Brian Jacques (1939–2011)

-- Review Score --
73 / 100

7 / 10 - Characters
7 / 10 - Plot
5 / 10 - Setting
7 / 10 - Theme
9 / 10 - Narration
7 / 10 - Conflict
7 / 10 - Style
6 / 10 - Pacing
8 / 10 - Auxiliary
10 / 10 - Personal Enjoyment

Score explanations in later sections.

-- Tag Score --
7 / 10

The Tag Score is the review score half rounded down, otherwise up.
I use it for tagging my collection with a searchable review score.

-- Star Score --
5 / 5

The Star Score is based on Personal Enjoyment, not the whole Review Score.

0 Stars - Have not read the book.
1 Star - Hated the book, put it down after reading at least 1/3 of the book.
2 Stars - Disliked the book, put it down after reading at least 2/3 of the book.
3 Stars - Acceptable book, finished the book.
4 Stars - Enjoyed the book, finished the book.
5 Stars - Loved the book, finished the book.

-- Edition(s) --
US First Edition
US 10th Anniversary Illustrated Edition
US Penguin Young Readers Group Kindle Edition

-- Short Excerpt --

"The high, warm sun shone down on Cluny the Scourge.
Cluny was coming!
He was big, and tough; an evil rat with ragged fur and curved, jagged teeth. He wore a black eyepatch; his eye had been torn out in battle with a pike.
Cluny had lost an eye.
The pike had lost its life!"
- Jacques, Brian. Redwall. Page 17. Penguin Young Readers Group. Kindle Edition.

-- Summary --

Cluny the Scourge, a formidable Sea Rat with a Horde of vermin, has his remaining eye set on conquering Redwall Abbey, the historied red stone fortress of Mossflower Country, and home to the peace loving abbey dwellers known as Redwallers who vow to help the hungry, sick and injured. Although the Redwallers are peace loving, they refuse to bend the knee to Cluny and his Horde. The normally peaceable Redwallers have a problem though, they know little of warfare and most have not seen war inside their lifetime.

This is when Matthias, a young abbey mouse, finds he has a talent for defensible warfare. Thanks to his friend Methuselah, the wise old recorder at Redwall, he begins to realize that there might be more to his hidden talent than it at first seems.

Redwall Abbey is not only a fortress and a place of prosperity for the Redwallers and surrounding woodlanders, but it is long historied. It's founding in part due to the courageous efforts of Martin the Warrior, a heroic mouse with a Legendary Sword who is said to watch over the abbey even in death.

Matthias begins to believe that he must find Martin's Legendary Sword, that fearsome slayer of many vermin, to strike fear in Cluny and his Horde and turn the tides of battle in the Redwaller's favor.

This is the novel that made a name out of Brian Jacques. He turned this first novel into a long running and successful Middle Aged Reader book series with many prequels and sequels.

-- Why am I doing this review? --

Redwall was a book I first read when I was around ten years old; having fond memories of it, I wanted to read it again (the whole series in fact this time). I've grown a rather strong fondness for Animal Fiction because of this and a few other books such as "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH", "Poppy (& Rye)", and a little while later "Watership Down".

-- Explanation of the Review Score ---

-- Characters --
7 / 10

Brian Jacques introduces many characters in this novel, which can be a double edged sword in some cases. However, he is good at mentioning who is participating in each dialogue and who isn't, mostly with clever use of language. For example, each species introduced has their own manner of speaking, and each creature within that species - further still - has their mannerisms, which come out in the author's choice of words.

I remember when I was ten, I was not prepared to understand the clever use of language in the dialogue and found myself leaning more heavily into the descriptions to understand what was happening instead. I remember mole speech was particularly difficult. For this, I am knocking some more points off because the target audience is Middle Grade and I am sure I wasn't the only one I'll prepared for that challenge, especially with the impatience of a Middle Grader on top of that. However, as an adult, this was no trouble at all, in fact, highly welcomed and downright good fun. Mole speech is one of my absolute favorites now, second to hare speech.

The main protagonist is Mattias and the main antagonist is Cluny the Scourge. But there is a healthy cast of deuteragonist who share the main antagonist or their own unique antagonist. Methuselah is a strong confidant in this novel but Cornflower is a weak love interest in my opinion. I'll knock off a point for Cornflower in this one, as she could have been a much more interesting character than how she was written.

-- Plot --
7 / 10

It's a war novel and a adventure novel packed into one. The Redwallers are trying to fend off Cluny the Scourge's army. Matthias and Methuselah included, but at the same time, they are searching for the Legendary Sword of Martin the Warrior, which they believe will help turn the tide of the war in the Redwaller's favor.

The war plot is believable in this novel. Cluny the Scourge is looking for more power and sees it in the walls of the formidable fortress that is Redwall Abbey. Although believable, the plot is thin, his only motive for wanting Redwall Abbey is for more power than he already has with his Horde.

The adventure plot is also believable in this novel. It is framed in a quest like manner with riddles that hint towards the location of Martin the Warrior's Legendary Sword. There are plenty of little nuggets of crafted history that further support this, making this plot of the novel more fulfilling than the war plot.

Docking some points for the thin war plot and the overused quest for the saving item. All the while keeping in mind that, this kind of Middle Grader book might be the first introduction to these kinds of plots, the war plot at least.

-- Setting --
5 / 10

You can tell this is Brian Jacques first novel with his attempt at world building. It is hard to tell if places and things in Mossflower Country are human scale or mouse scale.

Although the second chapter is a fantastic and colorful introduction of the main antagonist Cluny the Scourge and his Horde, it is also the chapter with some of the most confusing setting information in the entire book. For example, a horse that is horse sized pulling a human sized cart with Cluny's entire army and mentions of human territories such as Portugal.

Another example; the Redwallers and Woodlanders eat things typical of their species; but then eat things regularly that these kinds of creatures would otherwise not have access to, like milk.

Size and scale are off offhandedly mentioned, at times, the mind's eye thinks the characters are human sized and at other times, mouse sized. For example, the Redwallers can barely see the top of their abbey, usually only on a clear day, yet their ancestors apparently built the place? There are also no easy ways to get to the top of the Abbey.

One of the abbey dwellers is a badger (a very cool character I might add), but it begs the question as to why a badger is deemed a good creature, but a rat is never seen as a good character not once in the novel.

I have to give this category a few solid good points for creating a rich enough environment to warrant twenty one follow up novels.

-- Theme --
7 / 10

Redwall is a your classic good versus evil, coming of age, war story.

The themes of good versus evil are strong. It is clear from the onset that Cluny and his Horde are very bad creatures. Likewise, the Redwallers are only protecting what rightfully belongs to them by defending their home. If this novel does dip its toes into the grey territory of this theme, it is on the handful of occasions that the Redwaller's go on the offensive.

The coming of age theme is a bit weak, but it exists with Mattias as he discovers his natural ability in understanding the nuances of defensible warfare. The transition is not very smooth here, so it loses a couple of points for this category.

The theme of war is very strong in this novel. There are whole chapters about how war plans are formulated and carried out. Personally, this is written in a very satisfying way. Brian Jacques is a bit of a skewed writer when it comes to this theme. The Redwaller's always seem to have a bit more luck too early on, making what would otherwise be some nail biting chapters into a bit of a lark.

-- Narration --
9 / 10

The novel is Third Person Omniscient and this is where Brian Jacques really shines.

The author's character switching feels very natural, and with wonderful timing in a lot of cases. For example, he will switch into a character for a good long passage or even a full chapter and you instantly get a feel for who they are, even if it is the first time. Each time he does, it feels relevant to the story and the readers understanding of how it all fits together. And if his character switching is not going for that desired effect, it is for a brief moment, just long enough to make you laugh, make you frown, or make you feel some sort of quick emotion to set yourself up for the next section of text.

His descriptions of places and things are not too lengthy but always present and appreciated, providing you a constant reel of visual, sound, smell, taste, and touch. His descriptions of food, while sometimes repetitive, always seems to make you hungry or appreciative to have had a nice hot meal before picking up the book.

-- Conflict --
7 / 10

The protagonist Matthias faces two conflicts; Cluny the Scourge trying to take Redwall Abbey, his home and where every good creature he knows lives. That and his quest to find the Legendary Sword of Martin the Warrior.

The Matthias and the Redwallers react realistically to the first conflict by rising up to defend their home. The quest to find the sword is less realistic in the conflict department. Brian Jacques makes it clear that this sword is important to the Redwallers. That and Martin the Warrior is an important figure in their belief system, but it is somewhat unrealistic how this sword is supposed to help fix their problem with Cluny and his Horde, except for striking fear.

-- Style --
7 / 10

Brian Jacques is very consistent with his style of writing and tone throughout. With the Matthias and the Redwallers, he writes with a jovial tone overall. They are optimistic, and sometimes humorous when the situation calls for it. Still, they are written with a serious tone when the subject is on death and war. All of this is accomplished through the writing without aid of Illustration.

In contrast, Brian Jacques gives the Cluny and his Horde a more Serious tone overall and throughout. You understand they live by fear in the writing, both inwardly and outwardly. The are sometimes written in a very motivating tone, if for the wrong reasons, they all seek to gather power for themselves. They are written with a humorous tone on occasion, though at the expense of another creature every time.

-- Pacing --
6 / 10

The pacing in this novel is a little rough. At times it felt like things were moving slowly, and other times too quickly. Strange given how good I felt Brian Jacques did with the narration. I chalk this up to the Author getting used to pacing a novel.

The novel is broken up into three books. The novel is rather long for the target Middle Grader audience, so I guess this is milestone attempt at keeping younger readers engaged.

Particularly towards the end of the story in book three, the text feels like a race to the finish. This is a huge missed opportunity in my opinion, especially when there are parts in book one and two that could easily be shortened to accommodate or the book simple extended since it was broken up into three books anyway.

In addition, Mattias's pacing was awkward, especially his introduction to what he is just a few chapters later, you get a short bout of whiplash. Considering his introduction is the first chapter of Brian Jacques hit first novel, I am giving him some credit. However, the editor should have looked at the big picture and seen that Mattias's character doesn't really get introduced appropriately until a few chapters in.

-- Auxiliary --
8 / 10

The Illustrations by Gary Chalk do not add much to each chapter in my opinion, but their presence is still much appreciated. After all, very small Illustrations at the start of each chapter is preferable to no illustrations at all. That and his art is still very decent, especially for a Middle Grader book.

Later editions of the book, included full page Illustrations that do much more than the small "start of chapter" illustrations at inspiring the reader, so some points are recovered in this way.

In fact, the Cover Art by Troy Howell in the US Edition (and the illustrator in later special editions), not only makes up for it, but help this category score extra points. They say never judge a book by its cover, but honestly that is total hogwash. A book cover can make or break my initial interested in starting a book or at the very least, prompting me to pick it up so I can read the summary to see if I will enjoy the book or not. Therefore, while the book cover is not the entire worth of a book, a books cover and illustrations are super important. They shine brilliantly here.

In addition, I don't know whose idea it was to pick "that particular scene" for the frontispiece Illustration in the 10th Anniversary edition. But whomever it was, is brilliant. Easily one of the more jaw dropping and iconic moments in the story and it was rendered by Troy Howell with equal grace and magnitude. It really gets you in the mood to read and find out how it happened.

-- Personal Enjoyment --
10 / 10

It is hard to dislike a book you enjoyed from your childhood, even with its faults. I personally enjoyed reading every word of this book; from cover to cover. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is old enough to understand the text, Middle Grader and up.… (more)

Chris Bancells

Jacques, B. (2004). The ribbajack & other curious yarns. New York: Puffin Books.

Short Story

Print

Selection tools consulted: School Library Journal, WorldCat,


Review:

Best known for his Redwall series, Brian Jacques turns his prolific pen to a darker set of stories in this volume. Six stories wander over the course of a couple centuries, and what appears to be much of the Irish countryside. "The Ribbajack", clearly the best of the bunch, takes place at a British boarding school in 1937. The malevolent Archibald Smifft discovers how to produce a terrible monster spawned by his own imagination. When he sets the creature "born out of human spite" (p.18) on a perceived enemy, the consequences are dire. In "A Smile and a Wave" the contemporary teen Maggie is forced to enter her empty school to retrieve a forgotten coat. In doing so, she encounters a piece of Britain’s haunted past. This story is notable for Jacques' ability to wonderfully describe the foreboding brought on by an unnaturally empty hall. "The All Ireland Champion Versus the Nye Add" is an Irish fairy story in the most traditional sense. An average man, who has a bit of local notoriety, runs afoul of a mythical creature and does not come out better for it. In this case, great fisherman Roddy Mooney tries to hook the "Nye Add" and gets his line tangled in more ways than one. "The Mystery of Huma D'Este" follows a similar pattern, although there is a much greater sense of justice in the Greek-inspired fate of school bully Jason Hunter. "Miggy Mags and the Malabar Sailor" has nothing of the supernatural about it, but instead relates a Dickensian-style tale in which a young girl gets her heart's desire after escaping an overbearing grown-up. Finally, "Rosie's Pet" is a short, oddly sweet story of young love with a lupine twist. It's sure to give Twilight fans a smile. All in all, Jacques' collection isn't scary so much as it is entertaining and, well, curious. It makes for a good, if not totally absorbing, read, especially by the light of a dim lamp. Recommended.
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