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A review by thepancreas11
Mariel of Redwall by Brian Jacques
4.0
While Mariel may be my favorite hero thus far, her story is maybe my least favorite of the first four. That's not really a slight--given how obsessed I am with the series--but it felt more like a book to get through than a book to savor. I'm sure some of that comes from the fact that this was my first time reading it--as opposed to reading the others as a kid--but most of it comes down to Gabool the Wild.
Cluny the Scourge was fearsome and exacting. Tsarmina was mad as well as vile. "Mattimeo" had a cunning, vengeful fox and an unnerving sect of ermine-worshipping rats. I mean, just reading that last sentence out loud gave me the willies. Gabool, on the other hand, is at once incompetent, confused, and missing for most of the story. There's no threat from him, no danger. He's holed up on his island while Mariel and her band get more trouble from toads and stunted weasels. None of his plans succeed except in killing his own men, and even then, he seems to command nowhere near the level of respect as his predecessors. I would have liked to have gotten more backstory on him or to have seen him do more than trick a searat captain into stabbing himself to death. Maybe it would have been better to start with him leading the ship that captured Mariel and her father? I think that's what I would have done.
In all fairness, it's clear that "Mariel" tries something new. Jacques is toying with the formula that has worked thus far, including the same arduous journeys, riddles, and descriptions of delicious banquets but now rearranging the parts and the players so that there are significant subplots and a more intricate web of characters and relationships than before. The last stand of the Salamandastron hares and the self-imposed isolation of Bobbo the mouse temper the ending with melancholy notes even more powerful than when the Abbot dies in the original.
I appreciate the effort to try and keep the material fresh. He would have been well within his right to give us the same stuff with different names, but he didn't. It must have been a huge undertaking to keep coming up with new places and new adventures, and I'm grateful that he did.
Cluny the Scourge was fearsome and exacting. Tsarmina was mad as well as vile. "Mattimeo" had a cunning, vengeful fox and an unnerving sect of ermine-worshipping rats. I mean, just reading that last sentence out loud gave me the willies. Gabool, on the other hand, is at once incompetent, confused, and missing for most of the story. There's no threat from him, no danger. He's holed up on his island while Mariel and her band get more trouble from toads and stunted weasels. None of his plans succeed except in killing his own men, and even then, he seems to command nowhere near the level of respect as his predecessors. I would have liked to have gotten more backstory on him or to have seen him do more than trick a searat captain into stabbing himself to death. Maybe it would have been better to start with him leading the ship that captured Mariel and her father? I think that's what I would have done.
In all fairness, it's clear that "Mariel" tries something new. Jacques is toying with the formula that has worked thus far, including the same arduous journeys, riddles, and descriptions of delicious banquets but now rearranging the parts and the players so that there are significant subplots and a more intricate web of characters and relationships than before. The last stand of the Salamandastron hares and the self-imposed isolation of Bobbo the mouse temper the ending with melancholy notes even more powerful than when the Abbot dies in the original.
I appreciate the effort to try and keep the material fresh. He would have been well within his right to give us the same stuff with different names, but he didn't. It must have been a huge undertaking to keep coming up with new places and new adventures, and I'm grateful that he did.