In Marlfox Brian Jacques creates another wonderful story, this time about a family of legendary Marlfoxes who lay siege to Redwall Abbey. Again Jacques is about creating something new using the familiar setting of Redwall, and again he succeeds.

Family reunions are a recurring, but not overly used, theme in Mossflower wood, although not all are physically successful, eventually everybody is reunited to – the memory of – their loved ones. And everybody learns that that home is where the heart is, and for many creatures that place is Redwall Abbey.

A very fun book to read.

Another review in the Redwall series by Brian Jacques is The Taggerung, which for me was a rare exception in that the book is about an otter kidnapped after birth and brought up by the ferret leader of the Juska clan as the Taggerung, a great warrior. With all Redwall books the story revolves round the Abbey, this is no different. Yet it has a certain speed and flavour that differs from the majority of the books from the series.

One of my two favourite parts of the book are Cregga, a badger who recurs in a number of other Redwall novels, and the fibbing contest.

A great read!

I had never heard of Richard Matheson before reading Hell House, and I read it as a brief interlude to the RedWall series. Horror is not really my genre, although I much enjoyed the books of Clive Barker. Matheson’s book was almost entirely wasted on me, I don’t know if it was a Digital Fortress problem – which suffered from Dan Brown’s lack of knowledge of security and IT – or that the opening and closing were a little weak.

Obviously I wouldn’t be writing this just to write off the book, there was a good reason I didn’t just lay down the book, although I haven’t be able to decide whether it was just the writing style or interest in the final outcome. I did experience a feeling of being cheated at the end, so much more was possible for the development and climax.

Maybe I should see the movie.

The Bellmaker by Brian Jacques is story of Joseph, the maker of the bell which long tolled in Redwall Abbey. This is another feature I like about the Redwall series, a character mentioned in past books as a legend or who left a legacy has his or her story told. Naturally Martin the Warrior is as always a staple of the Redwall diet, but characters such as Joseph who’s legacy, the Joseph Bell, saves Redwall Abbey in the book Redwall are wonderful.

The Guosim, Guerilla Union of Shrews in Mossflower, always led by a leader called Log-a-Log, or Skipper, who is always the leader of a clan of otters are always fun, and although they are portrait in similar ways they do always seem to be as different as the characters who’s names change. The fight between good and evil always exists, and not to forget the badgers, moles, perilous hares, mice, squirrels and the many Dibbuns (little ones) make the stories varied. Yet each story has its moments, be they riddles, songs, poems or battles.

A very good read.