My Redwall experience

[IridescentFox]

Hi everyone, first time posting so I have no doubt that this will be the wrong forum!

I first discovered Brian Jacques when i was 10 years old. I picked up Redwall in the school library based on the sole criteria that i was the thickest book there and i wanted to show off/boast to my classmates about how great a reader i was. Redwall caught my imagination; it was dark, often gory, fairly complex for my young mind and featured furry animals in armour. It was pretty much the perfect combination for me.
   I tore through the early books; Redwall, Mattimeo, Martin The Warrior, The Bellmaker etc. To this day Salamandastron is still one of my favourite reads and even got confiscated by my parents when i refused to take my head out of it on a hiking holiday in Cyprus (Please, please look at the scenery and the ancient architecture!). As i grew into my teens my tastes changed a little and i no longer ripped through the books in the space of a weekend, often only noticing a new release when spying it in a bookshop. At 15, 16 years old i would get a book for Christmas or my birthday, read it for the sake of reading it and then put it away without another thought.
   At about 17 or 18 i met Brian Jacques at a book signing for Rakkety Tam. I hadn't read one of his books for a couple years, which was the longest i had gone without opening a Redwall book. I was the oldest boy in the audience, surrounded by tweens, which was both a little embarrassing but also pleased me to see that the author who had got me into reading was still relevant to a whole new line of kids. When i spoke to Brian he was witty, open and very warm. You could tell that writing Redwall and talking to his fans was one of the highlights of his life. I was wearing my Liverpool FC t shirt at the time and he complimented my taste. I believe i asked him something about the continuity of the first book, Redwall, with it's horse and implied human villages. He smiled and shook his head lightly and said something along the lines of how an author must find his feet and shaping a world takes time. He signed my new copy of Rakkety Tam and i bought Loamhedge at the same time as i had missed it. I left those two sat on my shelf, untouched.
   I went to university and, ironically, went off reading through a combination of studying English Literature and discovering beer and women.  Earlier this year, about ten years on,  I got back into reading. I had got A Song of Ice and Fire 5 book set for Christmas and surprised myself at how quickly and eagerly i had torn through George R.R Martin's epics. With those out of the way i scratched around for something else to read and came across those two books from the signing. I began reading Loam Hedge and brushed up on my Redwall collection by buying the half dozen or so books that had been released in the interceding years.
   I hated Loamhedge. I'm sorry. I'm sure some of you may be fans of it but so much of it jarred with me. I had spent ten years out of the Redwall universe and i found it a terrible reintroduction. I found the storylines weak and tired, the bad guy weak, the universe's animal scaling irritating (seriously, the bad guy is a rat who beats up foxes?!) and the Redwallers to be even worse. The Redwallers, the good guys, were so incredibly irritating that i was actually rooting for the baddies. I know they are peaceful folk but their representation in Loamhedge was of utterly helpless, naive, dull witted and overly pious...wieners! The Redwallers reminded me of Rod and Todd Flanders and the episode where Bart and Lisa are fostered into their household. Frankly, the Redwallers in Loamhedge needed a bloomin' slap! They live in a world where there are real dangers and looting vermin are no rare occurrence yet they are so utterly pathetic that they might as well try to hug them away. There is a band of armed brigands in their grounds yet their best defence is to splash them with chilli soup? Seriously?
   After Loamhedge i was terribly disillusioned, was Redwall always this simplistic and lame? It took Herculean effort but i finally managed to bring myself to start on Rakkety Tam. I'm near the end and I love it, much better in every way. There are actual characters, with rounded personalities and mischievous whims. Parts made me smile, parts made me chuckle and I kept turning the pages.
   I'm glad I made the effort and I look forward to reading the remainder of the great series.

[The Skarzs]

  Welcome to the forum, IridescentFox!
  Your experience with Redwall is interesting, and it was a pleasure to read that essay. I envy your meeting with Mr. Jacques, but alas, I must deal with it.
  Every author seems to have his or her poor moments; indeed, every series! Brian had more than one, different ones in numerous opinions, and Loamhedge does seem to be one of those bad apples. (Glad it didn't ruin the bunch for you.) Everyone has their own view, and personally Loamhedge isn't my least favorite, but it is definitely not the best in my eyes.
  It is interesting to see how well you seem to have remembered BJ's words in answer to your question; that sounds like something he would write in his books!

  Well, that may be a dull note to end on, but anyways. . . Welcome again to the forum, Fox! There is a topic in the Front Lawns called the Introduction Topic if you want to introduce yourself there; we're all friendly here.

[MeadowR]

Welcome to the forum, IridescentFox! That was an interesting read there. Same here that I read the books younger, came away from them, and then got into them more again some years later. There's definitely some better ones you may not yet have read.

[IridescentFox]

Thanks guys.

Skarz - I wouldn't like to put words into a great, late man's mouth and i am just paraphrasing. It was just the notion that he understood that the horse and humans stood out in contrast to other books but that he didn't regret things like that.

From the times that most of the members on here are active i can only surmise that a lot of you aren't UK based? Cool that he had such international appeal

[Kade Rivok]

Spoiler

  Welcome to the forum, IridescentFox!
  Your experience with Redwall is interesting, and it was a pleasure to read that essay. I envy your meeting with Mr. Jacques, but alas, I must deal with it.
  Every author seems to have his or her poor moments; indeed, every series! Brian had more than one, different ones in numerous opinions, and Loamhedge does seem to be one of those bad apples. (Glad it didn't ruin the bunch for you.) Everyone has their own view, and personally Loamhedge isn't my least favorite, but it is definitely not the best in my eyes.
  It is interesting to see how well you seem to have remembered BJ's words in answer to your question; that sounds like something he would write in his books!

  Well, that may be a dull note to end on, but anyways. . . Welcome again to the forum, Fox! There is a topic in the Front Lawns called the Introduction Topic if you want to introduce yourself there; we're all friendly here.

I laugh at your font! Haha!

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[close]

My first experience was with Lord Brocktree, and it's still tied with Taggerung for being my favorite.  I was... 12 at the time, I believe, and had just transferred to a new school when I found it in the school's library (along with most of the others).  I've always had a hard time making friends, but reading this series made it feel like I had countless friends.  Looking back, it was definitely a form of escape, but I think I probably needed it.