I love going to thrift stores and looking in the book section. Most of the things you’ll find there are religious books, self-help books, and cookbooks, but there’s always going to be some kind of fiction. Perhaps something from the past you’ve never heard of before that has now caught your eye, or even an acclaimed series you’ve been wanting to read available at an incredibly cheap price. Redwall by Brian Jacques is the latter, which I’ve had my eye on for awhile but had never got around to actually reading—until now.
The story itself, I will admit, doesn’t seem to be anything new within the fantasy genre at first. It features a plucky youth going on a journey to retrieve a sword to defeat the villain and become a hero along the way—though perhaps that is due to it being the first in a long series of children’s books. No, what really makes Redwall shine is its setting, which was the biggest draw for me (and perhaps many others) to read the series in the first place.
The world of Redwall is filled with sentient woodland creatures living in the wood almost like humans, such as mice, badgers, and moles. Yet the lives of the peaceful creatures are upturned by the arrival of the rat warlord Cluny the Scourge and his horde, who want to take Redwall. This is where the book really started to grab my attention, as it becomes a siege narrative of both forces trying to outwit the other all the while Matthias, our heroic mouse, searches for a legendary sword to defeat Cluny.
The characters within the novel also make it a joy to read. It feels like every single named character has something special about them, with some sort of skill that makes that character unique. This stretches to every character as well, both male and female alike, which I wasn’t expecting from a book around this time. Jacques’ use of different POVs, that of the “good side” of Redwall and “evil side” of Cluny’s horde, really helps to set up that good/evil dichotomy between the two forces, and especially between Matthias and Cluny.
I give Redwall Two Thumbs Up. As a children’s book it’s an easy read for anyone, but still has enough substance that anyone of any age can really enjoy it. If you love the aesthetic of small animals wearing clothes and wielding swords and tools, you’ll absolutely adore this book, as I’d argue that it is one of the grandfathers of that aesthetic. It’s an especially good book to recommend to children—it’s one of those series that I know that if I read it when I was young, I’d have become obsessed with it, and I’d have read the whole series already.
Verdict: 👍👍
