Okay, time to get this thing packed with some actual content, eh?

Redwall Abbey itself.

Source: Redwall Wiki

One of my all-time favorite novel series is Redwall by Brian Jacques. This is a fun, long-running series of fantasy adventure novels featuring a whole host of woodland creatures that go questing and battle it out with vicious vermin critters.

The novels are usually centered around Redwall Abbey, a marvelous structure in the middle of Mossflower Woods that’s dedicated to helping out the surrounding countryside. But, ne’er do wells and various other villains tend to either have business with one of the inhabitants or worse, they want to claim it for their own! So it’s up to the Redwallers to answer the challenge and strike down evil.

While the morality tends to be black-and-white – Woodland creatures (Mice, Badgers, Hedgehogs, etc) are almost always good while Vermin (rats, stoats, foxes, etc) are almost always evil – the series is a fun, simple fantasy romp; it’s packed with exciting battles, scrumptious meals, and some rather frightening and cunning villains.

The first novel, Redwall, was published in October 1986 by the late Brian Jacques, an English fellow who brings his fantasy world to life with plenty of detail, description, and character. The series was published rather frequently up until 2011 with The Rogue Crew being published post-humorously. Unfortunately, Jacques passed away in 2011 due to a heart attack. But his spirit and charm live on through his series.

A special 20th Anniversary cover of the first novel.

Source: Redwall Wiki.

While aimed at a younger audience, the Redwall series doesn’t shy away from the horrors of war. Captives are taken, attackers and defenders fall, and sometimes, terrible decisions have to be made. Characters can and will die – just because you’re a goody-good woodland critter doesn’t mean you’ll make it out of the series unscathed.

The series has a general lighthearted adventure tone to it, however. Each novel is, basically, a story of good vs. evil. So if you’re looking for some basic, tropey fantasy fun, this will be a series to tune into.

It should be noted that Redwall is published out of chronological order. Heck the second book in the series, Mossflower, is a prequel, and the third book (which I am reading at the time of this writing), Mattimeo, is a sequel to Redwall. The good thing is you don’t need to keep track of the timeline.

In fact you can pretty much pick up darn near any book in the series and start reading without having read any other book in the series. The first one I read was Pearls of Lutra, and that was the ninth book in the series! I followed along just fine.

However, attentive readers who do keep track of the timeline will be rewarded by seeing how characters have grown and changed over time. Who would’ve thought the mischievous Arven would make such a good leader later in his life?

For the review series, books will be reviewed in publishing order, as that is the way they were originally written and intended to be read.

Those worrying that you’ll have to listen to an English Major prattle on and on and on, dissecting the story brick by brick and elaborating on academic literary themes need not worry – these reviews are meant to be easy reading. And writing! It takes a lot of work to write an academic review!

This is more or less something for me to share my thoughts with.

I’ll also have a counter going for the series as well to keep track of certain things for some added fun. For example, Redwall novels typically have some kind of riddle quest, so we’ll keep tabs on that. Things tend to get stolen from Redwall Abbey, so let’s keep track of that too.

As the series develops certain ideas will be introduced as well, which I’ll keep tabs of too in my reviews.

To add a little more to the reviews too I’ll be ranking each book in the series from favorite to least favorite, starting with the review of Mossflower (the second book in the series). This list may change as the series goes on – so I’m kind of excited to see how that will happen.

While I have read some of the books in the series, I’ve not read all of them.

Covers of the full set of Redwall Books. These covers are used on later editions.

Source: Amazon.com (NOT an Affiliate Link!)

So, grab your shield and buckler, fill a flagon with some October Ale, grab a satchel of scrumptious scones, and let’s head out for adventure! The first review will be coming soon, so be sure you’re either subscribed to The Furry Writer or you’re following me on social media to see when the first review drops.

As always, if you’d like to support The Furry Writer you can drop off a one-time donation at my Ko-Fi page.

What? Patreon? That comes later maybe.