Skip to main content

Redwall

Redwall (Redwall Series #1) by Brian Jacques, Gary Chalk ... 
Redwall by Brian Jacques was published in 1986 by the Hutchinson Publishing Company in the UK. This is the first book published in the Redwall series, a twenty-two book children's fantasy series that has been made into a children's cartoon aimed at older (middle grade) children. It has won the Lancashire Libraries Children's Book of the Year Award, the Western Australian Young Readers' Award, and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

The first book follows the life of a young mouse named Matthias who is an orphan living in the Redwall Abby when Cluny the Scourge, a tyrant sea rat, arrives and demands the Abby's surrender and enslavement. Matthias, inspired by the stories of the legendary Martin the Warrior, leads the Abby against the evil rat and his army. During the siege, Matthias must search for Martin's legendary sword which has gone missing while also learning what it means to be a warrior and gaining new allies along the way.

I know this doesn't sound like much of a plot summary but I love this series and don't want to spoil too much. It is a children's book about anthropomorphic animals and the middle ages society that they live in. As the first book published in the series, there are some world building elements that don't match with the rest of the series but it does not distract from the overall story. Even though this concept sounds silly, Jacques didn't think it would be published, this book is brutal. It does not care that the audience is younger. There is death. There is murder and kidnapping and arson. The Abbey members boil some of Cluny's horde in hot porridge. The sparrow king seized the throne by sending his brother to his death. Assmodaus the snake eats several of the characters. A friend of mine described this book as the original Game of Thrones. Others have compared it to Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, Grahame's Wind in the Willows, Erin Hunter's Warriors, and Adam's Watership Down.

Out of all of my books, this is the one that I have re-read the most. It is simplistic in it's plot of good and evil. It is predictable in it's class and species representation of the animals and characters. And the book, and series, never tried anything new. But Redwall and the Redwall series are some of the most relaxing adventure stories I have ever seen. Also, it's meant for children. If you have a problem with children's fantasy books, please see the post I did on this subject a few weeks ago. 

I highly recommend this book and this series, especially in such a volatile time. Ignore the need for "meaningful" literature and enjoy a smooth adventure of good defeating evil. 

I should also mention, food is highly important in this series and will make you want to bake. You may want to have some cookies on hand if you give this book a try.

Until next time, travelers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dream Library

    Photo by  Ivo Rainha  from  Pexels Hello travelers! If you're a book nerd, you may have spent hours thinking about your dream library. Whether it was the library from Beauty and the Beast or just a few floating shelves in your bedroom, everyone has an idea of what their dream library would look like if money and space were not a deciding factor.  My dream space is a room with built in shelves, large windows with a window seat and lots of pillows, and plants and a few nature or nerdy pictures on the walls. However, I have had the experience of moving a few times and each time my available space changes. At college, it was three shelves above my desk, in my first apartment, I shared a couple of bookshelves with my husband's music collection, and now I have five large book cases to call my own. This fluctuating library size has not cut into the number of books that I own (I don't have a problem. What are you talking about? Don't look in the closet!) but it...
Post a Comment
Read more

Black Sci-fi and Fantasy Authors

Photo by  Oladimeji Ajegbile  from  Pexels Hello travelers, As I am sure many of you are aware, there is a huge push for racial justice in America, with 50 states and 18 countries participating in the protests. While I am unable to participate in any of the marches in my area, I have done what I can with signing petitions. Recently, I saw a hashtag going around social media called #BlackoutBestsellerList with the goal of making all of the New York Times Bestsellers be from Black authors. This could be accomplished if everyone bought two books by black authors before June 20th. I'll admit, I was a little late to the game, but that doesn't mean I can't participate and maybe we can continue this push in the coming weeks. While there is no way to list every book out there by black authors, I thought I would make a list with some that are not just the typical academic African-American literature. That's not to say there's anything wrong with those books; in fac...
Post a Comment
Read more

Read Through the Decade: 1900s

Welcome Travelers! Welcome to the Map Shop and the first installment of my Read Through the Decade Challenge. As listed on the calendar that I'm basing all of this on, January is dedicated to the early 1900s, specifically 1900 to 1909. While any books published during this time would work for the challenge, I decided to follow the ones already listed as a starting point. I might tweak this later on as the challenge progresses but for now, I'm just testing out the format. The books listed for January include: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington The Hound of Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle  Call of the Wild by Jack London The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois The Jungle by Upton Sinclair The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum In the end, I only read The Hound of Baskervilles, Call of the Wild, The Souls of Black Folk, and The Wizard of Oz in January. I did read Heart of Dar...
Post a Comment
Read more