The action in the series is pretty basic, as are the narratives. However, Jacques excels in two areas: description and characterization. What I remembered most about this series from reading it as a child, aside from the anthropomorphic animals with weapons, are the descriptions of food. These novels shouldn’t be read on an empty stomach, because the descriptions of feasts and even “basic” picnics or breakfasts scattered liberally throughout each novel will make you incredibly hungry. Everything sounds delicious. Jacques originally wrote these stories to tell to students at a school for the blind, and you can tell. I also suspect that he was quite the foodie, because again, all of the dishes described in the series sound truly, mouthwateringly scrumptious. BFS: The weapons of Badger Lords (who, being the biggest creatures around, wield weapons too heavy for other animals to lift). Big Damn Heroes: Lots. The biggest one that doesn't come off as an Ass Pull occurs in Eulalia!, when Orkwil abruptly disappears, then reappears a few chapters later with hundreds of Redwall soldiers at his side so they can rescue Gorath, Rangval, Maudie, Salixa, and the Guosim. Mossflower's primary weakness is easier for me to accept because it's a strength in the later books: it's repetitive. It's the first book that can recycle what would become the series's core features: the food, the accents, the species-as-groups-of-people, the questing and parallel adventures, and--more blatantly in Mossflower than elsewhere in the series--the branching, interconnected world. In Mossflower, we get an origin story for near every aspect of Redwall, from the barn cat to St. Ninian's Church to the Abbey itself; often, the tie-ins are obnoxiously neat--but: Brian often travelled the globe to tell his Redwall stories to young audiences, more often than not at their schools,” Alan Ingram, representative of the Redwall Abbey Company, which has owned Jacques’ intellectual property since his death in 2011, told Deadline. “Brian would have been very happy to see that Netflix shares his joy and desire to bring his stories to life as a new universe of films, series and potentially much more for audiences of all ages to enjoy.”

Voles in general are perhaps the closest thing the series has to a "neutral" species—they aren't evil the way vermin are, but there are multiple times where they are depicted as selfish opportunists who cannot be trusted and are willing to screw over fellow woodlanders. Druwp from Martin the Warrior is another example. Captured by slavers, he sells out his fellow slaves by spying on their escape plans just to save his own skin. After an elaborate ceremony, the trio are released from the net and thrown into Screamhole, a large pit. They land with a splash into deep, muddy water and are rescued, to their astonishment, by Gonff. The mousethief hauls them up to a ledge in the pit with a vine; he explains that he was washed down the river, captured by Whipscale and Deathcoil, and thrown into the Screamhole. Gonff goes on to introduce them to Snakefish, a giant eel that will eat them all if he is not given food soon. And yet another karmic accidental murder happens in Eulalia! After Orkwil, Maudie, and Rangval free themselves from Saltear, Undril, and Ruglat, Ruglat tries to run away with his spear in paw. Orkwil accidentally trips the weasel, and he falls on his spearpoint. In Mariel of Redwall, Gabool the Wild is directly responsible for almost everything that happens, which includes his former second-in-command Greypatch leaving Terramort and trying to eventually conquer Redwall.

New in Series

The Dutch translation by Annemarie Hormann is different from the original English language version. Some sections have been moved, like Bella's recounting of Verdauga's coming to Mossflower woods. In the Dutch version, she relates this story to Gonff's grandson, while in the original version she tells it to Abbess Germaine. Descriptive passages have been shortened and the final chapter has been excised. At Boar’s command, they break through the searat lines to capture the pirate flagship, Bloodwake. They find out that Boar had broken away from them to kill Ripfang; Boar urges Martin to escape and save Mossflower and dies from his grievous wounds. Sailing for Mossflower, Martin and his companions’ numbers are bolstered by former slaves, including Martin's childhood friend Timballisto, aboard Bloodwake, and Log-a-Log’s long lost tribe. Co-Dragons: Several Big Bads have these, but most notable is Ungatt Trunn's group: Groddil, Grand Fragorl, and Ripfang. The only real complaint I have is that Tsarmina's character development. Her descent into madness and some of her phobias were kind of haphazardly thrown together to me. Every other character was stellar in my opinion (both as a writer and as a reader). In Rakkety Tam, Freeta wanted both to conquer Redwall and to get revenge on Gulo the Savage on behalf of her mate, Shard.

It's really hard to hate Magger after he kills that Jerkass watervole in Eulalia! Even though he wound up stealing Martin's sword afterwards. The Tears of All Oceans in The Pearls of Luthra is this, which brings cursed fortune to those who seek it. The side protagonists of Redwall stumble across one and sought to collect the rest, treating it as a treasure hunt. Unfortunately, one of the children is killed, prompting her friend to toss them into the ocean after finishing the search.ZigZagged in Mariel of Redwall. At first it looks like Rawnblade and Gabool are about to get into a massive swordfight...but then Rawnblade disarms Gabool with little effort. Then, after a small chase, Gabool challenges Rawnblade to a fight using nothing but their paws, only for Rawnblade to fall into Skrabblag's chamber. Just when you think the fight will end with Mariel and her friends taking on Gabool themselves, Rawnblade grabs the scorpion and throws it out the hole onto Gabool, where it promptly stings him in the head and kills him. And then Dandin chops the scorpion in half with ease. Animated Adaptation: Nelvana produced an animated series, which adapted the books Redwall, Mattimeo, and Martin the Warrior. There were rumors of Mossflower being adapted, but was ultimately cancelled. The conflicts in Pearls of Lutra are directly caused by Emperor Ublaz Mad Eyes, whose avarice and hubris cause many of his subordinates and associates to try turning against him. Trying to find something distracting to consume hasn't been working overwell, so I reached for something comforting instead and am rereading Mossflower. The book was published in 1988; my copy was published in 1990, but I probably stole it from a Montessori library sometime around 1995. It looks like this, now:

Weirdly, it's averted with the owls; they're almost invariably goodnatured but absent-minded, and almost never "wise", as folklore would have it. Possibly Truth In Literature, as owls aren't terribly smart in real life. Also, the bats are fairly cute and harmless with a silly Verbal Tic (verbal tic, verbal tic...), as opposed to the usual portrayals of them as evil in fiction. Though Boldred, Udara Groundslay and Captain Snow plays it rather straight, as Boldred is very wise, while Captain Snow and Udara are both are sharp minded and ruthless hunters. Legend of Luke does not have a Big Bad in Book 1 or Book 3. Book 2's main antagonist is Vilu Daskar. Martin the Warrior has a tribe of pygmy shrews who are slavers, a tribe of squirrels who make a game of hunting and killing strangers and a hedgehog who is known to poison trespassers. None of them face any real consequences for their actions, however. Bagg and Runn don't appear in The Bellmaker, despite taking place only four seasons after their first appearence. Jacques never explains their disappearance.Continuity Snarl: Timballisto has two unreconcilable fates given. In Outcast of Redwall he outlived Martin by a number of years and told stories of his adventures to his grandson Barlom. In Legend of Luke he apparently died the winter after the fall of Kotir, flatly contradicting his earlier fate. Vermin armies are a mix, usually of rats mixed with foxes and weasels. But don't foxes and weasels eat rats? Romsca gets the most significant one in the Pearls of Lutra. Hares, badgers, and eagles often get their own every now and again.