Are the earlier Redwall books the best?

[Ungatt Trunn]

I think that the storylines just got better and better over time. I don' see why some people think they got worse and worse.

[Gonff the Mousethief]

me and my friend were talking about this too. we are both on marlfox, and it seems like redwall, mossflower, and the rest are good exept until you get to the long patrol. I love that book don't get me wrong, but it seems like the storyline strays a lot from the other books

[brookeloveslotr]

I think the best titles are 1 through 9.

[Ungatt Trunn]

I think the best titles are 1 through 9.

In the original publication order?

[General Ironbeak]

Yes.

Though I credit Jacques for sticking to something many authors would have quit after maybe eight books, he just kept going. But sometime after Lord Brocktree, it really became clear that the series had become redundant and pointless. Jacques would just introduce new casts with every novel---which almost never had anything to do with the one before it. This was frustrating and I kept hoping it would pick up again. But then he died, and...well, I don't really know what happened in the last 4 books, but I can tell from the fact that each was a stand alone story that Jacques was apparently either mistakenly believing that that was what the public wanted, or loved doing that sort of thing.

[Banya]

I'm posting in this old topic because I have something to say and because it's old enough that hopefully newer members have something to contribute here as well.

The "earlier books" are, to me, all books from Redwall to Triss, in publication order.  Triss is the turning point in the series for me because it is the last book that has a chronological connection to another (Skipper was named as being a descendant of the Taggerung), and because the next book, Loamhedge, was where I caught up with the series and had to wait for each book from then on to be released.  Until then, they were read in whatever order they were available at the library, and it was neither publication nor chronological order.  What I like most about the earlier books is that each has a connection to the other; some characters, such as Arven, Tansy, Starbuck, Breeze, and Cregga were alive in more than one book.  Many others were in multiple books by name, and numerous characters were named as descendants of beloved characters from previous books.  Taggerung was strong in naming former Abbesses and villians of times passed.  This is something I miss in the later books, which seem to hang in time.  This has been said before, but the greatest strength of the earlier books were the large armies present on both sides, notably in Lord Brocktree and The Long Patrol.  That was epic, medieval warfare.  Later books mostly showed small bands of untrained youth going on adventures and encountering small but vicious bands of vermin, and they lack the memorable villains and heroes of previous stories.  Exceptions are made on both sides, but this is the overall trend, and it's why I greatly prefer the earlier fifteen books to the later seven.  Two points: The High Rhulain was phenomenal, and the series had a strong finish in The Rogue Crew.
Even the earlier books can be divided.  I think of them as the first six, in which the Redwall world was coming together, and a history and sense of time were being created; and the next nine, in which the Redwall world is strong and exciting, villains are memorable and fierce, battle claims the lives of good and bad alike, many different places and species are seen, and there are sea otters.  If there's anything the first six books lack, it's the reliability and roughness of sea otters.  The middle nine books are, to me, where the heart of the series is found.

[SoranMBane]

I wouldn't say that there's a clear "yes" or "no" answer to this; I think the series got, overall, both better and worse in different respects. For example, I think the quality of the writing actually got better as the series went on (as in, some of the very early books tended to have spots of awkward or clumsy prose, but these seemed to become less and less noticeable with each installment, probably due to Brian gaining more experience as a writer). But on the other hand, even if the prose was more competent, the much later Redwall books (namely, from Triss onward) were more likely to have phoned-in, dull, or ill-thought-out plots (the only two Redwall books that I actually dislike come from this period). I'd say that the middle books (say, from Martin the Warrior to Taggerung) marked the most consistently good period of the series, with those books for the most part sporting a healthy balance of both competent writing, and original, functional plots.

[Starla1431]

Meh, I honestly don't like Redwall that much.  There are some newer books that I like a lot more then the older ones. I do love the Rogue Crew.

[JangoCoolguy]

Generally, yes.

At some point, somewhere in the teens, Jacques became something of a hack. It pains me to say that, but it's about the most appropriate to put it.

The stories still had their good qualities, but by and large it was like he kept cranking them out for no particular reason. To be fair, some ideas would pop into his head and he'd try to work with them (heck, that's how writing works in the first place)...its just that some of those ideas didn't work out in the long run, or he's mix and match story ideas that kinda got in each other's way. Other times, well...it was like he was making some stories just cash in on the Redwall name.

The saddest part was that he was starting to turn things around and get his old spark back when he died 

[The Skarzs]

I dunno. . . The Rogue Crew was really one of my least favorites. I personally did enjoy most of the earlier books (except Triss and perhaps others), but the last ones weren't too bad.

[Speedbird]

TBH I felt Mossflower was no where near as good as Martin The Warrior

[Cornflower MM]

 

I think that the storylines just got better and better over time. I don' see why some people think they got worse and worse.

I know, right?

It seems I stand almost alone in that I not only don't care about reading the books in any order, and that I don't think that any of the Redwall books are any better or worse than others. Sure, there are a few I don't like as much as others (Triss, for example. When I first read it, I really didn't like the book and didn't even finish it! But I've started liking it more as time goes by.) but to go as far as saying that some Redwall books are worse than others? That seems to be going a little far to me, but then that's me.
We all have favorite books, and I'm sure we all have books that we don't like as much in Redwall. I think that all the Redwall books are equal - It's just what we think of them. For example, this post:

TBH I felt Mossflower was no where near as good as Martin The Warrior

And yet - I feel exactly the opposite. Don't get me wrong - I love them both! Yet I don't feel that Martin the Warrior is in the same class as Mossflower, my favorite book.

[Hickory]

There are staples of the series, chief of which are Long Patrol, Triss, Mossflower and Taggerung. Taggerung is awesome. It is Jaques at his full strength. It shows that he made the best villain (although Bor was a little pitch perfect, he got what was coming) and at the end the cameo of Russano was perfect. The link of Boorab and the long patrol was fascinating and added a fun little side point. What really made Taggerun for me is Cregga's death. Brain managed to kill her off with some action withy the arrow, but she actually died in a way that made it heartwarming. Normal deaths, with a sword, are more of a shocker, but long deaths are a tearjerker. Taggerung, to me, is the pivotal point.

Although the "early' books are easily classified, maybe we'd like them more if we read them in a different order, similar to the Machete Order (the Machete order is a specific way of viewing the Star Wars movies that makes the prequels marginally more acceptable).

That would mean writing several books as a flashback, i.e. after finished Long Patrol that would be an awesome time to read Brocktree because it could be a way of showing the history of the long Patrol, after reading Long Patrol readers would finally say "What is the long patrol?" and reading Brocktree after that would fill them in and show what Russano did after becoming Lord of the Mountain. I'll post the order later on tomorrow.

[Delthion]

I never really liked Taggerung...

[Vilu Daskar]

I never really liked Taggerung...

Taggerung is one of the best.