Redwall over time sort of… decayed.

[Ungatt Trunn]

The really sad part is that at the end he and the series were getting their old spark back...

I'll have to admit, I agree with you. From Loamhedge to Eualia!, the series just seemed a little lower in quality, I'll have to admit. But then Doomwyte was written, which I think as one of the most well written in the series. And then The Slable Qean and The Rogue Crew followed, which I think were some of the series most amazing books...but then BJ died! I wish he could have lived longer to deliver more books with his "old spark".

I don't know, there were only a few books I found difficult to read for their poor content, one of which was the Rouge Crew, which I understand was unfinished at BJ's death

The Rogue Crew WAS finished. He just didn't live to see it published.

[Starla1431]

There was one "cut-and-paste" plotline that seemed to be repeated through a few of the books: the traditional quest. Allow me to explain: what usually happens with this type of story line is that one, two and once in a while three or so creatures go off on some quest. Some creature who is forbidden to go with the questers group follows them and is eventually found out, and becomes part of the questing team. As they go on, they face many dangers, but none of them ever really die while allot of the minor characters involved in that given situation do. They eventually reach there destination, and quickly raise an army (usually of any captive good guys) to defeat the bad guys. One of the original questers dies valiantly to add emotional effect. All the bad guys are defeated and the good guys are freed. Then most of the freed good guys and the original creatures return to Redwall (Where else?), and they seem to live happily ever after.
And while this is all happening, some bad guys come to Redwall (Where else?) and try to take it over. They almost succeed, but fail in the end, and sometimes go out rather embarrassingly easy. 
The first time that a plotline like this was used was in Mariel Of Redwall, one of the original six Redwall books. Though it may not be exactly the same as my description above (like some major good guy character dying), it is near the same. Now, I'm not saying that this is a bad plot: Mariel Of Redwall is still a great book, as are all the Redwall books. But I don't like how it seems like the same plotline is used in several Redwall books, just with different characters and events and such. Just compare Mariel Of Redwall to Loamhedge: if you think about it, they are almost identical to each other in the plotline. Other books like Marlfox are also like this. The fact that this plotline is used several times thorought the books makes it feel a little reparative and predictable. 
That's why I think that more diverse story's like The Long Patrol and Rakkety Tam are really great: in both stories, villains are attacking Redwall, but all questers stay within the bounds of Mossflower and are out to help Redwall more than anything else. Or they can be the other way around: in The Outcast Of Redwall, the main storyline is the whole Sunflash/Swartt/Veil thing. The main point of the story, the main outline that all the creatures are following is the Sunflash vs. Swartt thing. And Veil takes a big part in getting Redwall really involved in the story in a great way.
It was also pretty good when the Traditional Quest (I'll call it TQ for now on)would be changed around a bit: in Martin The Warrior, there are questers, they pick up a valuable addition to that group on the way, they face dangers (but the reasons for them surviving are really realistic), reach there destination and....raise a large army. This is quite similar to the TQ plotline: but it is changed around to be so unique, creative and ultimately amazing. Martin The Warrior, in my opinion, is the most well-written and overall best book in the Redwall series: the fact that it is REALLY  well-written can't be disputed. Even though Martin The Warrior follows the TQ plotline, it is still an amazing story and perhaps one of the best in the series. The problem with some of the other books with the TQ plotline is that they all feel "the same". They tend to be pretty predictable and not as interesting as the other books. That's a problem that I see happen allot in the later books; it feels a little like BJ had just ran out of outstanding ideas after a while and just used the TQ thing allot. books like Doomwyte were quite different and stand out as some of the best in the series: but it does look like there was some decay in plotline quality towards the end of the series.

We can say that about every Redwall book. They all have some kind quests, puzzles and predictable ending. The hero wins while villain always loses. 

[Ungatt Trunn]

There was one "cut-and-paste" plotline that seemed to be repeated through a few of the books: the traditional quest. Allow me to explain: what usually happens with this type of story line is that one, two and once in a while three or so creatures go off on some quest. Some creature who is forbidden to go with the questers group follows them and is eventually found out, and becomes part of the questing team. As they go on, they face many dangers, but none of them ever really die while allot of the minor characters involved in that given situation do. They eventually reach there destination, and quickly raise an army (usually of any captive good guys) to defeat the bad guys. One of the original questers dies valiantly to add emotional effect. All the bad guys are defeated and the good guys are freed. Then most of the freed good guys and the original creatures return to Redwall (Where else?), and they seem to live happily ever after.
And while this is all happening, some bad guys come to Redwall (Where else?) and try to take it over. They almost succeed, but fail in the end, and sometimes go out rather embarrassingly easy. 
The first time that a plotline like this was used was in Mariel Of Redwall, one of the original six Redwall books. Though it may not be exactly the same as my description above (like some major good guy character dying), it is near the same. Now, I'm not saying that this is a bad plot: Mariel Of Redwall is still a great book, as are all the Redwall books. But I don't like how it seems like the same plotline is used in several Redwall books, just with different characters and events and such. Just compare Mariel Of Redwall to Loamhedge: if you think about it, they are almost identical to each other in the plotline. Other books like Marlfox are also like this. The fact that this plotline is used several times thorought the books makes it feel a little reparative and predictable. 
That's why I think that more diverse story's like The Long Patrol and Rakkety Tam are really great: in both stories, villains are attacking Redwall, but all questers stay within the bounds of Mossflower and are out to help Redwall more than anything else. Or they can be the other way around: in The Outcast Of Redwall, the main storyline is the whole Sunflash/Swartt/Veil thing. The main point of the story, the main outline that all the creatures are following is the Sunflash vs. Swartt thing. And Veil takes a big part in getting Redwall really involved in the story in a great way.
It was also pretty good when the Traditional Quest (I'll call it TQ for now on)would be changed around a bit: in Martin The Warrior, there are questers, they pick up a valuable addition to that group on the way, they face dangers (but the reasons for them surviving are really realistic), reach there destination and....raise a large army. This is quite similar to the TQ plotline: but it is changed around to be so unique, creative and ultimately amazing. Martin The Warrior, in my opinion, is the most well-written and overall best book in the Redwall series: the fact that it is REALLY  well-written can't be disputed. Even though Martin The Warrior follows the TQ plotline, it is still an amazing story and perhaps one of the best in the series. The problem with some of the other books with the TQ plotline is that they all feel "the same". They tend to be pretty predictable and not as interesting as the other books. That's a problem that I see happen allot in the later books; it feels a little like BJ had just ran out of outstanding ideas after a while and just used the TQ thing allot. books like Doomwyte were quite different and stand out as some of the best in the series: but it does look like there was some decay in plotline quality towards the end of the series.

We can say that about every Redwall book. They all have some kind quests, puzzles and predictable ending. The hero wins while villain always loses. 

But it wasn't exactly like that in every Redwall book. For example, in Taggerung, none of the Redwallers went off on any quest. It was, in fact, a creature questing for Redwall (Deyna). That was pretty different.

[Captain Tammo]

Hm... Great stuff right here! I don't think it was "they deteriorated, then got a little better at the end." I think that it is simply a matter of this: there were over 20 "tales of redwall". I think if you read them all in succession, you'd absolutely think that they were deteriorating. But if you waited long periods of time between reading each book, they'd all be epics! Also, I can imagine that after writing, what, 22 redwall books? Each with 325-425 pages in them, it could get a bit tricky to constantly have something perfectly original. However I think that Brian did a wonderful job with keeping the books fun to read. So did the series decline? I think that it all has to do with how quickly you read them.

[Vilu Daskar]

I read the book fast and I still don't think they got bad.

[Lutra]

The storylines definitely get tired, and got tired the more books Mr. Jacques continued to write.  The time period I was reading them, I didn't mind so much.  Fast forward ten years time, and I clearly have my favorite stories, ones I can actually recall what happened because the stories were unique or had something special to them.  It gets harder the older you get as life goes on to remember everything, and these are the stories I can generally remember for that special something in them:

* Redwall
* Mossflower
* Martin the Warrior
* Mattimeo
* Outcast of Redwall
* Taggerung

Outside of those six, I can remember titles of others, but as to the main character, villain, plot, its just not there because they blend into so much to the stories around them.  I remember the Rogue Crew for being awfully bloody (or so it seemed written that way) but I can't remember any character names except for Swiffo because I was annoyed they killed the pacifist otter.

[Wylder Treejumper]

I sort of agree... I don't particularly care for Loamhedge, Mattimeo, or (not as much) Pearls of Lutra. I do think Brian used the same story formula for some of his books, however, I think he was a good enough author to pull it off (most of the time). He writes with a very rich tone that gives his books quality, and his character development is great. As to his strict good/bad species, I always rather liked it. And I thought his later books were worse, not better. I especially disliked Rogue Crew.

[Captain Tammo]

That may be so for some, but let's not forget why we made memberships on this forum. It was because we love the series Brian wrote and want to talk with other fans about it. The books were good and there's no question about that!

[Vilu Daskar]

That may be so for some, but let's not forget why we made memberships on this forum. It was because we love the series Brian wrote and want to talk with other fans about it. The books were good and there's no question about that!

I agree.

[Jukka the Sling]

Eulalia! Was good, and it ranks about middle in my "Top-Ten Fabourite Redwall Books List" I don't really think Redwall decayed - Maybe he was just getting a little old. Who knows? But Redwall is Redwall, no matter if it's YA reading level or J reading level. (And if you don't know what I mean by "YA" and "J", you're in serious trouble and I don't see how you know what section you're in at the library)

YA and J? Never heard of them in my life- And there was a period of about two years where I went to the library every week. Never been one for reading levels, as I've almost always surpassed the one I was expected to be at, but I think they're probably regional

YA is Young Adult, and J is Junior.

Anyway, I do think that a few of the later Redwall books weren't quite as good as the others.

[Vilu Daskar]

I like some of the last books better than some of the first ones

[Captain Tammo]

Maybe it's the order people read them in. The Long Patrol was the first one I read, then High Rhulain and The Legend of Luke. Those books are more of the middle —> end of the series and I thought they were some of the best. They're still my top 3!

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

Perzonally ah loiked zem av, endin' up viz readin' ze firzt vone an' zen ze lazt vone tae complete ze zeriez. Me firzt vaz Martin Ze Varrior, vhich tae ziz day iz ztill me favourite vone tae recommend!

[JangoCoolguy]

Aye. Reading them all willy-nilly makes the situation easier. Mind you, sometimes a tale may still be good or bad no matter what order you read in--story problems are still there no matter what order a series is read in--but in the Tales of Redwalls case, it can a spoonful of sugar.