Mariel of Redwall

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About Mariel Of Redwall

Product Description When the mouse-ship carrying Joseph the Bellmaker and his daughter, Mariel, runs afoul of a pirate rat king, they are mercilessly tossed overboard. Washed ashore and certain that her father is dead, Mariel vows revenge. From Kirkus Reviews In volume four of the Redwall Abbey saga, peace is threatened when Mariel--a fierce young mousemaid who's lost her name but kept her hatred for Gabool, the pirate rat king--arrives worn and half-starved. After recovering her memory under the kind care of the Abbey animals, Mariel sets forth to settle accounts with Gabool, accompanied by Dandin; Tarquin L. Woodsorrel of the ``long patrol'' of intrepid hares; and Durry Quill, an adventurous young hedgehog. Led by an old poem uncovered by Dandin; menaced by needle-beaked herons, masked weasels, and loathsome toads; and helped by unexpected allies, they make their way to Gabool's stronghold- -where his vicious band is in disarray and Gabool himself has been driven mad by the booming of the bell he stole from Mariel and her bellsmith father, en route to Lord Rawnblade Widestripe, badger hero. After hair-raising adventures, Mariel--with friends, father, a band of escaped slaves, and Rawnblade--defeats Gabool and recovers the bell. Astonishing stuff: the by-now expected mixture of clich‚ piled on clich‚; British music-hall dialects and humor; rhapsodies on raspberries, nuts, and delectable-sounding forest concoctions; characters that epitomize their class origins but sometimes rise above them; and plots from Sabatini by way of Tolkien--all combine in a satisfying ripsnorter of an adventure. (Fiction. 9+) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Review Old-fashioned swashbuckling adventure. Locus From School Library Journal Grade 4-8-- Redwall Abbey is once again the center of a multistranded adventure. Independent of its predecessors, Redwall (1987), Mossflower (1988), and Mattimeo (1990, all Philomel), it follows the mousemaid Mariel in her quest for vengeance against the searat Gabool the Wild and his Rodent Corsairs, who imprisoned her father and left her to drown during a storm at sea. Tough and resiliant, she makes her way to Redwall, where she finds stalwart companions who will accompany her through the Mossflower woods back to Gabool's stronghold, where he is descending into madness. Meanwhile, the good creatures of Redwall are besieged by a renegade band of searats. Intrepid readers willing to tackle a book this long will be further impeded by the sections of dialect used to delineate class structure. Since the writing style is cliched, much of the action contrived to be cute, the characters one-dimensional, and the villains predictable vermin, readers may wonder ``why bother?'' Nor will they find illumination of human-animal kinship. Clever substitutions like ``anybeast,'' ``foremole,'' and ``every ratjack of ye'' serve only to remind that these animals are almost entirely human surrogates. Even the frequent references to woodland cuisine are tedious enough to become unappetizing. A book that's somewhat pretentious, and one that will appeal mainly to fans of Jacques's earlier medieval fantasies. --Margaret A. Chang, North Adams State College, MA Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From the Back Cover Where seas pound loud and rocks stand proud And blood flows free as water, To the far northwest, which knows no rest, Came a father and his daughter. The mind was numb, and the heart struck dumb, When the night seas took the child, Hurled to her fate, by a son of Hellgate, The dark one called The Wild. About the Author BRIAN JACQUES was born and bred in Liverpool. At the age of fifteen he went to sea and travelled the world. He worked as a stand-up comedian and playwright and hosted his own programme, Jakestown, on Radio Merseyside. His bestselling Redwall books have captured readers all over the world and won universal prais