"Mossflooooooooooooooo oooooooooweeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeer" (Mossflower - Brian Jacques)

Member Name: CaptainD

Product:	Mossflower - Brian Jacques
Date:	11/09/06 (443 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Engaging characters, rip-roaring plot

Disadvantages: A little over-simplistic in its portrayal of the classic Good Vs. Evil story

Mossflower is an extremely enjoyable novel of high adventure set in the world of … Mossflower (did you guess?). The land is ruled by the wildcat Verdauga, but his reign will shortly be taken over by his ruthless daughter Tsarmina. Because of this the free creatures of Mossflower have fled to secure hideouts, but they can only dream of true freedom. Tsarmina on the other hand has plans to enslave or kill the whole population. All looks bleak for the woodlanders until hope arrives in the form of a young mouse, a warrior, named Martin.

Rather than give away any more of the plot, let me introduce you to some of the characters in the book:

Martin, the aforementioned mouse, who has travelled from a distant land. He is a noble creature and not one to forget a vow.

Gonff, a young mouse thief – the “Prince of Mousethieves”. Constantly making up songs and at ease in the company of every type of animal, especially moles.

Young Dinny – a young mole who comes from a proud family of diggers. Values friendship above all else, except maybe “Deeper’n’ever pies…When he is older perhaps he will be called Dinny and his son will be Young Dinny?

Bella the badger – the leader of the free woodlanders (leader in the most undictatorial way, of course) – whose father may just hold the key to the woodlanders’ problems – but can he be found?

Tsarmina – eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil Wildcat queen, a very nasty piece of work indeed.

Gingivere – Tsarmina’s much nicer brother, despite the fact this his name sounds like a gum disease.

Ben and Goody Stickle – a hedgehog couple (as opposed to a couple of hedgehogs), whose offspring are always getting themselves into trouble.

Skipper and Lady Amber – the leaders of the otters and squirrels respectively, they champ at the bit of what they see as the over-passivity of the head woodlanders.

Fortunata – a vixen who travels as a healer, and thus works for whoever will offer her food. But is he really neutral as to the woodlanders’ plight?

There is also an old eagle who doesn’t take sides but eats from either side when possible, a cheeky robin with a penchant for candied chestnuts, and some seriously dislikeable stoats and weasels.

There are many more characters that I won’t go into. Mossflower is a joyous romp through the forest with an army of lovable and loathable characters, and a classic good vs. evil tale. Author Brian Jacques writes with plenty of flair and atmosphere, and has certainly created a world and characters that you can care about. The action scenes are well written and the plot bubbles merrily along. The different creatures have their own peculiar manners of speech and expressions, particularly the moles (who can occasionally be a little hard to understand as a result!). As far as negatives go, I found that the woodlanders seemed to have things rather too easy in the first part of the book, with anything that might have hindered them conveniently got rid of by other plot elements. Although the characters are likeable they seem overall top be too black and white, only one character in the whole book did I have any doubt about whether it was a good or bad character.

Overall, Mossflower is an extremely enjoyable book but perhaps a little too direct in its depiction of the good vs. evil battle, I would personally have liked there to be a little more intrigue and uncertainty about some of the characters until the end. I still thoroughly recommend it, and it’s ideal reading for all but very young or sensitive children (one or two of the battle / duel scenes are a little intense).

Summary: Mossflower is thoroughly recommended for entertaining light fantasy reading