Redwall
by Brian Jacques
Reviewed by Byron Merritt
Matthias, an orphaned mouse and recent arrival to Redwall Abbey, is in the service of the peaceful Abbot Mortimer, the de facto leader of the many rodents in this abbey and surrounding Mossflower Woods. And the Abbot notices something different about Matthias: his soul isn’t as forgiving or quiet as the rest of their kind. He’s restless and interested in Martin the Warrior, a legendary battle-hardened mouse who helped form the abbey by using his famous sword. Martin’s final resting place and the location of his sword have been lost in time, but a sudden threat to Redwall Abbey and its peaceful inhabitants lights a fire under Matthias to find the sword.
Cluny the Scourge has arrived at the abbey gates. Cluny, a one-eyed rat, commands a horde of hundreds of other rats, stoats, and weasels, and he’s set his eye on Redwall Abbey. He wants to plunder it and make it his new home, killing anything that gets in his way. But odd dreams have suddenly set themselves into his mind. He begins seeing a strange mouse with a sword whom he fears greatly for reasons he cannot explain. But he knows he must have Redwall Abbey, and his horde of rough-hewn soldiers will have no problem taking it. Or will they?
Time and again Cluny and his horde try to breach the walls of Redwall without success. And time and again Cluny has the dream of the warrior mouse chasing him, trying to kill him.
As the threat to Redwall grows, Matthias runs about trying to find the location of Martin the Warrior’s sword. He scours the abbey records, searches Mossflower Wood, and even comes face to face with Asmodeus, a deadly adder. Can one mouse help end the deadly reign of Cluny the Scourge?
The basic format of this story is a hero’s journey. In this case, a mouse hero. The layout works fairly well, but became predictable after a short time.
The prose is okay, not topnotch, but the characters are interesting enough to keep you reading (I wanted to know what would happen to Martthias, Constance the Badger, Cornflower the love interest, and Silent Sam the Squirrel, etc.).
My main problems with the book were focused on some very convenient plot twists, the size of various items, and the ease with which Cluny and his horde finally gain access to the abbey.
The plot twists. One particular mouse has been searching for Martin’s sword forever, and now helps Matthias find it. What was the hold-up before? Matthias makes friends of many enemies in the blink of an eye. And the list goes on...
Size of items. Mr. Jacques (the author) seems to have trouble distinguishing size. Squirrels, badgers, mice, stoats, rats, foxes, weasels, etc. are all referred to as if they were the size of mice. The abbey, which we can only presume was built by humans, is small sometimes and larger than life at others. The abbey gates are easily opened by mice, but the roof of the abbey is hundreds of feet tall. Hmm.
Cluny and his horde gain access to the abbey. After laying siege to Redwall for days and days, and watching how well the mice protect it, Cluny gains access through an unguarded side door. That was pretty lame. Even with these problems one can’t forget that this really is a children’s tale, so size, convenient plots, and ease of access to the abbey probably won’t matter much to them. But if you want to try and compare Redwall to The Wind in the Willows or Watership Down, you’d best be warned: it doesn’t come close to those. Redwall isn’t a very challenging read, but does contain a fluid story with easily grasped characters that many readers will find endearing.
