Who wants redwall books by another author

[James Gryphon]

I don't think the series is too black and white; if I had a complaint, it'd be that it doesn't give the villains enough credit -- and/or it gives the heroes more than is realistic.

Take the original book for an example. Cluny the Scourge is an infamous rat warlord, the most successful and dangerous vermin to ever walk the face of the planet. Leading his horde, he's won countless battles prior to the book -- enough so that he's well-known even at Redwall Abbey, prior to his actual arrival there.

To try to defeat him, Matthias has to get an invincible sword, along with other parts of Martin's legendary equipment, and he receives supernatural help as well (which saves his life on at least one occasion).

In spite of this, though, when it comes down to the final fight, Cluny still has the advantage, and Matthias has to "cheat" by bringing the Bell down on him to win. Likewise, in the final battle in Mossflower, Tsarmina basically kills Martin, and only loses the fight by virtue of her hydrophobia (a character flaw that she has no control over).

Compare this to Martin II and Ublaz Mad Eyes in Pearls of Lutra -- Ublaz is renowned (among vermin), and has had an undefeated record prior to this story. However, Martin II inexplicably is immune to hypnosis, which I don't think is quite fair; there's no reason given for it, and Matthias, Martin II's ancestor, was hypnotized himself by Asmodeus, who is comparable to Ublaz. This is Mad Eyes' main weapon, and removing it gives him a significant handicap before they even have the chance to fight.

In any case, when they go to swordfight, it isn't really fair either; Ublaz was a renowned corsair, but his skills and superior size are pretty much useless, and in the end Martin easily wins the fight.

This gets even more lopsided later on in the series. I read "High Rhulain", and to be honest, I wasn't really that impressed... the villains are interesting enough, and I actually liked the otter clans. If it had been left at that, I would've said it was a good story, but Tiria is basically a Mary Sue. She's inexplicably great at everything, and Skipper himself said that the only reason why she can't lead is because she's a girl -- she's perfect at everything else. But, hey, she can still be a queen, so he sends her off to go rule an island.

Leatho Shellhound really is an interesting hero, and I liked seeing him and the cats fight, but I ended up skipping through all the parts of the book that featured primarily Tiria & co... and when they finally got to the island, the story was downhill from there. She effortlessly kills Riggu Felis... for a moment it looked like there might be an interesting showdown with Pitru, but that was ruined when Frunk went berserk and killed every single one of the villains. Not even Boar the Fighter could single-handedly kill a horde, in Mossflower, but in this book, a hare does it easily.

The only time we get to see how good the villains *really* are is when they're fighting each other, because the heroes, no matter how inexperienced, will always effortlessly defeat them, and that's a real shame. I'd like to see the heroes have to work for their victory -- like they did in the earliest books.

In summary, get rid of the magic sword skills, and the character shields that let an inexperienced abbeymaid carrying Martin's sword slaughter hordes of experienced, ruthless killers, and even things up -- the heroes should have to be smart and skillful to win; they shouldn't win *just* because they're the heroes.

[Osu]

It's too black and white.

Yes, good and evil are pretty black and white.

@James - wow, what a post! You get points just for typing that all out, haha. I must say that I disagree with your final conclusion, though - "believability" is relative to every individual person. To make such an argument, we'd have to get rid of the talking mice. (Just my opinion! :3)

[Redwall Musician]

@jamesgryphon: I'm a little upset about what you said about High Rhulain. You must accept the fact that some people are good at everything. I have never skipped any thing in a Redwall book. That is because that is how Brian saw it. If it was not Redwall materiel he would not have wrote it.
Everyone else: If someone else does write a Redwall book, I would not be against it. That is my opinion.

[Matthias720]

I'm going to let this topic go for now, but let's keep things civil here. Remember to respect the feelings and opinions of others. If things start to get out of hand, I'm going to lock this topic.

[James Gryphon]

I had intended to respond to this earlier, to try to clear things up, but I didn't quite get the time until just now.

@jamesgryphon: I'm a little upset about what you said about High Rhulain.

I am sorry that I upset you, and in retrospect it would've been better to phrase what I said differently... the basic points of what I said are about how I feel on the subject, but it wasn't written in a very polite or respectful way, and I'm going to try harder from now on to avoid that.

As far as the book itself goes, I guess it comes down to personal taste; I personally didn't like it as much as other books (my favorites are generally the earlier ones, like Redwall and Mossflower),but it had strong points too; I liked the main villains, and Leatho Shellhound and all of the otter clans; the conflict on Green Isle was interesting, and it really felt as though the protagonists were in danger at some points -- like when Leatho was imprisoned, something I didn't believe I expected would happen. (It's been some time since I read it.)

In any case, I guess I've covered my feelings on the idea of non-Brian Jacques "official" Redwall books, and probably a few too many other things as well, so I'll leave this be for now.

[Redwall Musician]

No hard feelings! I guess I just take things a little too hard sometimes. And I can never stay mad.

[Tiria Wildlough]

Noooo! I wouldn't want anyone else to write Redwall! Besides, no one else would probably have the same kind of imagination. (I know I wouldn't!)

[DanielofRedwall]

I don't want anyone else to write them. Brian had this kind of way with words. If anybody else wrote it, it just wouldn't be the same.

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

Like someone else writing a continuation of Lord of the Rings.

[daskar666]

Post deleted.

[Osu]

Like someone else writing a continuation of Lord of the Rings.

Haha, but haven't others written books ABOUT LotR? ...wait, does that count? Maybe I should write a book about Redwall. Something like that would be interesting...

[Deogolf]

I'd say "no". Like others have said, it was, and always will be, Brian's. I'm quite content with what he has written. I've been reading the Mistmantle series with my kids - similar, but different enough to be interesting and worth reading.  There's more out there to explore!

[Captain Tammo]

I like to write my own redwall stories on my iPad n' stuff but I would never publish those, at the most I'd just print them out and draw a cover on. It's pretty fun actually.

[Trigoma]

i wouldnt want them by another author. cause they dont see things the same as BJ and might ruin it. so i just say let it rest. even though it would be nice

[Galedeep]

Preferably not, I'm not against fanfics online, but Brian had a unique flavor about the Redwall books that i'm afraid most people would have a difficult time recapturing.