Amph The Redwall books - RIP Brian Jacques

The Redwall series is one that I've been wanting to read for a long long time now, I never did as the new books that came out didn't follow on from the previous one and the books were in a different order to which they were publish, so I didn't know where to start. Last year I was looking through a book catalogue for a company that sells really cheap books, and they had a boxed set of 10 Redwall books. I've finally finished what I was reading and have made a start on the first, 'Lord Brocktree'.

I'm only a few chapters in but I'm really liking it. I'm definitely glad I got them now and I look forward to reading the rest of them.

For those who don't know about Redwall, wikipedia has an article here, and for those who do know the books and are fans of them this is a thread to discuss all things Redwall.

 

Be warned: most of the Redwall books follow more or less the same formula, only with different names filling the archetypical character slots.

 

I've noticed that too, although they're always entertaining enough that I don't really mind.

 

I have pretty much the same view as -Phoenix-, if it's entertaining enough then I won't mind.

 

I'm of the opinion that the first ten books to be published (Redwall through The Long Patrol) are the real gems of the series and are worth the read. While some of the stories after that have better parts, they are for the most part far too formulaic and rehash too much of old stories. While some of this starts to become clear around eight or nine books in, it isn't overwhelming until the eleventh installment (Taggerung, I think?) and the first ten form a nice little series with a damn fine concluding cap-off story in Long Patrol. Not much stuck for me, after that one. First ten are classics, IMO.

Oh, I do make an exception for The Legend of Luke, which was the 12th or 13th, I think. It's far different from the other Redwall stories in that it's more like three smaller adventures collected into one volume. The story of Luke is really grand, too. Apart from that, book 11 and onward were stinkers.

 

If your going to read Redwall at all, I definitely say Read 'Redwall' its self, and it's two sequels, then go back and read Martin the Warrior and Mossflower. If your still interested in reading the series, I would move on to Mariel of Redwall and The BellMaker. Past that they are all semi-filler stories and start getting on the repetitious side of things.

Enjoy!

 

It has been so long since I read those books, but I loved them. Even though they might have been a little repetitive, I still liked them a whole lot because they stretched out the imagination and made you hungry during the feasts in the stories.

 

I used to really like Redwall, although I've only read...I think seven...of the books. Martin the Warrior was by far the best IMHO. Out of those seven anyway...*wracks brain* Redwall, Mossflower, Mattimeo, Mariel of Rewall, Martin the Warrior, Outcast of Redwall, Legend of Luke. Yeah, those were the ones.

Although I do have The Bellmaker and Taggerung on the shelf - I should really get back to those. Anyone care to tell me how they liked them?

Then again, if you've read one you've sort of read them all, which is why I think I didn't read more. Also, I think I only really liked the Martin era stuff. Matthias always seemed like a poor beast's Martin. Mariel couldn't stop Mary-Suing everywhere, and Outcast just rubbed me wrong.

About five years back, when Legend of Luke came out, Brian Jacques did a signing tour in the US and I got his autograph in my copy. He was a very nice man.

And I recently discovered that someone over on youtube had posted the mini-series that were done of a few of the books - I really enjoyed them: very nostalgic.

 

While I always liked Martin the Warrior best, Marlfox was also pretty good I thought.

 

Redwall's funny. I've read only 3 books, but they're pretty much the same.

 

The original and Mossflower are the best of the bunch though.

 

Martin the Warrior, Mattimeo and The Bellmaker are also great.

 

The best books seem to me to be the ones that break the mold of what a Redwall book is. Apart from Redwall and Mossflower, the books that stray from the standard paint-by-numbers story, Mattimeo, the Bellmaker, Martin the Warrrior, the Long Patrol, and The Legend of Luke, seem like real quality classics. The Long Patrol is infinitely re-readable for me. The rest feel dull and indistinct and my memory of them all blurs together and I lack incentive to pick them up off the shelf. Some of them were dull on the first reading, too (Mariel, the Outcast)

 

I loved Redwall and Mattimeo. I also really enjoyed the cartoon, if any of you saw that. It's sweet. Mossflower and Martin the Warrior are also good, but I couldn't get into the rest of the books. They just didn't interest me.

Someone mentioned two sequels of Redwall. Mattimeo is definitely one- what's the second one?

 

Pearls of Lutra.

 

I've started reading these books in the order that they were published, as that is generally the way I prefer, but bouncing back and forth over the timeline is starting to get confusing. Which order would you recommend that they be read in?

 

Publishing order is the best way. Even though they aren't in chronological order, they almost always have overlapping character groups that can either brighten up the story or leave you scratching your head. In many cases, like with Martin the Warrior, the main story is narrated by pre-existing characters, and the beginning and end of the book(s) deal with sets of characters, locations, and events described and fleshed out in previous books, but receive no explanation in the latter books as to who they are or what they are doing, and have little to do with the main narrative.

There are also themes and places and significant events and historical locations that are, for example, explained and fleshed out in chonologically-later stories, then wholly inserted into chonologically-earlier books that are published later, and aren't given their proper backstory again.

There are also chains of books that link together with varying degrees of closeness that require knowledge of previous books to fully enjoy. You will end up with sequels that are prequels, and tangled nets of prequel-sequel-prequels and such. Each of the books can be read on their own, but to get the most out of them, you really need to read in the publishing order.

 

I've kept up with the Redwall series since 1999, and the original is by far my favorite, but I would say that the first 13 (not the first 10) are wonderful reads. Of the ones afterwards, the only one really worth reading is High Rhulain, Book 18. There are currently 20 books, and I have to admit that while I own boos 19 and 20, I haven't finished 19 yet and haven't even started 20.

Here are the books in chronological order by title, and in publishing order by number.
Lord Brocktree- 13
The Legend of Luke (Luke's Tale)- 12
Martin The Warrior- 6
Mossflower- 2
The Legend of Luke (Martin's Tale)- 12
Outcast of Redwall- 8
Mariel of Redwall- 4
The Bellmaker- 7
Salamandastron- 5
Redwall- 1
Mattimeo- 3
Pearls of Lutra- 9
The Long Patrol- 10
Marlfox- 11
Taggerung- 14
Triss- 15
Loamhedge- 16
Rakkety Tam- 17
High Rhulain- 18
Eulalia- 19
Doomwyte- 20

I have to say that my favorites are Redwall, Mattimeo, Mariel of Redwall, and Pearls of Lutra.

It is true that while Redwall does often seem to follow the same formula (for example, in every book, at least two good guys die, sometimes more, but never less). But it's a wonderful story. Every person I know who has read the books has fallen in love with them, and I mean people of all ages. The feasts are wonderful, the riddles are great, the characters are likable (or hatable, in the case of villains), and the descriptions are beautiful. I have to say that if I were to live in a fictional place, and I couldn't go to Middle-Earth, I would immediately choose Redwall, circa the first book.

I have to also mention that Jacques' Castaways of the Flying Dutchman trilogy is also quite good, especially the second one.

 

I have also seen the mini-series, and watched it mutliple times when it was on TV. As far as the books go, I read at least 10 of them.

 

I've seen the Martin The Warrior min-series, and loved it. I also recommend picking up some of the books, especially the original, on audiotape. I don't know about the others, but Redwall itself is narrated by Jacques himself, and it's a wonderful tale to hear as well as read.

 

Unlocked by request.

 

Sad news

RIP

 

Awwwww!

I've got the series up to about book 15 or 16, they were great little stories and I need to reread them, for all that they're dismissed as kid's books, that doesn't mean they're not good!

 

So very sad. The Redwall books were really a spark for my imagination when I was 8 or so. I loved reading them and Mossflower remains one of my favorite stories of all time.

 

Sad to hear he passed away

I've had a few of the Redwall books sitting around a while, so I'm finally getting around to reading them. Finished Redwall earlier and will easily finish Mossflower tonight. Somewhat juvenile, perhaps, but not overly so, and the stories are pretty decent.