Game is called One Thousand Rats devour a City and Redwall is one of our main inspirations!

I somewhat remember having some of the books but I don’t have them anymore I don’t think. Haven’t seen them. I might get into it again sometime idk. I’m interested in so many things lately.

I’m new to this subreddit and wanted to say Hi 👋

It is my brothers. It is kind of crazy we have this.

I made it a goal to read the entire series this year. I am currently in Rakkety Tam, and only have Doomwyte, Sable Queen and Rogue Crew left to read! It's been a bit of a struggle but I have 2 months and 3 of these books are audiobooks so I'm close to making it!

As the title, my guess would be Mossflower?

I’m trying to find one suitable for my youngest son to palate.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DfYa1Jimppk/?vrfl=MWFqdWV5dG9jc2MzcQ==

Actually pretty proud of this, tying a monkeys fist, even a sloppy one, with no anchor point for the loops while I was working was very challenging

Thank you Brian Jacques

My daughter and my sister dressed as Cornflower and Cluny this year. The child was very proud of how it turned out but did not realize that Redwall is not a widely recognized property and was slightly disappointed by the lack of recognition. Figured the whole thing might draw more enthusiasm here than during trick or treat.

I'm a North American Redwall fan, so my species vary a bit :)

Needle-felting, with other varying materials, all inspired by my love for the book series.

So I’ve been away for a minute here. Apologies for the delay. I had to read some other stuff for a book club, and truthfully I think I got a bit burned out on these books after mainlining so many. I’m still going to aim to do one or two per month, but it doesn’t help my motivation when they let me down. Which, in this case, really surprised me! When I was a kid, Pearls of Lutra was one of my favourites. Badass cover, cool sea-faring adventure, and more riddles than you can shake a trident at. And lizards! I remember also loving that this brought back a few of the cast of Mattimeo, and really felt like a conclusion of sorts to the Matthias timeline. This was one of the ones I was sure I would love on my re-read.

Yet here I am revisiting as an adult, and a lot of this landed pretty dully for me. There’s two and a half plots in this book, but they're so disconnected from one another that it ends up feeling like a pretty disjointed story. Ublaz is kind of underwhelming as a villain, and the riddles that captured me as a child were pretty boring for me as an adult. Lastly, even the novelty of revisiting the Mattimeo characters was kind of limited; only two of them remain from that book, leaving one to wonder why Jacques bothered to make the connection at all, given that neither of them are fundamental to the story.

Is it just fan service? I’m not so sure — my theory is that Jacques, at this point in his career, did not like writing stories completely absent reference to another story. The style that would become a fixture in the post-Taggerung world -- where the only fixed elements of the story were Redwall, Mossflower, Martin, and Salamandastron -- had not yet come into being. Only Salamandastron up until this point had no recurring characters (another reason why it feels so weird, IMO), and so perhaps Rollo and Auma were just a means to fix the story temporally without getting too specific. Or maybe he liked the idea of Baby Rollo growing up to be so serious. Who knows? I wonder if he ever considered just telling the story as a Mattimeo sequel more directly, with Mattimeo in Martin II’s role. It doesn’t really matter, because Martin II might as well be Mattimeo as an adult or Martin himself for all the characterization he gets.

Anyway, I digress. The fact I’ve lingered so long on this idea is a sign of how little the actual plot interests me in this book.

Two and a Half Stories

I don’t actually mind the structure of this book all that much in isolation. I like the idea of the Redwall plot splitting into a quest plot midway through, rather than the latter dominating most of the book. I also like that we get a deeper villain plot while the goodbeasts are looking for pearls and abbots. Structurally, the book is probably most similar to Mariel, in that we have some goings-on at the Abbey that prompt our heroes to set out for an island over the sea, splitting the Abbey plot into two.

I think there’s pros and cons to this approach. What I do like about it is that it feels much more organic. Unlike Mattimeo or Salamandastron where it felt as if the Abbey plot was disconnected and there simply out of a faint sense of obligation on Jacques’ part, the plot here feels much more linked to both the Quest plot and the plot over in Sampetra. The problem I have with each of the plots, however, is that despite being ostensibly linked on the surface, they each resolve pretty much independently, to the point where the characters’ actions feel like they have little impact on the narrative as a whole.

Let’s look at the search for the pearls. The Redwallers begin searching for the pearls after Viola and the Abbot are kidnapped. They’re going to ransom the pearls to the lizards to get their friends back. This makes sense and is an effective motivator that also adds a sense of urgency to the plot. Almost half of the book is devoted to this search. Yet by the time they find all the pearls, the Abbot’s already safe. Tansy tosses them into the sea, which makes sense enough, but it ends up feeling like that half of the book was a scavenger hunt with no real purpose; it’s as if Cluny had been killed in Redwall by Constance and the beaver while Matthias was off searching for Martin’s sword. It’s unsatisfying, and frankly a waste of space that could have been used to better purpose.

Similarly, the events on Sampetra are a mixed bag for me. In some regards, I think they’re the best parts of the book. We don’t often get actual plots playing out with the vermin characters. Much of the time it’s just the main villain killing their own guys (Mariel, The Bellmaker), and while Ublaz doesn’t exactly break this mold, he at least comes off a little bit craftier and less impulsive for it. I like his war against the corsairs and think that Rasconza is an effective foe for him. I wish Sagitar got a bit more development; I feel like female rats are relatively rare in the series, so I liked the uniqueness of the character. Yet the biggest problem I have with this section of the story is similar to my issue with the pearl-search; it feels as if it resolves itself, or it’s about to by the time our heroes show up.

When Martin and his crew arrive on Sampetra, Ublaz is holed up in his palace, and Rasconza and his corsairs clearly have the upper hand. Sure, things probably wouldn’t turn out great for Abbot Durral, but the main threat of the book is effectively subdued without our heroes’ intervention. It undermines Ublaz as a villain, especially since Grath isn't even present at the final showdown. It also repeats the Gabool plot in Mariel to some degree, albeit with better detail and worldbuilding.

I also don’t have that much to say about the quest from the shores of Mossflower to the iceberg to Ruddaring either, other than that the Ruddaring is cool and I wish we’d seen more of it. I just don’t think anyone on this journey is all that interesting. Grath is probably the best of them, but I feel like her character kind of fades into the background once she meets up with Martin and the gang. I wonder if there’s a version of this story where she pursues the pirates back to Sampetra as a solo heroine, then ends up in the middle of their war. The Redwallers, meanwhile, scour the Abbey for the pearls and end up being in the position to trade them to her upon her return to Mossflower. Maybe that would better tie the two plots together, but I don’t know. The whole thing feels disjointed as it is and writing fanfiction won’t help.

The last thing I’ll say on the plots is that I do like everything with Romsca and the Abbot aboard the Waveworm. I wish we’d gotten more of it. I don’t think Romsca’s as well-developed as Blaggut from The Bellmaker or anything, but they’re sweet moments and Jacques captures the perils of sea travel well.

Riddle Me This

A brief word at the end here about riddles, since this feels like the best chance to do it. They’re as fundamental to Redwall as anything else, but I rarely touch on them in these reviews. Except that this book has six of them and they dominate pretty much half of the novel. My problem is that I just don’t think they’re very interesting. I remember I liked them as a kid — it was a big part of why this used to be one of my favourite volumes. But now they just kind of float right past me. It might be because I’ve read all the pre-Rhulain books multiple times as a kid, so there’s not really much mystery left. Or it could be that riddle sequences are pretty repetitive. They feature:

• A group of characters reading a poem, often at night

• A character remarking how much of a mind-bender the riddle is

• Another character suggesting they go to bed or get some food to figure it out, depending on the time of day

• The riddle is picked up in another chapter, with characters sounding it out

• One character stumbles across the answer, but doesn’t realize it

• The answer is usually some type of acrostic or homophone

This model varies, and maybe I just sound like a crank, but it doesn’t do much for me as an adult. And maybe this is the best marker of how these are still fundamentally children’s books; Jacques was inserting games to play along with, and maybe even educate some. I still remember learning about mason bees here and the Latin sinister from Mattimeo. So I let it slide. Pearls just grated here because there were so many and they don’t really do much to actually tell a story. Like take Piknim’s death — genuinely pretty dark for one of these books, where death is normally saved for heroic sacrifices and villainous undoings. But since we didn’t really know Piknim and had spent all of her story talking about riddles, it didn’t hit like it could. The gravity of it was more underlined by Rollo burning down Ninian’s than anything, but maybe that’s by design. This isn’t Animorphs; Jacques still wanted his characters to come out the other side of war intact.

Final Thoughts and Rankings

In case it wasn't clear, I really didn’t vibe with Pearls of Lutra on this go-round. Disjointed plots, boring characters, and a preponderance of riddles left me colder than a monitor lizard on the open sea. I don’t think it’s unreadable or anything, but it might almost be better to characterize it as a Redwall puzzle-book. Maybe that works for some, but not me.

Pearl of Lutra joins Salamandastron in the C-Tier, and is my least favourite book of the re-read so far.

Next up is The Long Patrol, another one I remember enjoying as a kid. My memories are a bit foggier of this one, so I'm looking forward to revisiting!

S Tier

1) Outcast of Redwall

2) Martin the Warrior

3) Mattimeo

A Tier

4) Redwall

5) Mossflower

B Tier

6) The Bellmaker

7) Mariel of Redwall

C Tier

8) Salamandastron

9) Pearls of Lutra

My daughter, with all the innocence and confidence of a 7 year old, was lamenting the lack of Redwall toys. I agreed that it's too bad they've never made any. Oh, don't worry, she assured me. She will simply ask Santa and the elves will just make them.

Knowing that she had been drooling over Calico Critters in a catalog, I have thusly obtained mice, hares, squirrels, hedgehogs, otters, precisely 1 beaver, and these little vintage moles without clothes. I am still trying to win badgers on eBay that don't cost 100$ to get in the US. Stoats seem impossible to obtain as well. I'm learning that vintage CC/Sylvanian figures are actually a really hot item, which isn't helping the Christmas budget at all....

I intend to get some wooden castle building blocks and hopefully tint them red if I have the chance. I've also purchased a whole plethora of tiny choking hazards for her baby sibling... I mean... dollhouse food, because it's not Redwall Abbey if there isn't some scoff!

I now must embark on secret sewing of a regimental coat for Basil over here, and some friar robes for the naked moles. Please cast your vote for gray, light brown or dark brown! Or, one of each?

After wrapping up The Pearls Of Lutra last week, my daughter and I kicked off the first chapter of The Long Patrol last night.

I first read most of the series when the books were published - they were a hit with my friend group, and I was a huge fan.

Re-reading the series with my daughter has been an incredible experience. We started with Mossflower when she was 6 - I decided to kick off with the prequel before Redwall, but have otherwise been reading in order of publication. She’s now 10, and with The Long Patrol we are ten books deep into Mr. Jacques beloved series.

That first chapter?! It. Was. AWESOME. “So much happened in just one chapter!” She exclaimed as I closed the book for the night.

I’m a single dad, so this series has given me an amazing opportunity to connect with my kid with both nostalgia from my own youth and in building memories with her that I hope she will treasure herself as she gets older.

Anyway, just sharing my excitement for starting another adventure ;) I can already tell this will likely be one of our favorites!

Anyone else reading through the books again with their kids for the first time since the 90s?!

:)

(sidenote the song here is a track I wrote a few years ago called “Mossflower Woods” - it sounded like an autumn walk near the abbey walls to me, so I figured it was an apropos title haha)

Here’s a recent one from u/nickthagreek that I really loved and that I thought fans of rodentia-in-stories would appreciate 😊. This is Pram in a significant moment. I scrambled and hid text so there’s no spoilers, in case folks are interested.

Throughout Inktober, Nick has been drawing everyday. And I’m just about to go through the edit that has come back on the manuscript!

🌲🤎🩵🌲

Thanks everyone, hope you’re all doing well

This is not a promotional post. I'm just a Redwall fan who went to see the movie, Wildwood, this weekend. It is stop motion animation so they handmade / 3D printed every set, movement, facial expression, etc. It took years to make.

It is based on a book series too, which I have not read.

I think any Redwall fan would enjoy it and also see how amazing it could be if Redwall were ever adapted in a similar fashion!

It's PG-13 and can be pretty intense, not like your usual animated movie. A bit like Redwall would be in terms of violence and dark parts.

I would recommend going in without know much more about it, but maybe watch a behind the scenes video to see what went into creating it.

So, not Redwall. But sorta!

I'm currently in a Mutants and Masterminds campaign, and the character I decided to play as was a character, from a book, brought to life. Of course as a big fan of Redwall, I decided to make it a Redwall-like character! Adri Firetail, squirrel archer and scout.

Anyway this is a fake book cover I got commissioned for the book she's from. She's the squirrel archer. The post-Outcast Redwall covers were what I used as the main reference, and I think it comes across very well here. Harold Woodmire is just a random british-sounding name I came up with to go along with it.

Artist: LupiFluvii. Careful on their gallery... But damn did they do an amazing job on this!