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irishpierogies's review against another edition
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
isaacmcintyre's review against another edition
2.0
The Builders is quick, fun, and bloody, but two of those three things work against the book just as much as for it. It is undoubtedly fun and that's its shining star, but the quick pace means by the time every character has been introduced it's time for the 'stunning finale' and you walk away wanting more time with them (good and bad, especially when the characters seem so enticing but then you never really get to go beyond that). It's bloody too, which is interesting for an anthropomorphic story, but sometimes it feels like brutality and bloodshed for their sakes and it never really hits the perfect old-time charm the best Redwall books command. There's a gentleness and a peacefulness to the Redwall world that means when everything goes wrong at the abbey or on the adventure you want to see the heroes win back that peace and that same feeling is lacking here a little in The Builders.
The book also suffers from short, stilted chapters and similar prose. There are a few paragraphs and longer chapters that feel like you're getting time to breathe, but in the end, they're too few and far between to really enjoy the writing style.
Did love the very final chapter; a fitting end to a well-wrapped revenge story.
The book also suffers from short, stilted chapters and similar prose. There are a few paragraphs and longer chapters that feel like you're getting time to breathe, but in the end, they're too few and far between to really enjoy the writing style.
Did love the very final chapter; a fitting end to a well-wrapped revenge story.
kluidens's review against another edition
5.0
A while back I was watching Ocean’s 11 when I realized that the story would be so much better if Danny Ocean’s band of professional criminals was comprised of rodents instead of humans, and if they were plotting their revenge-heist in a fantastical version of the Old West instead of some crummy casino.
Kidding. That would never have occurred to me.
But then I’m not Daniel Polansky, who developed this odd conceit into a clever novella. In his acknowledgements Polansky describes The Builders as “a one-note joke that remains funny for me five-odd years after I came up with it.” It is indeed funny, both because the premise is charmingly absurd and because the storytelling takes that premise so seriously. The characters may be knee-high to us, but their personalities are larger than life, as is the action they get into.
The cast’s mastermind (our mini Danny Ocean) is the Captain, a mouse whose voice is described as soprano in its squeakiness, but who commands respect with his steely gaze and deadly arms. He rounds up Polansky, The Buildershis old gang of gun-slingers, starting with Bonsoir the sly stoat, Boudica the sharpshooting opossum, and Cinnabar the lightning-fast salamander. Each creature’s skills correspond to its species: Barley the badger’s massive body allows him to wield the heavy artillery whereas Gertrude the mole runs an underground crime syndicate, pun very much intended.
The whole gang is scarred by past battles and mottled with age, but they’re all just as lethal as when they first banded together, and just as loyal to the Captain as they ever were (bearing in mind that some were more loyal than others back in the day). They’ve regathered five years after an explosive defeat scattered them across the kingdom and they’re ready to get their revenge. Much of the fun of reading The Builders is Polansky’s slow reveal of their troubled history and present politics, so I’ll skip further plot description to praise his lyrical narration. Who is telling this story? Some omniscient observer, above the fray and yet seemingly so immersed in it that I almost expected the narrator to reveal himself in a climactic twist as yet another small mammal with a vested interest in the action.
The cute premise, the vivid storytelling—it could’ve all been just good fun. But there’s an interesting philosophical theme at play here as well: what drives individuals to do what they do in life, good or bad, loyal or treacherous? Or in the parlance of these creatures, what drives certain pups to leave their litters for a life of violence?
In Ocean’s 11, each outlaw is perfectly suited to the crime he commits, but the movie never suggests whether that’s thanks to nature or nurture. In The Builders, the question is raised and the answer is clear: everyone’s behavior is determined from birth. Weasels are smarmy and untrustworthy, skunks are toxic troublemakers, cats are “violent, amoral sociopaths.” (What dog-lover hasn’t argued that point?) The mammals whisper amongst themselves that the cold-blooded species are standoffish, and the rattlesnake’s rattle reveals as much about his personality as the words he hisses afterward.
These creatures don’t resist their nature or complain that they’re beholden to it. The salamander doesn’t attempt to warm his heart with love, nor does the fox contemplate a career in which she doesn’t stalk prey from the shadows. To the contrary, they embrace their inevitable strengths and weaknesses; as that well-spoken narrator notes, “what is more joyous than to act according to our innermost nature?”
Of course, it’s hardly in animals’ nature to tote shotguns and swig whiskey. That’s Polansky’s one-note joke, I think. He tells a story in which the pests and pets of humanity rise up to anthropomorphic levels of brilliance—they’re brave and skilled, their dialogue is suave and threatening, their politics are deadly serious. And yet no matter how human they seem, each creature remains true to its own species.
The Builders is a deftly structured and entertaining. I’m not normally a huge fantasy enthusiast, but Polansky manages to pull me into the action with his smart narrator and richly developed characters. All jokes aside, this novella is a great read.
Kidding. That would never have occurred to me.
But then I’m not Daniel Polansky, who developed this odd conceit into a clever novella. In his acknowledgements Polansky describes The Builders as “a one-note joke that remains funny for me five-odd years after I came up with it.” It is indeed funny, both because the premise is charmingly absurd and because the storytelling takes that premise so seriously. The characters may be knee-high to us, but their personalities are larger than life, as is the action they get into.
The cast’s mastermind (our mini Danny Ocean) is the Captain, a mouse whose voice is described as soprano in its squeakiness, but who commands respect with his steely gaze and deadly arms. He rounds up Polansky, The Buildershis old gang of gun-slingers, starting with Bonsoir the sly stoat, Boudica the sharpshooting opossum, and Cinnabar the lightning-fast salamander. Each creature’s skills correspond to its species: Barley the badger’s massive body allows him to wield the heavy artillery whereas Gertrude the mole runs an underground crime syndicate, pun very much intended.
The whole gang is scarred by past battles and mottled with age, but they’re all just as lethal as when they first banded together, and just as loyal to the Captain as they ever were (bearing in mind that some were more loyal than others back in the day). They’ve regathered five years after an explosive defeat scattered them across the kingdom and they’re ready to get their revenge. Much of the fun of reading The Builders is Polansky’s slow reveal of their troubled history and present politics, so I’ll skip further plot description to praise his lyrical narration. Who is telling this story? Some omniscient observer, above the fray and yet seemingly so immersed in it that I almost expected the narrator to reveal himself in a climactic twist as yet another small mammal with a vested interest in the action.
The cute premise, the vivid storytelling—it could’ve all been just good fun. But there’s an interesting philosophical theme at play here as well: what drives individuals to do what they do in life, good or bad, loyal or treacherous? Or in the parlance of these creatures, what drives certain pups to leave their litters for a life of violence?
In Ocean’s 11, each outlaw is perfectly suited to the crime he commits, but the movie never suggests whether that’s thanks to nature or nurture. In The Builders, the question is raised and the answer is clear: everyone’s behavior is determined from birth. Weasels are smarmy and untrustworthy, skunks are toxic troublemakers, cats are “violent, amoral sociopaths.” (What dog-lover hasn’t argued that point?) The mammals whisper amongst themselves that the cold-blooded species are standoffish, and the rattlesnake’s rattle reveals as much about his personality as the words he hisses afterward.
These creatures don’t resist their nature or complain that they’re beholden to it. The salamander doesn’t attempt to warm his heart with love, nor does the fox contemplate a career in which she doesn’t stalk prey from the shadows. To the contrary, they embrace their inevitable strengths and weaknesses; as that well-spoken narrator notes, “what is more joyous than to act according to our innermost nature?”
Of course, it’s hardly in animals’ nature to tote shotguns and swig whiskey. That’s Polansky’s one-note joke, I think. He tells a story in which the pests and pets of humanity rise up to anthropomorphic levels of brilliance—they’re brave and skilled, their dialogue is suave and threatening, their politics are deadly serious. And yet no matter how human they seem, each creature remains true to its own species.
The Builders is a deftly structured and entertaining. I’m not normally a huge fantasy enthusiast, but Polansky manages to pull me into the action with his smart narrator and richly developed characters. All jokes aside, this novella is a great read.
heyoitsmax's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
andrew_corduroy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Death, Gore, and Gun violence
nigellicus's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
5.0
It's sort of the Seven Samurai, only in a grimdark tale of pointless revenge, only they're all talking animals, and it's a mixture of European swashbuckling and western tough-guyisms, and everyone;s horrible, no really, they're irredeemable, no, seriously, the best bits was when they were being killed, you actually WANT them to fail their mission, oh and because they're animals broad stereotypes are ok now, I'm telling you I actually cheered when the first of them got wasted and kept going because at that point I figured there was only one of them getting out so at least I'd enjoy the rest of them being scragged. I think the whole point of this was to have a mouse be the toughest scariest bastard in a world of other more vicious animals. That's it. That's the joke.
buckshot_hound's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
temeraire's review against another edition
3.0
It was okay but nothing memorable. I found it hard to keep all the characters straight and I found it ended rather abruptly.
Glad it was a borrow and not a buy.
Glad it was a borrow and not a buy.
leannarapier's review against another edition
DNF: Skimmed to the end. I love animal stories, but this one was boring. Violent, unlovable and purely selfish anthropomorphic animals combined with crude humor. Not for me.