtei Redwall von der Ratte Cluny und ihren Männern bedroht. Der junge Novize Matthias, der davon träumt wie Martin der Krieger, der Gründer von Redwall zu sein, schafft es mit viel Witz und Schläue, den Angriff abzuwehren.
Ich habe das Buch vor Jahren auf Englisch gelesen und nun erneut auf Deutsch. Ich konnte mich nicht erinnern, dass es so dick war, da ich es als sehr kurzweilig in Erinnerung hatte. Es lest sich sehr schnell und flüssig lesen und ist dabei auch sehr spannend. Wer also spannende Bücher mit vermenschlichten Tieren mag, ist hier bestens bedient.

Hehehehe Christian Mice!!!

The boys rated it a 5 and I rated it a 3, so 4 is the average. It was a good story I just felt like it dragged on for a really long time and I get bored with it.

TL;DR A fun and charming book for younger audiences. I recommend.

Flashback: I’m in the 3rd grade. The Warrior Cats series is all the rage, and I plow through book after book at my school library. One dreary morning, the most organized, vicious, and oddly sticky horde of children seen in the Southern United States march single file into the carpeted dungeon that was the library. The microsecond the teacher gives the order, I bolt, zooming straight for what passed as a fantasy section in that strange, purgatoric hellscape (without running, of course, which was forbidden in our library. The punishment for such a crime was the gallows). Once I reach the desired section, I am frozen, stilled by shock, fear, and rage. The next book in the series is… gone. What am I supposed to do? I beg the librarian to help me, and she leads me to another shelf. She pulls a dusty, weathered tome from it, places it gently in my tiny, quaking hands, and exclaims “You’ll love this one!” I decided I hate her for being unable to conjure books I want out of the aether. Nonetheless, I read it, and I’ll be damned if that old sorceress was right – I loved the book.

That was my introduction to Redwall. 16 or so years later, as I browse a used bookstore, I pull a dusty, weathered tome off the shelf – the same book I read in my squirrelly, mud-wallowing youth. Redwall. And for a great price! I promptly buy it, and slap in right on the pile of books I am going to forget to read.

Later, in search of a palette cleanser from grimdark fantasy, I picked up the book and gave it a read. And while I wouldn’t say this was the absolute slam-dunk it was in my childhood, I found it charming, fun, and easy to read. The writing is quite decent for its age level, and it reads like a fairy tale – I suppose it is one in a lot of ways. The characters vary wildly in their appearance, speech, and actions, and each possesses their own wit and charm. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite because I liked all of them. And, while I would not say this is an adult read by any means, there is a surprising amount of death and mayhem within the story.

That being said, this is a children’s book, so it has a lot of the tropes and literary decisions present in books for younger audiences. I won’t delve too deep into it, since I am not the targeted audience. The language is basic, and older readers will recognize that there is little actual danger present for some of the characters. The stakes are low, but that’s okay. Sometimes a simple, feel-good read is what you need.

Clearly, I recommend this book, specifically for younger readers. The characters and landscape are pleasant and charming. For me, this was a nostalgic, feel-good read during the dreary winter months. Later, I intend to read “The Builders” by Daniel Polanksy – I have heard many people say it is an adult version of Redwall.

This one is not easy for me to rate. If i could have, I would have gone with 3,5 stars. But since the 0,5 are completely due to my personal preferences I'll go with 4.

First of, I bought this on recommendation, without even a glance at the summary.
I was appropriately surprised when I found out the book was about mice and rats and some other small animals. They are completely humanized though - so it's not an "animal story" but one where humans are completely changed to small creatures. This is my 0,5 stars of personal dislike, as I just can't imagine mice, walking upright, with a sword in hand at full sprint... Most of the time this didn't bother me, but there were a few scenes where it just made a scene that's not supposed to be funny completely hilarious in my head...

The other star goes missing, because the world is too black and white / good and bad. You know what'll happen right from the beginning, and the main character does develop, but in a 100% predictable way.

Still four stars though, as the story kept me well entertained, the plot was full of interesting ideas, the writing was fluent and even though I knew what would happen, the book kept me interested anyway. So if you are looking for something a bit different to read, this might be the perct choice for you!

Oh, and though it's brimming with animals - this is NOT a nice story, and especially not a childrens book. Lots of death and quite a bit of blood in this one ;)

Decided to go back to sci-fi/fantasy after the disappointment of "Fahrenheit 451" and this is what I plucked off my shelves. Kind of twee so far but not too bad. Blood has already been spilled so I guess it will be "serious" enough.

- There's a character in here called "Old Wormtail" - isn't "Wormtail" a character from H. Potter as well?

- Choppy going with lots of short chapters. We'll see how that works out in the long run.

- I'm a bit confused as to how big(or small) things are. Who builds the human sized wagons? If there are humans around, where'd they go?

The battle is joined and casualties are beginning to pile up. Pretty entertaining so far. Well written in the spirit of capable English prose tradition. Reference is made to Martin the Warrior, who has already appeared in a dream. I think I have that book on my shelves as well.

'Bout halfway through now as the defenders of Redwall seem to have won the first round and Mattias begins to look for the sword. This is considered children's literature by some, apparently, but it seems to have an awful lot of death(including murder) and other assorted mayhem along with the cute talking animals thing. Tough to categorize ... or maybe kid's literature has changed from my time.

Things happen, events(and bodies) accumulate. This does drag on a bit.

- Chickenhound delivers his message to Redwall. Why is no one from Cluny's Army watching???

- How can a squirrel sit on a mouse's knee?

- The sparras/sparrows are a bit uncomfortably portrayed, aren't they? A bit like "primitives" in old movies ...

- Mattias' fate smacks a bit of Harry Potter's in Book 7. But ... THIS came first!

- Cluney's beginning to resemble a certain orange-faced disaster-person in Washington.

Finished last night in an orgy of battle and blood and death. Nice kids lit! There are some similarities with Tolkien: the hunt for Poisonteeth = The Hobbit ... the final battle reminds of Helm's Deep in TLOTR as well as the final battle in H. Potter. I guess there're only so many ways to do this stuff.

- 3.25* = 3* on Goodreads.

It was such a pleasure to listen to the voice of Brian Jacques narrating & to listen to a favorite book from long ago!

So....I finally purchased a book for the first time in forever because I really had run out of books to read and the two months of being away from the library was killing me.

Having read Mossflower first, this book felt a little more....amateurish? You can definitely tell some of the worldbuilding wasn't as set in stone then. I also found that the links between the two books seemed pretty tenuous. I would recommend reading Mossflower before Redwall just because it make much more sense.

That being said, this book was a very enjoyable read. My absolute favorite line of the whole book was Matthias' "A little bird told me". Spot on sass, Jacques. I approve.

I look forward to reading Mattimeo!

RW Content:

Language: 4 stars. Frequent use of "hell" as a curse word, a smattering of "d---" here and there.
Abuse: 5 stars. Any manipulation, fear mongering, physical abuse and other such material was used by villains only.
Lust: 5 stars. Only hints of a romantic attachment are present

brian jacques your mind

This book Redwall is about a mouse named Matthias who is living in an abbey named Redwall. Then Cluny the Scourage comes along and ruins the peace as he declares war on the people (animals) of Redwall. Matthias finds himself looking for a sword of the great warrior Martin beliving that he can defeat Cluny and his horde. Matthias goes off with new hopes, finding allies and to save Redwall.

I can connect to text where in the book Comeback of the Home Run Kid by Matt Christopher a book I read a long time ago. The kid Syl finds out that he might be caught for cheating at baseball so he makes new friends and finds out he didn't cheat at baseball. With his friends he has much greater fun and instead of loning the game by himself he finds himself in a much better postion. In Redwall, Matthias finds friends of his own and when fighting off enemies Cluny, snakes, and an owl he finds it easier to fight them off and fells more secure. He likes having friends like a Sparrow Queen to get more Sparrow soilders or a band of Moles to keep him company.

I would give this book an 5 out of 5 stars. This book was so good the descriptive wording makes you think about what that sentence means and unlike other books they have you read mand it says he died or something like that. In Redwall they make you infer that the character died like when the snake opens his mouth at a rat there is no mean to keep reading that he is killed. You can infer that he is dead. Then I liked how the book changes settings and keeps the book intresting. They change conflicts and it seems like an actual war seeing both sides point of view. Seeing their startegies and power. Then also seeing their feelings and weakness. I would recommend this book to anyone who can understand the wording and what they mean. I suggest reading the first 10-20 pages tehn see if you like it or not.

Done On Paper Already

A classic. Definitely appropriate for younger audiences but enjoyable as an adult. The story zips along and the characters are trope-y but still easy to root for. I enjoyed it thoroughly.