Mossflower [Paperback]

This is a sprawling adventure story, and I liked it more than "Redwall". The characters are all likeable, and the adventure is even larger, as Martin and his friends quest to Salamandaston, home of the great badger kings who once ruled Mossflower in peace and tranquility. There are battles aplenty here, and despite the young targeted audience, Jaques keeps up this spirit of war with lots of violence and bloodhsed. The theme of this book could be the courage of a few saving many, or the desire to fight for what one believes in.

This is a very good book, giving the history behind the creation of Redwall Abbey, and how its inhabitants came to the head of Mossflower woods. It also makes more sense of "Redwall", as we know more about the mouse that Matthias and the entire population of the Abbey revere and speak about as though legend.

Martian the Warrior has come out of the north looking for adventure. He finds the Mossflower woods groaning under the oppression of Old Lord Green eyes and his crazy daughter Zarmina. He gets together with some local woodlanders and they come up with a plan to bring the that empire down.

Good book, giving animals human characteristics is not wholly an original idea but Brian Jaquas does it exceedingly well. If you are thinking about reading this book to younger children don't(the good guys don't exactly win in all instances). There more then enough in the way of plot to also keep older audiences interested.

When I opened the front cover of this book on the first page there was a snippet from the book and here it is:

For a moment Martin's eyes meet those of Tsarmina's. His voice was clear and unafraid. "You should have killed me when you had the chance, because I vow that I will slay you one day."
The spell was broken. The guards hauled on the ropes, dragging Martin off to the cells. In the silence that followed, Tsarmina slumped in her chair and sniggered "A mouse kill me, indeed! He's hardly worth worrying about."

But boy was she wrong! In the rest of the book you are just enticed in the adventures from dancing crabs to stolen children, it is in the last and final chapters that Tsarmina is slain by a true warrior, it is also in these final chapters the most tense chapters that we find out weather our strong and heroic warrior's life is so close to being snuffed that you need a box of tissues. This is a book with such a long but exciting and action packed plot that it would take twenty pages to explain, it is hear dear friends that I take my leave...and leave you to this fantastic book of all emotions.