Mossflower (Redwall, Book 2)

This series is the best read I have found in the last 15 or 20 years!

it has drama, it has suspense, it has action, it has sadness, it has happiness, it has humor, there are so many things that this book has going for it! yes it may be classified as a children's book, but I am not the only adult to read & enjoy & be hooked on this series of books.

From page one, it grabs your attention & it never lets go till the end...but then it is really not the end because when you begin to read the next book, it too, gets you hooked from Page 1.

I highly recommend this book & the series(22 books in all) to anyone, adult or younger, who likes a great story of how the hero saves the day with his charm, his humor & his bravery.

The Redwall series of books is well written and perfect for both young and young-at-heart readers. It’s a fantasy set full of adventures of good versus evil, coming of age, finding bravery and friendship, reveling in poetry and song, and feasting as if at the end of a ten season famine! Brian Jacques crafted wonderful friends and heroes ate Redwall Abbey, and you’ll enjoy meeting them again and again!

The Redwall series is absolutely fantastic. Even now, at the age of 19, I reread them for fun. I am an avid reader, and yet, it is really difficult for me to compare these books to anything else. I would love to be able to say that Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, and the Inheritance Cycle are similar, but they are not. Brian Jacques wrote these novels specifically for blind children, so they are extremely descriptive (compared to other children/teen novels).

I strongly recommend any person from the ages of 7 to infinity to read these novels. I started in third grade if I remember correctly, and have never stopped. If anyone happens to stop by Sienna Crossing Elementary back in Houston, you'll see the legacy I left behind in the library (a giant mural of Martin the Warrior).

The story might be fine to read by yourself, but to read it aloud it is very, very difficult.

Unlike the first book (Redwall) where the perspective of each chapter is consistent, this book changes perspective frequently and without apparent reason. In one chapter the scenes might change 6 or more times. The effect is a daunting task of remembering who is who, who is where, and what they were doing the last time you checked in. And it seemed that every time the scene changed, there was very little plot progression. What plot movement was created by tiny scene X? The answer to that question was frequently, "none" with Mossflower. Is anyone getting closer to fighting off the "bads" yet? No? Then what's the point? Just another minor conflict as we try and remember what the major conflict is again.

When I read aloud books and the descriptions are too much, I tend to skip the majority of it and get to the point. With the first redwall book, this was not a problem at all and I never skipped anything, but this book forced it. Some scenes served such little purpose I wished I had skipped the entire thing instead of dripping through those paragraphs.

The plot of this story is also not very tight. With the first redwall book, it was obvious that you had a rat army to defeat, but the conflict for Mossflower was so vague and the characters were very split apart. Martin, the main character of the story apparently has no use whatsoever. In the first book, you had a formidable enemy that you wanted defeated. In Mossflower, you had multiple enemies and a bumbling protagonist that failed at everything. And the eagle just sits there waiting to gobble up enemies when it's convenient. My kids didn't hate the protagonist and they didn't sense the danger of any situation. The only parts they obviously enjoyed was when the weasels insulted each other.

Another annoying thing about this book which was compounded by the scene changes was the lack of a cohesive feel to the chapters. Since the scenes changed so frequently, each paragraph might have it's own little conclusion. So many conclusions result in 1) not recognizing the end of the chapter or the start of another one and 2) not knowing the actual point of the chapter breaks.

Some chapter lengths were also irregular which is always annoying when reading aloud.

I charged through the first book with my kids and the excitement throughout was palpable with applause at the end. But this one was slow and confusing and they didn't care about the end and were glad it was over. If you read the first one aloud, you might as well let the kids read this one by themselves and choose something else to read aloud.

I bought the first 3 books in the series as a gift to a friend for to read with her grand kids.

Our family loved the Redwall series back in the 1990s. We started in about 2nd or 3rd grade as read-to books. Very imaginative characters. This is a great way to learn about Medieval times using personification of animals as the characters. Great vocabulary builder. Soon became read alone books for my son, but we still enjoyed reading aloud together as a family due to the engaging story and memorable characters who move forward into the next book. (Violence refers to battles of animal groups - done with a Medieval Times theme.)

This one competes with The Bellmaker for the title of Best Redwall book... ever

Whereas the Bellmaker drew a lot of interest from its new, foreign setting, Mossflower achieves a sense of unfamiliarity by setting the book in the area around Redwall before the abbey existed, allowing the reader only a sense of distant affection.

It's this sense of affection that buffers the varied, likable cast of humorous, multi-talented, heroic, and resourceful characters as they battle one of the canniest villains in all the Redwall books.

It's a classic that massively influenced my childhood and cognitive growth... in a very pleasant way. I'll never forget what Mossflower did for me.

Love love love this series. I read it as a young adult and now my grand children10-11yrolds are reading it.

Another fantastic Redwall story, going back to the beginning of Redwall. With just the right mixture of action, suspense and a good dose of humor, my 12 yr old son and 14 yr old daughter both absolutely loved it.

Another wonderful, descriptive book by this author. I would love to meet the little animals who make up the characters in this book. I love the good vs. evil theme that runs through the book. And of course, good wins and peace is restored after some mighty battles fought by brave little mice, squirrels and a badger!

Love this entire series, well worth purchasing