Book Review |
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| The Taggerung | |
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The Taggerung is the 14th book in the Redwall series
and I enjoyed it more than the first! Brian Jacques has lost none of the excitement and
freshness in his writing. If you are a fan of the Redwall series then the characters and
setting will be very familiar to you by now but, as always, this is a fresh adventure with
both new characters and some old favourites. Redwall Abbey is set in the middle of
Mossflower Wood. It is an old, red stone building inhabited by forest creatures and the
book is written as if they were humans with emotions, ambitions and speech. In this tale,
an otter cub is captured by a clan of vermin (assorted rats, stoats, weasels etc) who go
by the name of Juskarath – which is taken from the name of their fearsome ferret
leader Sawney Rath. However, this is no ordinary otter babe, according to Juska legend he
is to be the next Taggerung; the strongest beast there is in any generation. The Juskarath
want to make sure he is part of their clan! What is to be poor Tagg’s fate?
Is there no hero in Redwall to save him? The folk there have no idea what has happened to
the otter babe and the cunning Juska have left no clues behind. Brian Jacques has excelled himself
this time. This is one of the most exciting and tense tales of Redwall. There are less big
battles – just as many feasts though! – and the pace is fast throughout. I liked the opening of the book very
much. It was unexpected and action packed straight away and it immediately gripped me. I
read the whole thing very quickly – I often do read Redwall books quickly –
because I was so keen to find out what would happen next. He leaves cliff-hangers at the
end of each chapter which beg you to read on to the next one. As always, the description
was very detailed and the scenes were easy to picture – especially the feasts! Mr
Jacques sometimes seems obsessed with the food! I enjoyed this book very much and
found the character of the Taggerung to be very appealing. I would recommend it to kids
aged 8 and over. Adults would like it too but I know my Mum does not like to read too many
Redwall books as she finds them too similar. I do not. Iestyn Evans 12.01.02 |
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