Loamhedge Book

I liked that the heroes of Loamhedge (two of them, anyway) were old warriors and served as the mentors of the three younger ones. It made the trope of "the heroes of Redwall know everything about fighting despite never going outside the Abbey walls before" much less noticeable. Horty, Fenna, and Springald are inexperienced and rash, and as a result have noticeable character development throughout the book as they journey with Bragoon and Saro.

Although not as good as the Freebooters in Triss, Badredd's gang are portrayed more sympathetically/comically than other vermin gangs in the Redwall series. Despite their overall inefficiency, they do manage to lay siege to Redwall, and perhaps because of their comic portrayal, all of the named members of the gang that attacked Redwall survive and go off and apparently live off the land for the rest of their lives. Flinky, their Chief when the gang escapes Redwall, is also liked by the rest of the vermin, another rarity. I do enjoy these moments of departure from the Redwall formula, especially in a book that is full of said formula. Also, Ka-chunk!

So, how did Sister Amyl get out of her wheelchair? It seems too unlikely that her and Martha's inability to walk were both psychosomatic. In fact, the entire "willpower cure" that Bragoon and Sara create seems a bit crass, and not at all representative of actual disabilities. Willpower (or positive thinking) is good and does affect certain areas of your life, but having the message of the book be "through willpower your disability will vanish" seems…shortsighted.

So, the "hares are always hungry" gag was mildly funny for the first few books, but Jacques has really amped it up since then and now it's only annoying. Horty is not as bad as Scarum, but still quite obnoxious. And speaking of formulas, the shrews were definitely only put in there so that there was a band of shrews with an acronym name.

I'm confused as to why Martha didn't become Abbess, after all the leading she did during the battle, and Fenna, of all creatures, did.

Raga Bol, another Redwall villain to have the most anticlimactic death ever. I've noticed that when badger lords are involved, the villain's death is always swift and always anticlimactic.

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