Reviews for Doomwyte (Redwall #20)

The average rating for Doomwyte (Redwall #20) based on 2 reviews is 1.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-02-22 00:00:00 Lucas Forastieri Doomwyte is the twentieth full-length novel of the Redwall saga, but Brian Jacques wasn't the only original member of the series' creative team still onboard at that point: Troy Howell did the cover art for Doomwyte and every Redwall novel preceding it, and his skill showed not a whit of decline after twenty-two years. Brian Jacques introduces some new elements in Doomwyte, while maintaining the standby motifs that fans of the series love. As Redwallers Dwink (a young squirrel), Bisky (a mouse of the same age), and Dugry (a mole) discover there's truth behind the legend of a priceless treasure swiped by Gonff the Mousethief untold seasons ago, an evil gathering of carrion birds lurks in an underground grotto of Mossflower Wood, hoping to steal the treasure for themselves. The birds are led by a violent-tempered raven called Korvus Skurr, who depends on a serpent seer to divine what future course the birds should take. Korvus covets the legendary jewels of Gonff to complete his own collection and earn him great prestige in Mossflower and beyond, and he's not afraid to launch an attack on Redwall Abbey if that's what it comes to. A war unlike any in the Abbey's history could be at hand. The discovery of Gonff's book of riddles puts the Redwallers on the trail of Gonff's jewels, a trail that leads beyond the Abbey walls. As the quest progresses, Korvus enlists the terrifying adder Baliss to lay siege to Redwall and pressure the young treasure seekers into giving up, but Korvus's authority among his own birds is already disintegrating, and the plan immediately goes wrong. Soon Baliss shows up at Korvus's underground lair to make trouble for the raven who hired him while Bisky, Dwink, and their party of finders pursue the treasure unhindered. It will be a proud homecoming for the young ones if they return to the Abbey with Gonff's jewels, but the elders will be just as proud to see how they have matured during these troubling times. In the face of enemies as frightening as any faced by past Redwall warriors, this generation has made its mark and proven their worth. The Abbey will be in good hands for many seasons to come. I was intrigued by a few story components of Doomwyte, components that undoubtedly would have better served the series when it was newer and more spry. Well-worn plot devices are avoided for the most part in these pages, and the characters show promise. Brother Torilis? Baliss? Laird Bosie McScutta of Bowlaynee, heir to the mantle of eccentric warrior hares? They would be invaluable assets to earlier Redwall novels, probably written more cleverly and leveraged for major emotional payoffs in the story. Redwall in its prime is a spectacular series, and its halcyon days are a literary marvel. They are the legacy of Brian Jacques. "Homecomings can be coloured by many emotions." 'Doomwyte, P. 363 Doomwyte is the least exceptional of the first twenty Redwall books, but there's a quote here or there worth remembering. I'd give it one and a half stars, and the epilogue was nearly enough for me to consider rounding up to two. If you've made it this far in the series, you know before starting Doomwyte that it isn't likely to be another Mattimeo, Martin the Warrior, or The Bellmaker, but it's nostalgic fun for those who have loved passing time in this fantasy world for most of their lives. There's no substitution for a few days spent in the land of Redwall, and I hope readers always feel that way.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-14 00:00:00 Matthew Brannon I picked the audiobook up at the Library. I loved the Redwall books as a middle-schooler, so mostly I picked this up to see if my tastes back then were any good. I can see why I liked them. They are very well crafted stories, easy to follow, but have a lot of fun and "exciting" twists and turns. Mostly Brian Jacques sticks to a very narrow story pattern which is repeated in every book. This isn't all bad, he does it well and so its perhaps good that he sticks with what he knows. The biggest criticism of these books I have is that they are racist. It is fantasy after all and set in a different world with different rules so maybe its okay to be racist when dealing with animals. When I say racist, I mean that race defines if you are good and bad, and you cannot change that - you are born that way. Thus, mice, rabbits, etc. are basically good. This is actually kind of a strange concept for me. Imagine a people who have the inability to perform evil, or at least, great evil. They do make small mistakes, but they simply cannot do really bad things. A mouse could never kill another mouse. Rats, on the other hand, have the inability to actually be good and do great good. Again, they can slip up for a bit and do some good things, even join the Abbey for a bit like in Outcast of Redwall, but they cannot fully embrace good. If this "anthropology" (or rodentology)were actually true, our stories would be much different. In the Bible, there are distinctions between the righteous and the wicked, but they are more fluid. Wicked can become righteous, and righteous can become wicked. Israel as a whole is the most obvious example. They start out as God's chosen people - you don't get more righteous than that. Then, they kill the son of God and God rejects that race in favor of another race - the gentiles. Or, on a more individual level, we could take Abraham. A righteous man, yet, he doesn't seem to mind prostituting his wife with Pharaoh. Or take Aaron. He is the mouthpiece of Moses and high priest - and then builds a golden calf (or did that just pop out of the fire?). Or take Moses. The most humble man in the world, but he still gets angry and hits the rock really hard. The Bible has a much more nuanced picture of the good guys and the bad guys than the Redwall stories. One might say that the Redwall stories are for kids, so its good to simplify things for them. That is true, as long as the simplifications do not distort the truth. We can teach our kids that Abraham was righteous, that Moses was awesome, that David was a great. And that Cain was evil, and Manassah was horrible, and that Ham was cursed. This is all true. But there are other stories where Abraham was stupid, Moses was disobedient, and David was sinful. In Redwall, these other stories do not exist. Given that there are now 20 books in this series and that each book is considerably large, they are too big to be over-simplified. I think that this defect creates a false view of reality.