Books

wdym 160+ likes, 40+ comments in a day for Redwall series in this community? Where’s my daily link to random title from Anna’s Archive or at least something about CIA, Stalin or US politics?

Wow this brings back some good memories. Loved those books.

This series is basically the reason I started reading books. Really great stories, favourite is definitely Mossflower.

Jacques also made an effort to write for the blind and visually impaired -- not just in the sense of having accessible versions of the books available but also in their content. His writing involves a lot of emphasis on sounds and scents and taste, so someone blind from birth could still imagine themselves at a Redwall feast.

I think that overall just made the writing better for everyone.

Honestly this is just about the only fantasy I can enjoy if you don’t include wuxia. Something about woodland creatures with medieval technology hits realism in a way I can’t describe. Even with science fiction, I prefer hard scifi. Not sure what’s wrong with me, but it needs some semblance of, sure, it’s doable, why not?

Cute little mice with blacksmithed broadswords, send. Mole people making the most scrumptious eats for a feast, go for it. Otters crafting and rafting boats from the forest timber, my favorite.

I recently listened to book one with my six year old son. Great adventurous stuff, with terrible villains. But I must admit I was sometimes uncomfortable with the level of violence. The good guys don't just win, they cleave their enemies in half, heads roll and blood spills. I suppose it goes without saying that my son loved it.

I'm reading the series right now! I'm sure I read Redwall and maybe Mossflower as a kid, but I think my introduction to them was probably the cartoon. They certainly hit different as an adult.

I'm reading in publication order, and I'm on the third book now - Mattimeo. There's this bit I enjoy where we're told several times that Martin's sword is just a sword. While it might be a symbol, it isn't magic - and although it can be used for good it could just as easily be used for evil. Matthias is taught this when he recovers the sword during Cluny's siege, and Martin is told this when the blade is originally forged.

Anyway, early in Mattimeo one of Slagar's gang floats the idea of stealing the sword. Slagar says they better not - it's almost certainly a magic sword, and if someone who wasn't a mouse tried to use it they'd surely be cursed.

I find it interesting, because apart from the fact that these are woodland creatures, Redwall is fairly low-fantasy. There is sometimes a supernatural element with visions of ancestors and prophecies and such, but it's not the fantasy fare I'm used to of wizards slinging fireballs at skeletons. But it does make me wonder: could the sword be magic after all? Martin certainly has a touch of the divine to him, and his spirit does come to the aid of Redwall several times.

Maybe the magic comes from having a good heart and living your life to protect your friends. These days I feel we could all use a little more magic in our lives.

Phenomenal books, and a damn hard thing to convince people to read em, which is a shame.

They're sturdy, whimsical tales of bravery and harrowing adventures... With pages and pages of descriptions for feasts!

And the folk songs? I have several that live with me even now, even though they're fake. Perfect series.

Guisom dig yore paddle deep, Hurly-burly river wide'n'curly, There’s no time to sleep.

I will still use ‘The Long Patrol’ as a name for any kind of group or organization I need to name in a computer game 🙂

His last name is pronounced like "Jakes". I had to learn that and so you have to too.

It's so good. Read it as a kid, and his descriptions of feasts and banquets were so vivid it would make me salivate.

They made a childrens TV show out of it, and none other than Tim Curry himself voiced Cluny the rat!

I kinda wish I'd read them when I was younger! Are they worth reading as an adult?

Yes, I read these when they just released. Don't remember too much from them, but I thought they were pretty cool at the time. I think the story and characters themselves weren't that interesting, but the descriptions of the environments were really good. Like you'd really get a sense of being there, even though it was a fantasy world of small animals. But I might be misremembering as it was what 35 years ago?

I remember I had the hard cover and the art on the book was really cool, that drew me in right away. I might still have those books somewhere in a box in the attic.

Redwall was my favorite series growing up! My brother and I read them, staggered by a few years, and also watched the animated show together. I have read all but the last 1 or 2 books that were published, and now I'm probably going to have to reread the entire series.

I enjoyed The Castaways of the Flying Dutchman books, also by Brian Jacques. They have adventure, fantasy and riddles/mystery, similar to Redwall, but focused on humans instead of animals.

Gonna age myself but I was growing up as they were coming out. So for many birthday parties you could expect whomever to get the newest one (and then the argument over who would borrow it first would break out.)

Loved them as a kid, though I'm pretty sure I didn't read the whole series

These were a cornerstone of my childhood, and I remember getting through Mattimeo all by myself, and feeling like I had really crossed a threshold in my reading development.

"Now I'm reading the big books!"

It was also the first and blessedly not the last time that I finished a book and had this almost sad feeling that it was over combined with the awestruck feeling of having just shared in a monumentally good story.

One other funny thing about the books is something I discovered much later in life when I was talking with a friend about them: The friend marveled at the fact that I read them as a child and did not grow up to be a furry. So there's that.

I read so many of those books when I was younger and loved them all. I vividly remember the food descriptions and the way the hares wiggled and moved to sneak around.

My dnd group is doing a Humblewood Inspired Campiagn which is all talking animals. In our group of 6 we all were huge Redwall fans. So must have been influential for people who played dnd

I recently re-read many of these after enjoying them as a child. Worth it!

I love these books so dearly! My older brother and I both read them as kids and then again as teens. The world building and lore goes surprisingly deep, with Mossflower feeling akin to Tolkien’s Silmarillion. There was even an animated series that was broadcast on public television that was surprisingly good! It’s all available on YouTube now. The quality of the animation is questionable at times, but they capture the whimsy very well.

My dad bought me the graphic novel, and that hooked me. I read several of them when I was in middle school and thoroughly enjoyed them. I've been watching the animated series with my kids, and I'm really excited to give them my copies of the books when they're older!

They're my comfort books, I'm almost 40 and still read them fairly regularly.

I've got a copy that I'm waiting to get my kid into. She's a little young, but she likes the cover already, and we're trying to read her parts of it while explaining everything that's going on. It'll be a nice transition from pictures to mental images. I grew up reading them too, and they're the reason I first got into real trouble. I was stealing batteries and flashlight bulbs so I could stay up reading all night.