Redwall (original 1986; edition 1986)

This medieval fantasy of feisty rodents and high adventure has good battling with evil. The first in the Redwall series.

I’d actually never read any of the Redwall books, having been enormously intimidated by the sheer volume. I did like it a lot–there was a lovely sense of the place and the seasons which I always think is nice. I don’t know if I’m convinced to read the rest of the books, though. ( )

This book is one of many of a series and I picked up a couple of the later ones from a free book rack at the train station which had me thinking I should read the first one. It was a cute story populated with anthropomorphic woodland creatures and mice and rats. Of course, the rats are evil and the mice are nice. The plot had some cliches but it was still a fun and enjoyable fast read. The "good" characters also eat a lot of interesting sounding food and drink some interesting sounding ales. There was not much character development as far as the "bad" guys go. Anyway I was not expecting too much from this and I enjoyed it. I would pick up another one in the series if I wanted a fun read about woodland creatures going on quests, eating stews and soups, drinking nutbrown ales and fighting evil. All in all a fun read. ( )

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. ( )

Magic.

Perhaps no series of books better connects the imagination of childhood to the adults wishing to recapture it. ( )