Several years ago I had the pleasure of hearing the author of Redwall, Brian Jacques, speak. He said he started writing when he was unable to find good, descriptive books to read aloud at a school for the blind. That's why his books are so rich with description."Cluny was a bilge rat; the biggest, most savage rodent that ever jumped from ship to shore. He was black, with grey and pink scars all over his huge sleek body, from the tip of his wet nose, up past his green and yellow slitted, eye, across both his mean tattered ears, down the length of his heavy vermin-ridden back to the enormouse whiplike tail which had earned him his title: Cluny the Scourge!"
The parallels to The Lord of the Rings are too numerous to mention but mice, shrews, and sparrows (men, dwarves, and elves) fight off invasion from rats (orcs). Frodo, oops, I mean Harry Potter, er, I mean Matthias, discovers his destiny to follow in the footsteps of Martin the Warrior. The resemblance between Matthias and an image of Martin in a tapestry had gone unnoticed until the abbey was threatened. He goes on a quest to recover Martin's sword to help defend Redwall Abbey from the rats. While leaving his friends behind to fend for themselves, he faces dangers and meets new allies along the way to recovering this valuable artifact.
I had been meaning to read Redwall for many years and I am glad I finally did. I doubt I will read the entire series (ah, the old problem of so many books and too little time) but it is not because I wouldn't enjoy them.
I recommend this book to fans of adventure books. It's an enjoyable good vs. evil story.
My rating for this book: +++
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