Jacques, Brian
THE
OUTCAST OF REDWALL
Brian Jacques
ACE Books 1997 [Hutchinson’s
Children’s Books 1995]
Pb 367 pgs
ISBN#
0-441-00416-4
This is for fans of sweet anthropomorphic stories. Brian Jacques’ Redwall stories focus on the lives of small woodland animals with human characteristics. Most live in or near Redwall Abbey, though some come from afar.
The outcast of Redwall is an abandoned “ferretbabe” taken in and raised by the good country-folk of Redwall Abbey who cannot understand that vermin are vermin to the core: no matter how they are raised, baby vermin will still grow into adult vermin. So, eventually the ferret is cast out.
But this is not the core of the story. Actually, THE OUTCAST OF REDWALL is about two forest friends who help each other throughout the years. One is a badger [Lord Broctree’s grandson, though this young badger does not at first know this]. Sunflash the Mace has been a slave of the evil ferret Swartt Sixclaw the Warlord for as long as he can remember. Then on winter day a kestrel is blown into a tree and frozen to it by ice. Sunflash secretly leans against the bird, warming it until it thaws loose. Then the kestrel Skarlath tears Sunflash’s leather leash with its beak. They break free, but Swartt Sixclaw never forgives or forgets. The warlord increases his horde of vermin, adding foxes, stoats, rats, and weasels, then peruses the powerful badger across Mossflower Wood, past Redwall Abbey (where he misplaces his son), and even to the fabled mountain of Salamandastron itself. But Sunflash gains allies as well. The area is thick with cute little woodland friends sure to delight any lover of nature, animals, and stories of this sort.
Brian Jacques decorates his tales with poetry-riddles and lots of good food. His style reminds me somewhat of Rudyard Kipling with his dramatic changes of dialogue with each character type. If you don’t mind the simplistic good-VS-evil format, Jacques’ stories are delightful, award-winning reads.Return to Reviews