Are the earlier Redwall books the best?

[HashRouge]

I've been re-reading my Redwall collection for the first time in ages. I think High Rhulain is the most recent book that I own, and I've re-read everything apart from Redwall and Martin the Warrior, because I can't find my copies  . My old favourites, like Mossflower and The Long Patrol, lived up to my memories of them, but I was quite disappointed by some of the newer books. High Rhulain, for instance, is almost definitely my least favourite of the books that I have read, and I wasn't very impressed by Loamhedge or Rakkety Tam either. Taggerung and Triss were okay, but I think that the series went downhill slightly after Lord Brocktree. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed them, but I don't think they're anywhere near as good as the earlier books in the Redwall collection. Does anyone else feel like this? I think part of the problem is that the books stop overlapping, so there is no more recurrence of familiar characters, which I find quite sad really.

[James Gryphon]

I have to say that I personally feel the same way in some cases, except that my "cutoff" point is Legend of Luke, not Lord Brocktree.

In particular, I think the first three books (Redwall, Mossflower, and Mattimeo) are the best, although I still like the rest of them, especially The Long Patrol and Outcast of Redwall.

Mariel of Redwall and Pearls of Lutra both have good villains, but in my opinion, the heroes are maybe not quite as interesting as they could be in some cases, and they win out over the villains too easily for me to rank them near the top.

Martin the Warrior, I can't say where I'd rank it since it's been so long since I've read it. I suppose I ought to reread it since it's such a critical book in the saga; besides, I've already read Mossflower and Legend of Luke, so it couldn't hurt to finish rereading all of the 'Martin trilogy'.

[Lutra]

I think the earlier books are "better" in most cases because at the time, there still was no formula or overlap of situations, villains, etc.  Once you get beyond Outcast of Redwall, you get into a ton of repetition simply because unless you introduce something new, you're bound to revisit old topics, old plotlines, and stuff like that.  The Redwall series is no exception to this, and its largely the reason that I stopped reading after Loamhedge.

[daskar666]

It seems like after Lord Brocktree Brian decided to restart the series, with the villains getting gradually more and more threatening. The farther you read in the series, the better the books will get. (after High Rhulain at least)
Taggerung: the villains were NOT a threat to Redwall (Ruggan Bor doesn't count since he only arrived at the end) also Vallug IMO is the biggest villain in the story
Triss: the villains (Kurda and Plugg) were a much greater threat to Redwall and the characters but...still completely pathetic compared to the likes of Cluny.
In Loamhedge, Raga Bol managed to besiege Redwall but was still a minor threat (he only had a crew of about 50 plus there was Lonna Bowstripe)
Rakkety Tam revived the series IMO by getting an actually threatening villain. A wolverine is a huge threat obviously but Gulo's army only numbered 100 and he wasn't the most intelligent main villain, and very impulsive (killing all those crows just for minor injuries srsly?)
In High Rhulain, Riggu Felis wasn't a threat to Redwall, however he was a pretty good strategist and a cat (altho he was fighting OTTERS) plus he had an ARMY of cats (the only one in the series) and it was a large army.
In Eulalia!, Vizka started out with a relatively large crew, and then his army got massive when the Brownrat horde fed into it but for the most part he wasn't TOO threatening (and the battle of the plateau wasn't as...epic...as the battle of the ridge in Long Patrol).
Doomwyte had Korvus Skurr who could fly and command an entire army of birds with Baliss at his employ, however he was severely weakened by the accident with Baliss, Talug and Corksnout. At the end, he still managed to be a threat to the main characters, with the huge bird army.
The Sable Quean had the sables Vilaya and Zwilt (the book implies that sables are an elite/nearly invincible vermin species. Vilaya had a pretty good plan to conquer Redwall and Zwilt was a good fighter plus they had a pretty large horde which definitely made them a threat.
Finally the Rogue Crew (which I'm still reading) has Razzid Wearat who is stated to be the biggest threat Redwall ever faced. Although I'd say that's a bit of an exaggeration (altho I might be wrong considering I haven't finished the book yet) he is certainly a huge threat to the abbey. He's a savage fighter like Gulo but he is also intelligent, plus he has a ship with wheels and a large crew.

Also to people who stopped after Loamhedge: Continue reading, Rakkety Tam is (IMO) much better.
Loamhedge is my least favorite because the villain wasn't threatening as well as because the 2 main plots are COMPLETELY unrelated and the titular plot is pointless. The later books get MUCH better than that.

[Log-a-Log]

I thought with Triss, the series went a bit downhill (I still liked them, but the earlier ones were better). But I really liked the Sable Quean and the Rogue Crew, so I think it had a strong finish

[Folgrimeo]

I agree with most of what's being said. "Loamhedge" was a low point, but from "Eulalia!" onwards it looked like Brian was taking chances and shaking things up a bit. Didn't always work, but the changes were welcome, and I found "The Rogue Crew" to be the best book in years for it's surprisingly brutal scenes of death (plus Razzid being quite scary at times).

I read the books in a random order, so I found some of my earlier choices to be quite good and later ones to be too formulaic (didn't care much for Salamandastron despite the emotional impact of some of its scenes, it was the 15th book I read). A couple of them I can chalk up to not having read in published order ("The Bellmaker" doesn't introduce its characters because it assumes you read "Mariel of Redwall" beforehand, so I didn't know what was going on and decided I hated it. I always felt guilty about that). It's true that returning characters can help with nostalgia and make the sequels better, but most of the books in the series are not sequels in the returning-characters sense (long-living badgermums excepted). I can't vouch for the earlier books being better from my own reviews (what books I hated were pretty evenly distributed in early, middle, and late), but it'd make sense as there'd still be fresh ideas and it's the common opinion that the earlier books were the best.

But what I can vouch for is that some of the late books are good as well, and some of the middle books have redeeming qualities. I always said to myself that every Redwall book has at least one good thing in it (for "Loamhedge", that would be Horty and Martha), and I stand by that.

[HeadInAnotherGalaxy]

Speakin' o' the earlier bookz, I just finizhed Redwall lazt night. Finally ah can ztart readin' The Rogue Crew!

[Lily]

The earlier books are certainly my favourites. I agree with James, my "cutoff" point is Legend of Luke. Anything after then is "new" in my mind. It might have something to do with the fact that as I got older after Lord Brocktree came out I had to study a lot more, so I had less time for reading. Whatever the reason, even when I re-read the books today I still enjoy the earlier ones more.

One exception is Rakkety Tam. It's my favourite out of the latter half of the series. I'm not sure what it is about it, but I thought a bit of the "old magic" had been recaptured in that book.

That is not to say that I didn't enjoy the later books! They just have a different feeling to me.

[daskar666]

For me Rakkety Tam was the book that "revived" the series.

[Matthias720]

Well now, I guess I'm rather different. I like the first three books, the next few I didn't really like that much, then came Pearls or Lutra which I love, finally followed by all the other books which I like.

I don't really have a definable structure of which ones I like and don't like.

[Captain Tammo]

I think the earlier books are good, but some of the later ones are good too. Like the legend of Luke, high Rhulain, and the long patrol

[Storm]

I think that Redwall was the oddest book. Loamhedge was confusing, sometimes not interesting, but had many redeeming qualities. The Pearls of Lutra was wonderful except for the end as the main character doesn't kill the villain.

[Dotti]

My personal favorites are the Long Patrol, High Rhulain and Rakkety Tam.  I personally didn't care for Doomwyte, Sabel Quean, and Eulalia! nearly as much as the earlier books.  I just finished reading the Rogue Crew today, and while it doesn't quite have the magic of the first few, it certainly outshines its three predecessors by a long shot. 

[sabretache5611]

I read them in a weird order, starting chronologically from the Matthias era and skipping back and forth from Pre-Matthias to After Martin II.  I found all the books quite entertaining.  I found the first four books published (Redwall, Mossflower, Mattimeo, Mariel of Redwall) to be among my favorites.  I then found the next four published were also good, but I didn't find Salamandastrom and Martin the Warrior as memorable.  The following four, Pearls of Lutra, The Long Patrol, Marlfox, and Legend of Luke were all sound, with Legend of Luke and The Long Patrol being my favorites.  Lord Brocktree and the Taggerung were sound, but after that the series in my opinion, took a dip.  When I read Triss, I really hated Kurda and her brother for just being so pathetic and I found Triss rather lacking in character.  Loamhedge was good, but I also found the villain lacking and Lonna Bowstripe a rather bland hero.  Rakkety Tam was awesome, I reread it constantly.  Then, came the letdown of High Rhulain.  I found Tiria's journey totally flat without much challenges to her.  It was too Cinderella like.  I shed a tear after Brinty died and for Cuthbert, but besides the half of the book that was interesting, I found the other half slightly boring.  Eullalia's hero Gorath was too reminiscent of Lonna Bowstripe and I was quite disappointed with the plateau battle.  I found the following books, Doomwyte and The Sable Quean to be very good books, with The Sable Quean having one of my favorite villains.  So, while I did find the earlier books to be better in general, I did enjoy some of the more recent books.  I still have yet to read The Rogue Crew.

[Redwall Musician]

There are always books we like more, and books we like less. I must say, Triss was a little dull. But I still enjoyed it very much. The older books were great. But I love the newer ones too. Loamhegde in my opinion was wonderful. High Rhulain was good too, but not as exciting. Sable Queen, Doomwyte, and Rogue Crew, I loved! They are the most recent, but I think I like them better then Salamandostron, and Outcast of Redwall. You must remember that we all have different taste, so we must not judge because someone likes the newer ones. As I have stated before, Lord Brocktree is my favorite. I don't care if the older ones are better or not, I still love Brocktree.