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A review by book_concierge
Redwall by Brian Jacques
5.0
Audiobook performed by a full cast, featuring Brian Jacques as the narrator.
From the author’s introductory note: When winter fades and spring blossoms into summer, I feel an overwhelming urge to travel back once more. Mouse Warriors and badger Lords come striding through the realms of my imagination, accompanied by their companions: comical hares, rustic moles, faithful otters, and all manner of diverse creatures. Questing, feasting, singing, and battling to defend good against evil.
My reactions
What a wonderful story; I was engaged from beginning to end. Matthias is a novice monk at Redwall Abbey, a sanctuary built by the mice of long ago from the red sandstone of a nearby quarry. Every mouse of Redwall Abbey has taken a solemn oath to never harm another living creature, unless it is an enemy seeking to harm the Order by violence. I love this message of peaceful coexistence and tolerance. The mice are willing to live-and-let-live, but they will defend to the death against those who seek to overtake their peaceable kingdom.
And there is just such an enemy in the land – Cluny the Scourge. Cluny is a rat with an enormously long tail that he wields as a whip, and to which he has affixed a poisoned barb. He has collected an army of rats, weasels, stoats and ferrets, who have been promised a share of the plunder once they have secured Redwall for Cluny.
Matthias is young, but has a big heart and is brave in the face of incredible danger – from falling from the roof, to facing both a cat and an owl in a single day, to battling the snake Asmodeus, and finally confronting Cluny the Scourge. He is not alone in defending the Abbey; he is helped and supported by Constance the badger, Methuselah Mouse, Cornflower the field mouse, Warbeak the sparrow, the Guerrila Shrews led by Log-a-log, and Basil Stag Hare, among others. It’s entertaining, scary, exciting, and inspiring. I think I’ll read more of this middle-grade series for the sheer joy of it.
Jacques began writing the story to entertain children at a hospital for the blind. With that audience in mind, he filled the book with detailed descriptions which serve to really put the reader right into Mossflower County. It is a perfect book to read aloud.
The audio book is performed by a full cast of actors who voice the various characters, but features Brian Jacques as the narrator. It’s a marvelous collaboration. I encourage you to listen to it with your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or just the child within.
From the author’s introductory note: When winter fades and spring blossoms into summer, I feel an overwhelming urge to travel back once more. Mouse Warriors and badger Lords come striding through the realms of my imagination, accompanied by their companions: comical hares, rustic moles, faithful otters, and all manner of diverse creatures. Questing, feasting, singing, and battling to defend good against evil.
My reactions
What a wonderful story; I was engaged from beginning to end. Matthias is a novice monk at Redwall Abbey, a sanctuary built by the mice of long ago from the red sandstone of a nearby quarry. Every mouse of Redwall Abbey has taken a solemn oath to never harm another living creature, unless it is an enemy seeking to harm the Order by violence. I love this message of peaceful coexistence and tolerance. The mice are willing to live-and-let-live, but they will defend to the death against those who seek to overtake their peaceable kingdom.
And there is just such an enemy in the land – Cluny the Scourge. Cluny is a rat with an enormously long tail that he wields as a whip, and to which he has affixed a poisoned barb. He has collected an army of rats, weasels, stoats and ferrets, who have been promised a share of the plunder once they have secured Redwall for Cluny.
Matthias is young, but has a big heart and is brave in the face of incredible danger – from falling from the roof, to facing both a cat and an owl in a single day, to battling the snake Asmodeus, and finally confronting Cluny the Scourge. He is not alone in defending the Abbey; he is helped and supported by Constance the badger, Methuselah Mouse, Cornflower the field mouse, Warbeak the sparrow, the Guerrila Shrews led by Log-a-log, and Basil Stag Hare, among others. It’s entertaining, scary, exciting, and inspiring. I think I’ll read more of this middle-grade series for the sheer joy of it.
Jacques began writing the story to entertain children at a hospital for the blind. With that audience in mind, he filled the book with detailed descriptions which serve to really put the reader right into Mossflower County. It is a perfect book to read aloud.
The audio book is performed by a full cast of actors who voice the various characters, but features Brian Jacques as the narrator. It’s a marvelous collaboration. I encourage you to listen to it with your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or just the child within.