For those who have not discovered Brian
Jacques delightful and exciting Redwall
series, you’re in for a real treat. Though aimed at the young (I first enjoyed
the first book at age eleven), it can easily be enjoyed by adults as long as
its intentions are understood (I read it this year, and though the experience
was not the same, I still enjoyed it). A
combination of animal and heroic fantasy, Jacques transforms the meadowlands
and forest into an epic landscape where mice, badgers, shrews, moles, hares,
foxes, stoats, and all variety of woodland creatures live in pastoral harmony,
fighting for survival when evil looms.
The series now standing at twenty-two books in total, the first,
entitled Redwall, was published in
1986 and is the subject of this review.
Redwall Abbey is a brick structure
standing in the middle of Mossflower Wood.
A place of safety and tranquility, woodland creatures come and go, meet
with friends, receive medical attention, or just enjoy a good meal with the
brothers and sisters safe behind its high walls. (Thankfully, there is no religion at Redwall
Abbey despite the setting.) All is well
in the Summer of the Late Rose until Cluny the Scourge, a bilge rat, comes
careening up the road in a cart laden with rough-cut mercenaries and an eye to
making the Abbey his new home. Father
Mortimer unwilling to simply hand over the keys, the normally bucolic Abbey
finds itself in a fight for its life against the treacherous villain.
