The novel Mariel of Redwall has Mariel, when she was regaining her memory and remembered Saltar and Ledder throwing her shipmates off the boat in retaliation for her resistance.

When Brian Jacques passed last month, it was a gut-punch for me. I can't tell you how many times I read his first few books, how eagerly I awaited the new hardcovers each year. I can't say I've read them all-- the point came, round about book seven or eight, when I'd figured out the formula, and they started getting old. But when I was just the right age, these were perfect. Mossflower's primary weakness is easier for me to accept because it's a strength in the later books: it's repetitive. It's the first book that can recycle what would become the series's core features: the food, the accents, the species-as-groups-of-people, the questing and parallel adventures, and--more blatantly in Mossflower than elsewhere in the series--the branching, interconnected world. In Mossflower, we get an origin story for near every aspect of Redwall, from the barn cat to St. Ninian's Church to the Abbey itself; often, the tie-ins are obnoxiously neat--but: Arrows on Fire: The fire-swingers in Mariel of Redwall. The traditional kind are aplenty as well. Greypatch burned a ship with flaming arrows in the same book. Abuse: 4 1/2. There is a fair amount of hatred on Tsarmina's part to her brother and she treats him quite horribly (you know, the usual torture, imprisonment, mental and emotional stuff, that sort of thing). Mossflower was my favorite of the lot as a kid, and upon reread, I can still see why. Tsarmina is a terrific kid's villain, vicious and entitled, an image of adult self-regard but marred by childish flaws. The picaresque aspects of the book provide frequent, exciting climaxes, often based on the characters' deployment and manipulation of much stronger forces (the Gloomer and the pike; the toads' giant eel; Salamandastron itself)-- another way I was able to start thinking about power. Martin the Warrior flattens into his strange-mouse-comes-to-town archetype a bit, but at the end of the day, he's a mouse who kills a cat, and that's just badass.Brian often travelled the globe to tell his Redwall stories to young audiences, more often than not at their schools,” Alan Ingram, representative of the Redwall Abbey Company, which has owned Jacques’ intellectual property since his death in 2011, told Deadline. “Brian would have been very happy to see that Netflix shares his joy and desire to bring his stories to life as a new universe of films, series and potentially much more for audiences of all ages to enjoy.” The majority of badgers are prone to the Bloodwrath. It's a good idea to move if you see the red mist. Other exception: Cap'n Tramun Clogg. His former crew agrees that he was good to them; it's just that he erred too much, so switching to Badrang's side at that point was the only way for them to stay alive. This is a long story (11.5 hours by audio book, 52 chapters) with lots of animals battling, lots of singing, and lots of really annoying voices in the narrative that did not translate well to audio. Or, at least, I don't have the patience for it.

It was certainly interesting to see how all the woodland creatures came together and interacted throughout the tale. On any given chapter, you could see how squirrels and otters got along, fighting alongside one another, and badgers and shrews cooking meals for the warriors defending their realm. At one point, a pact of leaders formed a group called Corim, a sort of alliance between many creatures to protect the land. This particular idea of the story reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings, plus the multitude of complex dialects certain creatures spoke. Yet another great aspect of the story. Although sometimes hard to understand, the mole speech was down right difficult to get. However, once you figured out the cadence of the words, the flow made sense and made the story that more enjoyable. One of favorite dialects by far were the hares. “Jolly good show, if I do say so myself. Wot!” Sometimes the speech almost fits the type of animal perfectly and I think Jacques was brilliant in understanding this comparison. So if I were to compare what this story related to, I would say it is the LOTR of woodland creatures. Rat’s versus mice, cat’s versus badgers, fox’s versus otters. The list goes on and on. And you could easily substitute how an orc or elf would fit in. Mind you, there are no humans in these stories. Just imagine medieval life, but without us. Perfect. Blaggut is about the only vermin (in his case a searat) who is part of a villainous group yet isn't portrayed as a villain from the very get-go. He seems to be a good sort who just goes along with his evil captain out of fear, and deeply prefers life with the abbey-dwellers. It eventually leads him to kill his captain when the latter steals from them, kills one of them (by accident), and finally pushes him too far.Conjoined Twins: The "three-headed dragon" in Triss is actually a set of adder triplets, bound together by a mace and chain they were unable to remove. Also unusual, rabbits are not at all flirtatious, mischievous, or clever. The hares take that role, and the rabbits are universally prissy little weaklings who never factor heavily into the plot. Asmodeus: A large adder snake named Asmodeus is the secondary antagonist of the first book. Not only is he a widely feared predator, it's implied he may have Serial Killer tendencies. Bagg and Runn don't appear in The Bellmaker, despite taking place only four seasons after their first appearence. Jacques never explains their disappearance. Martin finds himself in the middle of a celebration, and is updated on all that has passed since his duel with Tsarmina. The ferrets, foxes, weasels, stoats, and rats have all been chased away from Mossflower, and Gonff and Columbine have wed.

All the descriptions of food, the shallow puzzles, the existentialist and/or exaggerated characterization*, are rather glaring to me on this reread, but I find I don't mind them. It's almost nostalgic, to see as an adult what it was that made this book work for me as a child. The hardest books for me to review are those with which I have history, because how to separate that history from the book itself? Mossflower is perfectly competent, utterly decent, not awfully well-written, okay but not honestly that good, and I love it to literal pieces--the cover has come right off. Voles in general are perhaps the closest thing the series has to a "neutral" species—they aren't evil the way vermin are, but there are multiple times where they are depicted as selfish opportunists who cannot be trusted and are willing to screw over fellow woodlanders. Druwp from Martin the Warrior is another example. Captured by slavers, he sells out his fellow slaves by spying on their escape plans just to save his own skin. Tsarmina, the evil self-proclaimed queen of Mossflower, is quite the ballistic type personality that grows on the reader, even though she is the main antagonists of the story. As you progress through the story, the reader will start to see paranoia and insanity slowly take over her, and it is quite entertaining to watch. The story has some good comedic quality throughout. One of these core laughable traits of the story is how she conducts her army and captains. Through her short lived reign, she promoted over a five or more captains due to blunders which ended in death or displeasing the queen. She as a villain was true to her nature, instilling fear as a means to control her weasel and rat army. Before the abbey of Redwall was built, familiar to readers of the first book in the series, Redwall, the land was referred to as Mossflower. That's where this prequel comes in. The awful Tsarmina, a wildcat, is ruling the Mossflower Woods, and many are not happy with this arrangement. Martin the warrior-mouse escapes his prison cell with a buddy, and they make it their mission to overthrow the reign of Tsarmina.The (river) otters, one of the Always Lawful Good species in the series, are all proficient sailors, led by one they call Skipper. Badass Adorable: From a human point of view, most of the major cast members. For example, Matthias is a complete and utter dork who got beaten up by Warbeak for a brief moment yet is able to kill Cluny the Scourge with a bell. And yet another karmic accidental murder happens in Eulalia! After Orkwil, Maudie, and Rangval free themselves from Saltear, Undril, and Ruglat, Ruglat tries to run away with his spear in paw. Orkwil accidentally trips the weasel, and he falls on his spearpoint. Co-Dragons: Several Big Bads have these, but most notable is Ungatt Trunn's group: Groddil, Grand Fragorl, and Ripfang. Barbarian Tribe: The Painted Ones, the Flitchaye, the Darat, and the Sparra (though they get better after King Bull is killed and Warbeak takes over.) The Gawtrybe might also fall into this category; although they're more articulate than the others on the list, they're basically a tribe of sociopathic children.