Book 50 Redwall

Redwall by Brian Jacques fulfilled the "Book Set in an Abbey, Cloister, Monastery, Vicarage, or Convent” category of the PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge. It is the last item on the list and my last book for the blog.

I had a tough time finding a novel for this one. I purchased and downloaded from Audible The Mists of Avalon, thinking, “Hey, I’ve never read this. It could work.” Fifty-four hours of listening. Fifty-four. I got the deluxe entire series version. I wasn’t ready to make that kind of commitment. Then I researched. I found Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie—read it. I found The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny—already did that author for this list, and a thousand Downton Abbey books—not a real abbey with nuns and stuff. Sigh…

Then I discovered a cozy mystery series by Ellis Peters about twelfth-century monks. Yes! Perfect. I grabbed A Morbid Taste for Bones and dug in. By chapter three, the monks had left the abbey on a quest to Wales to steal the bones of a saint.

They left.

It felt cheaty to use that one as the setting is supposed to be a religious house. And they left. And I cheated on the Zodiac category, kinda, so I wanted to have a good entry for this one.

Then I realized Redwall is an abbey. Score!

Being me, I grabbed the audiobook from the library. It had an ensemble cast, meaning it was a play rather than the story.

ARG.

I found the book-book and dug in to read. That’s why this blog is late. Not the right book, not the right version, and of course, all on the last book.

So, without further ado, Redwall by Brian Jacques.

Damn, what a bloody book. After years of peace and harmony with all the woodland animals, (except the sparrows but that comes later), the Redwall Abbey, is under siege by rats. Young Initiate Mattias Mouse wants nothing more than to help defend his home and be the second coming of Martin the Warrior who defended the abbey of old. And he gets to be that. Redwall contains a “chosen one” trope like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and The Matrix. In fact, the story was a mix of LOTR and Harry Potter.

It was a siege book, much like The Two Towers or The Illearth War—bloody, ugly and violent. Which surprised me as it’s a kid book. Critters died left and right. On the one hand, I liked that our villain, Cluny the Scourge, was willing to off people and fight real battles. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have wanted my eight-year-old to read it. (She’s thirteen now and would love all the violence and stuff.)

But the book also reminded me of The Da Vinci Code or Raiders of the Lost Ark—a high-flying adventure with much danger and tension with no actual reason. Robert Langdon did not need to rush to find those clues. And if you analyze Raiders, you’ll see that if you took out the character of Indiana Jones, the movie will still end the same.

Redwall was like that. Yes, we needed Matthias to be a hero, but he didn’t have to risk his neck, over and over and over to get Martin’s stuff. He could have used his own stuff and fought the rats and been there for his friends. Maybe more would have survived if the mouse stayed home, instead of trying to repeat history. And yes, he brought armies at the end, but a magic sword? Arthur much?

Anyway, I guess if I can suspend belief enough to have battling woodland creatures (and I loved that there were women warriors as well as men), I can accept he had to retrieve the sword.

The book was well written and exciting to read, had I been ten. I enjoyed it and might pick up another in the series someday. 

     I give Redwall by Brian Jacques Four Candied Chestnuts.