Search This Blog

Monday, January 30, 2012

Redwall by Brian Jacques

Redwall
Ahhh I had this book for years after I purchased it for $1.00 at an old book store several years ago, but I didn't read it till last summer. That was a major mistake on my part as the book was a nice easy read. Sometimes I do that after heavy reads. In fact I read it after finishing A Dance with Dragons by GRR Martin. Now that my daughter is reading at an ever increasing rate I think it will be on her radar shortly. I look forward to sharing this with her and it's a nice introduction to fantasy. I can see her reading this quite avidly and enjoying the read. The story is well told and not to violent, (for those not in the know its very cartoonish in that regard).

Redwall was written by the late Brian Jacques and he was quite prolific in the series writing 22 books with another 4-5 around the setting.

Also for those that have no idea the  story follows the typical boy (in this case a mouse) who becomes the hero through a voyage of self discovery. But instead of it being Luke Skywalker the mouse Mathias is the hero of the story. And interesting parallels is the ghost of Martin the Warrior who spurs Mathias on in his quest and Obi Wan in Star Wars. The setting instead of the Star Wars universe is that of Redwall Abbey and its environs. The creatures there are mice, rats, badgers and birds all with their unique perspectives.

Right now I'm just starting to crack open Mattimeo. So if you haven't read this series I give it a strong thumbs up and this particular book 4 out of 5 stars.


(One word of note: the series jumps around and look at the links to wiki, if you want to read in chronological order.)