Hi all! So recently I finished High Rhulain on audio through Audible. High Rhulain was the first Redwall book I ever finished, and that was about 10 years ago now. So after listening to it in audio form (completing the story for I think the 3rd time), I decided to take a look around on the forum and see what others thought of it. Many people who read the series in the order in which the series was published will have read High Rhulain as one of the last books. By this time, the "Redwall formula" sometimes shows itself (which is a spectacular formula in my opinion, and worth noting), so some reviews of this book were "meh" as a result. I wanted to put together a mini argument as to why I think High Rhulain deserves to be recognized as one of the best books in the series! Hope you like it! :)
High Rhulain story line
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(This slide background taken from the art gallery of
@NovaNocturne here (http://www.redwallabbey.com/forum/index.php?topic=10019.0))
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(This slide background taken from the art gallery of
@NovaNocturne here (http://www.redwallabbey.com/forum/index.php?topic=10019.0))
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(This slide background taken from the art gallery of
@Leatho Shellhound here (http://www.redwallabbey.com/forum/index.php?topic=2103.0))
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I haven't read this book in a while but it has certainly made me want to re-read it!
Quote from: NovaNocturne on July 29, 2017, 10:45:40 PM
I haven't read this book in a while but it has certainly made me want to re-read it!
Woo! It's a good one!
I found this book to be one of the least memorable in the series, though it was better than its three predecessors and some that came after it.
Tiria was bland, I forgot about Cuthbert Whatsisname until reading this and even now I can't tell you anything he did, and Leatho was...normal at best. He didn't have enough time to really shine, and the whole "girl does what others think she cannot do" thing has been run down so many times.
Pirtu/Riggu was interesting, I guess. I remember more about Pirtu and his brother's relationship with their mother than anything. And the scene where she lit the castle on fire was pretty epic. Other than that...
"Meh" is right.
I like how you presented your thoughts like a (good ol') Powerpoint presentation. Clear points to follow, and adds some colour and needed text breaks, a change from sometimes where it can be a bit much to read a big chunk of writing all in one go. :D
You've reminded me a few things about High Rhulain and I think I did find it a little different in parts, but I didn't feel it was as interesting as Doomwyte and some other later ones I was catching up with at the time.
Cuthbert Blandedale Frunk!
I'd forgotten about that legend, gonna have to reread it soon
Remind me, somebody, what makes Cuthbert one of the more interesting hares?
He was a nuthouse, had split personality disorder, bipolar, and he killed a sea monster.
Quote from: The Skarzs on August 01, 2017, 08:06:31 PM
He was a nuthouse, had split personality disorder, bipolar, and he killed a sea monster.
His daughter was murdered by a crew of sea vermin, he then hunted down and slew the entire crew, a feat which -- if I recall correctly -- was only accomplished by one other creature in the Redwall series: a bloodwrath ridden badger. After the battle, he developed the split personality disorder due to the wounds and trauma of losing his daughter. Later he helped in the fight on Green Isle, slaying Pitru first and finally the slothunog, before dying in Deeplough. He was a total bad***. I'd put him in the same category of awesomeness as Finbarr Galedeep, the squirrel hare guy from Outcast, and Leatho Shellhound.
Ahhh, okay. Surprised I didn't remember a lot of that. Thanks for the reminder! :D
As a cat lover, even though they are in the villains' role, I really love the amount of wildcats in this book and it was really neat that it was a whole family of them and seeing how they all interacted with each other even if it was in a rather dysfunctional way. XP
True, but it seems like they were almost. . . Underutilized, and downgraded. Tsarmina was portrayed as extremely dangerous and imposing in Mossflower, and yet there, they died just as easily as any other underling in the books.
Of course, I think there was mention that most of them weren't true wildcats, and instead were just feral.
Have to admit my memory of the book is a little fuzzy again so I can't remember how they died. Most of my Redwall books are still back at our old house which is rather far away. Will need to read it again once I'm reunited with the rest of my books^^
Sounds good.
Quote from: MeadowRabbit on July 30, 2017, 10:39:25 PM
I like how you presented your thoughts like a (good ol') Powerpoint presentation. Clear points to follow, and adds some colour and needed text breaks, a change from sometimes where it can be a bit much to read a big chunk of writing all in one go. :D
You've reminded me a few things about High Rhulain and I think I did find it a little different in parts, but I didn't feel it was as interesting as Doomwyte and some other later ones I was catching up with at the time.
lol, thank you! I've got to re-read
Doomwyte again. It's been several years since I read that one!
Hey everyone!
So while this can't count as my Fall Extravaganza (http://www.redwallabbey.com/forum/index.php?topic=10368.0) entry (since it's an old post), I thought I'd bump this anyway to show you what you could do if you're entering the One Book to Rule them all event. Obviously you don't need to use this format and you can enter with an entirely different approach, but this is just something to help your brainstorming or if you want to refute / make another argument for this book in the series :)
Just wanted to add that after just finishing my re-read of High Rhulain I did enjoy it more than I remembered liking it the first time. For sure it shows that the later books still have the enjoyment factor, however formulaic they can be at times. :D
I originally read this book in high school, and while I enjoyed it for the most part, there was an aspect of it that I found frustrating at the time. High Rhulain seemed to be pulling this same lazy writing trick that I'd noticed a lot of tv series using, where the show decides it wants to do some sort of "girl power" episode, but the setting and characters they've established aren't sexist enough, so they just bump up the sexism to unnatural levels in order to make that plot work (and I'm feminist, but there's just better ways to send an empowering message for girls, y'know?). It's quite noticeable with the Guosim; their earliest recorded Log-a-Log was female and there've been plenty of female members in their ranks throughout the books, but here they're giggling at the mere idea that a girl might be good at throwing rocks? Really??
And then there's the fact that apparently the Redwall otter tribe only allows males to be Skipper (which is strange considering that in the very first Redwall book, the Redwall otters were led by a girl, though Brian had seemingly not come up with the rank of "Skipper" yet). Redwall is supposed to be the most happy, fair, and free place you could imagine, so how is it that a part of the Abbey could be so grossly unfair? And "tradition" definitely isn't a good enough reason. To Tiria's father, the Skipper, I would simply quote something Deyna says in Taggerung: "You're the Chief, make some new laws." But the Redwall otters don't change, and it's not presented as if they need to change, which is the biggest problem I see with this part of the book.
But, again, I did still enjoy the book overall, but I think it could've been better if it had just dropped the clumsily-handled "girl power" angle (none of which is fitting with how otherwise egalitarian the Redwall world has been established to be). Maybe just have Tiria leave Redwall simply because she craved adventure in the wider world, without mentioning anything about how only males can be Skipper. All the young girls in the audience need to feel inspired is a strong female character they can look up to, so that's all Tiria had to be; none of the stuff about overcoming sexism was necessary.
Has anyone noticed how High Rhulain is a lot like Mossflower. How it's about creatures fighting against a tyrant wildcat for freedom
In a way, I suppose. But then, a lot of the stories have similar stories.
Quote from: The Skarzs on July 12, 2018, 11:07:43 PM
In a way, I suppose. But then, a lot of the stories have similar stories.
That's true even stories from different authors