by Brian Jacques (1939)
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Imagine the thunder of war drums echoing across Mossflower Woods as Cluny the Scourge, that one-eyed rat tyrant with a horde of snarling vermin at his heels, lays siege to the ancient stone walls of Redwall Abbey. Your pulse races with Matthias, the bumbling young mouse who stumbles into heroism, clutching a makeshift sling as arrows whistle overhead and the fate of his peaceful home hangs by a thread. That’s the electric jolt that hits you from the first pages of Redwall, pulling you into a world where every shadow hides peril and every dawn promises glory.
Brian Jacques doesn’t just tell a story—he immerses you in it, layer by vivid layer. Feel the dread coil in your gut during the night assault on the abbey, when Cluny’s adder Sela slithers through the darkness, her venomous whispers chilling the air. Then comes the wonder: Matthias’s quest for the lost sword of Martin the Warrior, scaling perilous cliffs and outwitting the savage sparrowhawk Warbeak in a whirlwind of feathers and fury. And those feasts—Gods, the feasts. Deeper’n’Ever Turnip Pie steaming with savory juices, October Ale foaming in tankards, cheeses sharp enough to cut through any gloom, all shared around long tables under candlelight while badgers and otters belt out roaring songs. Reading them, your mouth waters; you can practically smell the woodsmoke and hear the laughter bounce off the rafters.
What sets Redwall apart in a sea of fantasy is its unapologetic joy in the fight for what’s right, wrapped in fur and whiskers. No brooding antiheroes or moral grayness here—just mice, squirrels, and badgers charging into battle with slings, staffs, and sheer grit, their world a perfect blend of cozy hearth and brutal skirmish. Jacques paints anthropomorphic animals not as cute novelties but as fierce legends, their rivalries as epic as any human saga, yet laced with that rare warmth of unbreakable camaraderie. It’s influenced countless tales of animal warriors since, from woodland skirmishes in later YA epics to the feasts that pop up in modern fantasies, but this one started it all with unmatched heart.
If you loved the scrappy heroism of Watership Down’s rabbits or the clan loyalties in the Warriors series, this is your next obsession—pure adventure that reignites the kid in you who dreamed of wielding a sword.
Crack open Redwall tonight, and by morning, you’ll be cheering for Matthias as if the abbey gates are your own.
Author portrait: Photo: mind on fire; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 23:43, 5 March 2010 (UTC) | License: CC BY-SA 2.0
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