After all of those wonderfully depressing books I read in the winter, I was quite ready for my Redwall fix. And there are still at least five Tales of Redwall that I haven't yet read (I believe there are 21 or 23 altogether).This is one of the tales which branches out beyond the borders of Mossflower, even further than Salamandastron, the mountain of hares and badgers. The climax of this tale takes place on Green Isle, an island on the Western Sea to which a young Redwall ottermaid must sail with the Long Patrol, in order to rid the island of Riggu Felis (the wildcat warlord) and liberate the native otterclans and slaves living under the cats' tyranny. And so fulfilling a prophecy of a queen called the High Rhulain who would come to free them.As with all of the Redwall books, the story switches back and forth from Tiria (the ottermaid)'s point of view as she travels, to the events happening at Redwall in the mean time (a small band of mangy rats causes some ruckus), to the trials of the otters living on Green Isle, to the perspectives of Felis and various other evil cats.One thing that I noticed while reading this book was that the language conjured incredibly clear images into my head--it's not as if the writing is particularly poetic or descriptive, but for whatever reason, though I've read so many Redwall books already, I only just began to notice the way these stories play with the imagination.My favourite characters in this particular tale were, of course, the hares of the Long Patrol along with Captain Cuthbert--a grief-maddened hare who sometimes thinks he is a shrew, and other times a sea otter captain. I don't think I will ever get tired of harespeech; all the bally-wells and the flippins and the wot wots. These books could be described as quaint stories of talking animals with their funny dialects and their amusing habits. But they are more than that. I started reading Redwall books back when I was about nine years old, but it wasn't until I was in my teens that I realized how truly gruesome they can be. Gruesome and rather gory and definitely very sad sometimes. It may sound stupid to those who have not read them; but if you have, you understand.In High Rhulain, there was one part that I slightly teared up for. Many characters died, of course, as is always the case with violent wars between vermin and gentlebeasts--but the saddest death in this book was that of Brinty, the young mouse who had been one of Tiria's best friends back at Redwall, and who was killed right outside the gates by the leader of that mangy rat gang mentioned earlier.' "Redwaaaaalll! Haha, we did it!" Nobeast was prepared for what happened next. Behind Brinty's back, a young rat leaped out of the ditch on the opposite side of the path. He was brandishing a crude sword fashioned from a scythe blade. The rat struck Brinty down with one cruel slash. "Told yer I'd pay ye back someday, didden't I?!"' --pg. 253and then' When drinks had been served all around, Abbess Lycian made a small speech. "Redwallers, it is always sad when we lose one of our friends. More so, when it is a young creature who was not fated to live out his full seasons. We will never forget Brinty. Let us drink to all the happy memories we have of him. To Brinty!" Everybeast repeated the name and drank. In the silence that followed, Skipper had a word to say. "He was a good an' cheerful young mouse, an' a true friend to all, includin' my daughter Tiria." Girry felt he had to say something. "He saved me from the gannet. Brinty was very brave!" Then the young squirrel touched the bandage around his ear and fell silent. Tribsy made a visible effort to finish the tribute. As he spoke, tears coursed down the young mole's homely face. "Hurr, our pore Brinty, he'm wurr ee bestest friend us'n's ever haved! We'm be a missin' 'im furrever."' --pg. 255It's true, the writing style isn't as brilliant or astonishing as some of the other books I've read this year, but there's just something about the world of the Redwall books that makes them incredibly enjoyable reads. Here's another little passage that I had bookmarked:' Tiria turned her gaze upward. What the sergeant said was true. On first glance, there seemed to be the usual amount of stars, but as she continued to look, more stars than she had ever dreamed of became visible. All the vast tracts of the nightdark sky were aglitter with innumerable pinpoints of light--some large, some small, others so minute that they resembled dust, covering infinite areas of the uncharted dark vaults. It was a staggering sight.' --pg. 277One thing that's really convenient and nice about the Tales of Redwall is that they can really be read in any order without much confusion. It's not that the stories are completely separate--in fact they're all connected by recurring legends and families and themes--just that each story within itself could be a stand-alone book. You just wouldn't have all of the rich background and history of Mossflower and the world around it.I am very glad to have decided to pick up another Redwall book. It had been too long. Sometimes I just squeal inside my head at the utter adorableness of it all--though there are dark and nasty parts too, as I said. I will never tire of these tales, and I hope that other people enjoy them as much as I do.
As a teenager, I read every Redwall book I could get and bought the new ones as they came out. I stopped fairly recently - after Lord Brocktree - but recently checked out the newest book, Eulalia, from a library. I was so disappointed by it that I hardly dared try any of the others, but I did want to determine whether an author I used to love had plummeted downhill recently or had just written one bad book. When I read the also-recent High Rhulain, I was happy to conclude the latter.This is possibly not as good as some of the earlier Redwall books, but it has little or none of the awful cheesiness of Eulalia and contains much more of the good stuff: accurate references to earlier books, villains who are actually threatening, etc. I found the riddles a little annoying, and the band of rats hanging around Redwall seemed both convenient and unnecessary, but the cats were really pretty good, especially Pitru. A lot of fun to be had. (Also, for what it's worth: this looked like the same edition as the copy of Eulalia I read, but had MUCH better copy editing. Eulalia was absolutely painful.)I do have to wonder: at what point did Jacques run out of names? I've noticed that in several of the more recent books. The early Redwall books have mostly British or Biblical-sounding names for the good guys and names like "Grubgut" and "Hangnose" for the bad guys, which was nice just because one can pronounce and remember them. A lot of the bad guys retained their name style in more recent books, but the good guys switched to names that Jacques seems to have made up, and even besides what this does to continuity of the world, they just don't seem . . . namey. This book had important characters with names like Girry and Brinty. I wasn't feelin' it.
What do You think about High Rhulain (2007)?
This was a good, if unnecessary, “girl power” installment of Redwall. Tiria doesn’t do much fighting, but what she does is pretty impressive. She’s also one of the only main non-badger heroes to take out the main villain herself, albeit anticlimactically (but very poetically just).I call the “girl power” of this book unnecessary because it really is. Jacques has had both female warriors and female protagonists in Redwall before, and has done them more memorably and better than this rendition. The whole book just felt off because of the “you’re a girl and can’t do anything well” vibe, which has never been brought up in Redwall before and has never been assumed of any of the females in previous Redwall books.I totally think that Brantalis was the best part of this book. I just love the way he talks. Also, I loved Zillo the Bard and pretty much all of the parts with the rogue otters on Green Isle, although it struck me a bit strange that they had never gone to Holt Summerdale before this. Ah, plot conveniences.I also enjoyed the lore aspect of this book regarding the High Rhulain and the story that Quelt and the others find in Redwall. Jacques always has lore in some form or another in these books, but this one really struck me since the plot was really built around it.I didn’t much like Skipper berating Tiria over feeling bad about killing someone. Yes, she stopped that creature from causing any more harm to other creatures, but that doesn’t mean she should enjoy it or whatever Skipper was implying. Personally, I think Tiria’s shock just humanizes her (creaturizes her?) and makes her more likeable than the bland, generic Skipper.Oh, and since I can’t read a book without pairing off all the characters…I totally ship Tiria/Leatho.
—Elizabeth
I really like this book, it hardly ever got boring. The only thing I find boring about it was the songs. I skimmed or skipped them. One thing that had me wondering was how Tiria was going to get her coronet because it was at the Redwall Abby while she was at Salamandastron, then at sea, then on Green Isle and she still didn't have it. I was surprised when Jacques had the goose fly non-stop across the ocean to get the coronet to Tiria. I like how Jacques has 3 or 4 scenes in the book and how he eventually combines them together. Another thing I like is how I feel happy when something good happens and sad when something bad happens. Like when Tiria's good friend Brinty was killed. I had to do a double take just to make sure, I was sad and a bit surprised when he died because it was very a sudden event, even the creatures in the book were shocked. Lastly, because I have read so many of Jacques's books I can tell what animal it talking by how it talks. Like if he or she says "chap", "lad", "laddy", or "wot wot" the character is a hare and if the words are harder to read than normal and look funny then it's most likely a mole that's talking. I like his books and this is a series that I will most likely re-read again.
—Jessica Byle
Probably one of the better entries in the series as of late, but with my interest so far diminished it was hard to tell.The book had a lot to offer - new places, new character types, and plenty of good Redwall action. The main fault was that it took so long to get there! The book would have been so much better if not for the first one hundred pages; as soon as Colonel Cuthbert makes his entry, a deranged but entertaining hare, things got moving; I bought this book back in March but read the bulk of it in the last three days. The first hundred pages plodded along like a forced handout to new fans: "here, have some Dibbuns and puzzle-solving and feasting"; I wonder if Jacques felt he had to write that bit out of necessity, because the rest of the book is actually quite good. You will notice that Redwall is conspicuously absent from the final third of the book - and that was refreshing.A few things that bother me about post-Long Patrol Redwall books stuck around: the main character who sounds and acts like every other main character since Marlfox, the ever-increasing number of songs and poems that only serve to slow down the actual story. However, the dynamic between the (two!) villains was inventive and fun, the deaths in the book were generally realistic and without overt fanfare, and I liked the duality of Leatho and Tiria sharing center stage throughout the story.Appreciatively close to classic Redwall but a lot of fun things were being played around with and made it interesting. Those first hundred pages are the only thing keeping me from recommending it for old fans to pick up again.
—Julia
