Salamandastron (Redwall #5) Book

So, despite the fact that I usually don't like the random, usually unrelated to the main plot Redwall Abbey stories, this one wasn't too bad. While the fever was random and Thrugg and Dumble's quest added even more viewpoints to the already viewpoint-heavy book (seriously, there's six different major viewpoints in this book: Salamandastron, Ferahgo/Klitch, Mara, Samkim, Thrugg, and Redwall), the side plot was a welcome relief from the five other viewpoints going on. The Salamandastron viewpoint was probably the best, especially since it introduced a place that hasn't really been visited for a very long amount of time before. Plus, Salamandastron is where the hares are, and I love me the hares.

Ferahgo was a decent villain, probably one of Redwall's best in terms of cleverness/presence/power over others/sanity, although I grew tired of the antagonism between him and his son. For once I'd like to see a villain who actually loves his family; I'm not sure if Jacques has that in future books, but considering his archetype for villains, probably not. When I saw the movie Epic, I was so excited that the villain loved his son. It's not something I see or read often, although maybe I'm just not reading the right books.

Is it just me, or are all the heroes (well, Samkim, Arula, Mara, and Pikkle) incredibly boring? I mean, Samkim and Arula are pretty much useless; all Samkim does is kill the Deepcoiler and that could easily have been done a different way. Samkim is worse than Dandin of Mariel of Redwall in terms of hero material. Mara's the true hero of the four; she's the one that does all the work and gets the most'scratch that, gets any-development. Her awful rebellious stage is annoying and cheesy, but at least she gets better.

Really, Redwall Abbey could have been completely cut out of the entire book and it would have been a better book. More focused, better characters, better development.

I absolutely hated how Samkim and Arula were never punished for their arrow-firing stunts. The elders were all, "They should probably be punished, but…they're really quite good, we're being too hard on them, we're going to let them off and reward them instead." When I did archery back in the day, I got in trouble just for bending down and picking up an arrow that had fallen close to another shooter. But in the discipline-less Redwall Abbey, rather than punish Samkim and Arula, Hollyberry lies, the elders say, "Oh, no, that punishment was too harsh! How terrible!" and Samkim and Arula say, "Suckers!" I think this is why I disliked Samkim all throughout the book, really.

As much I love this series, I have to admit that Jacques does a ton of retconning throughout. I'm pretty sure he just forgets characters and so either a.) gives the wrong name b.) changes their backstory or c.) completely changes their character. In this book, he calls Rufe Brush "Rufe Brushtail."