Saturday, July 2, 2011
Redwall-Section 1
I apologize for the late post, but I'll admit to having slacked a bit this week and not finishing reading until today. Any first impressions of the world of Redwall, the magnificent Abbey, and the order of mice? So many different types of animals are represented, and in later books almost all of them get their time in the spotlight, but I'll admit right now that my favorites have always been the hares, the otters, and the badgers. The mice are great, but these other species and their mannerisms and ways of life have always intrigued me. Thoughts on the writing style, description, or the poetry and music? What about the story, our young hero Matthias, Abbot Mortimer, and Cluny the Scourge? I know not everyone has finished reading, so feel free to post as you get there.
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2 comments:
There's so much description that it surprised me when Soda liked these books. He told me that one reason he liked them was the descriptions of food. He said it all just sounded so good! But now that I read it again it's also clear that the action starts almost immediately. This is important if kids are going to get interested.
The characters are painted with a pretty broad brush. Cluny is the epitome of evil. I laughed when I read that mothers used Cluny's name to frighten children into obeying them.
Bloody hell, blogger ate me post.
Ok, typing up again...
Heh, speaking of food, that's something I use to measure how good a story is. If they talk about food in a way that makes me hungry just reading it...points for them.
One thing about this book that confused me was whether or not humans exist in this world. At first I thought they did, like this was all happening alongside humans going about their business. The bits about the church (I pictured a human sized church, abandoned) or the horse with the hay cart seemed to emphasize that. I was thinking of it like the Secret of Nimh sorta thing.
But apparently not. That takes some getting used to, but I'm enjoying it.
Character-wise, they're all pretty simple but that's not a bad thing. Sometimes, simple is best. Its refreshing. I mean, I like complexity as much as the next person, but sometimes just "this guy is good, this guy is bad" is welcome. The characters are pure in themselves, whether that's pure good (Matthias) or evil (Cluny).
Also, some of the characters just make me laugh. Basil Stag and the Moles chiefly among them. Just great. I'm enjoying myself :)
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