Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Mattimeo

I never remember to come back to this book when I'm picking a Redwall story to reread, but it's actually one of my favorites when I remember what it's about. It hits all the hallmarks of a Redwall story that you'd expect-- villainous hordes, warrior heroes, gentle creatures banding together to fight evil, a whole lot of food descriptions-- and does a good job with making them interesting despite their familiarity. I'm always worried that this book will sacrifice the characterizations of Matthias' generation in order to make them fit the more bland molds of background Abbey characters, but I don't actually notice that happening too much as I read through. In fact, I think this is one of the stronger Redwall books in terms of character variety since the book had to balance the maintenance of interesting characters from the original Redwall while also adding in new characters of Mattimeo's generation. This means that there are more characters with actual personalities, backgrounds, and motives in this book than I find in most Redwall books.

As for the actual story of this one, I like most of it quite a lot. I like Slagar's band and the woodlanders Matthias pulls together to hunt them, especially Orlando and Cheek. I like the dynamic between Sam, Mattimeo, Tim, Tess, Auma, and Jube. I think the way Warbeak's sparrows are brought back in this story is fun, though I wish they had a larger bearing on the story. My main issue with the plot of this book in particular is the way the storyline back at the abbey doesn't really tie in with the one happening outside of it. While the attack of the birds is a story I found interesting and which gave some of the background characters (especially the women, who don't often get a chance to shine in Redwall stories), it doesn't have any effect on the Slagar-Mattimeo-Matthias side of the story, so it seems disconnected from the actual plot of this book. I wish the author had either found a way to connect the two conflicts more or simply kept the bird-Abbey plot for another book. It didn't help that while I enjoyed the majority of the character moments that came out of that storyline, I really couldn't stand the character of Rollo. I have mixed feelings about the way Redwall stories portray accents and dialects to begin with, and the hearing the 'baby dialect' so often was kind of annoying. Not to mention the way his characterization becomes frustrating by the second time he pops up, and I think the situation with his mother was very badly handled in terms of character and plot impact.

Even with the bits that I'm not a fan of, I still think this is one of the stronger parts of an already good series, and I should revisit it more often. It's definitely a proper sequel to the original Redwall, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the first one. It's probably not the best intro to the series since it does play off many of the plot points and characters originating in Redwall, but it also does a very good job laying out what the whole series is about, so it's probably a very honest starting point for someone just coming into the series.

Content Warnings

nickshutter's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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