Review of Martin The Warrior (Redwall #6) by Brian Jacques

Martin the Warrior by Brian Jacques
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought that Martin the Warrior was, as a whole, gorgeous. It's nearly a five-star piece of work for me, certainly. Oh, man, a book has not made me feel this many feelings at once in a long time, so it's possible that my review won't follow a completely logical course, but I'll do my best, starting with the things I really enjoyed.

(If you have read the book and probably survived the attendant onslaught of feelings, feel free to pop right over to my Goodreads review in order to see all of the spoiler-y bits in which I talk about certain important plot points. Otherwise, spoilers are covered up here, so you're safe.)



Many reviewers have called Jacques' writing mediocre and clunky. I can't understand why. I found Jacques' descriptions and dialogue very charming. The descriptions were vivid and I could easily imagine all of the places that Martin and his friends visited on their journey, from the beautiful ones to the ugly ones. The descriptions of the food! My goodness, if I had to give someone one warning when it came to reading this book, it would be to not pick it up on an empty stomach, because the characters feast, feast, and feast some more on everything from soup to nuts. Just about everyone eats heartily in the world of Martin the Warrior, and everyone seems to delight in having enough for themselves, their friends, and any weary travellers who happen by. Food is shared with no reservations, and is a source of joy and camaraderie for everyone, as, I would imagine, it would be for half-wild creatures, especially those who were once starved and oppressed and who know that food isn't a given. I don't think that Jacques' frequent descriptions of food are superfluous. They only make sense in a world of creatures who value food so much and see it as such an important part of their daily lives.

As for the dialogue, I loved that Jacques gave different dialects and accents to different kinds of creatures. Corsairs and cultured creatures don't speak the same language, and why would they? It was like having someone read the book to me while putting on different voices for each character, and it really added something to the story for me by giving each character a different "voice" in my head while I read. It enriched the characters, who, admittedly, are pretty one-dimensional. Good guys are good guys and bad guys are bad guys, and everyone is pretty much in the story to serve a certain purpose. You're not going to get any deep soul-searching here. Additionally, as much as I loved the characters' accents, they weren't always easy to understand, especially when it came to the moles. I could imagine the kind of accent that Jacques was going for, but, even so, I sometimes had to stop, look at a sentence mangled by multiple apostrophes, and try to work through it. For example, I can't imagine how many children could instantly figure out what "'asten" ("hasten") means.

The battle scenes were quite good and held my interest. It was fun to see the leaders working out battle plans while already fighting in the fray, and Jacques doesn't shy away from death and violence. Animals bleed, take arrows to the shoulder, get crushed by boulders, you name it. No unnecessary gore, but enough real violence to make the battles believable.

As for what happens at the end of this lengthy story, well, before I get into the spoiler-y bits, let me just express my appreciation for the fact that I felt genuinely moved by the end of Martin the Warrior and pretty much dove at my computer to get my thoughts down while they were still fresh.

(view spoiler)[ The ending of the book was really quite shocking and saddening for me. I had desperately wanted Martin, Rose, and their friends to make it to Noonvale and be at peace there, and then, when they finally did get there, they barely stayed for two days and were off again. Then, along came the final battle against Marshank, in which the characters' lives were changed forever. The loss of Rose was heartrending and I felt as thought she didn't get to die with the honour that she deserved. She is very brave throughout the whole journey, defends Martin as he fights to defeat Badrang, and then she just dies getting her head cracked against a wall by Badrang? I know that, in real life, people don't always get to die with honour, and, most of the time, great lives probably end not with a bang but with a whimper, as they say, but I was still pretty indignant about Rose's death. Then, of course, Jacques just twists the blade in your heart when a semi-conscious Martin turns to Rose's body, not knowing she is dead, and talks about Noonvale. It just reinforces how close they were to being able to live a simple, peaceful live as free mice in Noonvale, and pours salt into the reader's wounds. I almost cried when Martin said that he could never go back to Noonvale, having been partially responsible for Rose's death, and that he would never tell anyone about the incredible journey that he and his friends had lived through. Obviously, we know that he went on to do more great things in his life, but I just couldn't stop imagining him and Rose laughing at the Warden together and whispering to each other, "I am the law!" They so deserved to be happy together. Honestly, my heart. (hide spoiler)]

Overall, I was just generally enchanted by the environment, the journey, the characters, the food... It was all pretty lovely. I found myself nodding appreciatively and thinking to myself, This is what a children's story is supposed to be like. It's got forests, pirates, brave and chivalrous warriors, friendship, female characters that are pretty much equal to male characters (no, they don't run around brandishing swords, but they're brave, competent, and able to fight), and a good balance between action and humour. It's got a long and eventful journey with fun, friendly characters and lots of adventure. This is the kind of book that gives children good dreams.

With that said, let me move on to a couple of things with which I found fault in Martin the Warrior. However, it's not an accident that I prefaced my criticisms with my generally very positive thoughts about the book, because they point out one important thing to keep in mind: this is a children's story. Most of my criticisms are about minor things that got on my nerves a bit as an adult reader coming to this series for the first time. I don't think they're the kinds of things that children would really notice, and, as such, they didn't have much of an effect on my rating, considering that this is a book for children and it would be unfair to hold it to the same standards as a book for adults. Adults and children need different things in their stories.

One thing that tended to get under my skin was the characters' tendency to just trust one another and assume that others were friendly just because they looked friendly. I couldn't believe it when two of the characters, having run into a band of seemingly nice creatures, just spilled their guts about their entire journey up until that point. On the run from Badrang, the villain, they were just honest about everything, from who they were to why they were there. Given their previous living situation, one would expect them to be a little warier. What if these seemingly nice creatures decided to trade the travellers for some of Badrang's food and wine, eh? Jacques definitely employs the idea that those who look nice are nice and those who look mean and dangerous are mean and dangerous. This probably makes sense to a child, but to an adult who knows that looks can be deceiving, it was a little unbelievable.

Another thing that I felt was a little lacking was (view spoiler)[the supposed relationship between Rose and Martin. I think we're supposed to feel like they were sort of in love with each other and that they were going to live a happy life together, but I didn't really see much happening that suggested that they had any kind of romantic feelings for each other. There were hints, yes, like when Rose's father cautions her against following Martin wherever he may go (said father clearly sees that Rose is attached to Martin in a more-than-friendly way) and Rose states that she is convinced that she can "change" Martin's warrior ways and live a peaceful life with him. Overall, though, there didn't seem to be much "romance" going on between them, and one would think that, in almost 400 pages, Jacques could have put in even a short, awkward exchange between the two that revealed their feelings for each other. As it stands, it seems that it was love at first sight and that everyone expects them to be in love with each other because they are both mice and seem friendly with each other. Not exactly a prize-winning romance. But, again, that's something that bugs an adult. Perhaps a child would assume that of course they love each other, because Martin is the "hero" and the hero has to fall in love and live happily ever after. (hide spoiler)]

Finally, one thing that sort of soured the ending for me was (view spoiler)[the rather unbelievable way that creatures from far and wide just rallied behind Martin and submitted to his authority as a warrior. There was almost no talk of Badrang and Marshank outside of Martin's circle of friends and the slaves, and yet all of these animals decided, "Yes, sure, let's go off to war and possibly get ourselves killed, even though what's going on at Marshank hasn't touched us in any way and we're generally peaceful creatures, and we have no idea who this Martin fellow is." Jacques tries to put in some justification by having a character say that it's only a matter of time before Badrang tries to push beyond the limits of Marshank and start taking more slaves, but it really didn't seem like enough motivation to get an entire horde of animals fighting in a matter of hours the way they did, especially considering that most of them had never met Martin. Jacques needed an army to fight with Martin, so he made one. It just didn't make much sense. (hide spoiler)]

All in all, I really enjoyed Martin the Warrior and I'll definitely be picking up a few more books from the Redwall series. I hope they're all as good as this one, because it enchanted and charmed me in a way that most children's stories can't anymore (considering that I'm out of their target age range). The setting, the characters, the adventure, and the humour were all lovely, and, while a couple of small things were a little lacking when read by an adult, I think that this is both a fantastic children's story and a great read for any adult who can suspend his/her disbelief enough to accept talking animals and some pretty one-dimensional characters.