Taggerung

Taggerung
Author: Brian Jacques
Series: Redwall
Genre: Fantasy
Age Group: All
Content: Medieval-type setting, woodland animal characters, combat, adventures, humor, clean writing
Age: My copy says it was first published by Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Putnam, in 2001, then republished by Firebird Fantasy, imprint of Penguin Books, in 2003

What to say about the Redwall series that you haven’t heard before? Well, I suppose if you’ve read one of the books already, you wouldn’t be reading this review, so I’ll gear this to the new readers on the scene.

Firstly, read *all* of the books! Brian Jacques is wonderfully consistent in his writing, and the writing by itself is delightful. Third-person omnipresent, never explicit, and immersive; the books are as enjoyable to me now as they were a decade ago when I read them all! I started my revisiting of Redwall with Taggerung, the only book of the series I own as of this review. I couldn’t be happier with my trip down Memory Lane.

Brian Jacques creates tension and evil characters not with expletives or shock factor – common in stories nowadays – but with simple, artful contrast between the heroes and the villains. He’s not afraid to show diversity with character accents and behavior, couth or not, along with species – another thing modern works are sorely missing for fear of being considered bigoted. Additionally, Mr. Jacques’ work is clean, safe for *all* readers, and contains enough educated grammar and complex words that advanced readers and adults can enjoy them too, even if they are typically seen in the children’s section. Finally, he knows the kinds of adventure stories that everyone loves, and how to make them interesting every time!

There’s only one thing I can think of cautioning against if you’re new to the Redwall series: Brian Jacques loves his ballads and feasts. There will be descriptions of scrumptious food you can only dream of, and woodland critters singing brightly whenever there’s need to celebrate (or to dispel the gloom of an approaching battle). Even then, I must say, I am one of the last people to enjoy a musical, and yet the songs don’t bother me! As for the food? Well, we’ll just have to contend with granola bars and red soda while we dream of them being cherry cordials and mint-and-honey fruit tarts topped with meadowcream and sliced almonds. Yup. These books will make you want to go vegetarian.

Final note on the series as a whole: grab yourself physical copies, if you can! The books have nice lineart at each chapter heading, and the first two pages are dedicated to a map (usually), which makes tracking character locations much easier. Plus, the cover art is lovely to look at.

So now that you know why all of Redwall is worth reading, thoughts about Taggerung in particular:

Taggerung is less a battle-centric book, like how I remember Eulalia to be, and more one of the adventure stories in the series. The first half of the story is focused on an otter, the Taggerung, who was raised by land pirates from the west to be their greatest, most feared warrior. However, some cryptic feeling from his past haunts him, telling him to abandon the place he was raised and find his true home. He made his decision when his foster father, the chieftain of the pirates, tried to force him to slay his first victim; but Tagg didn’t have killing in his blood. He took a great risk and fled, seeking his true origins, while the enraged chief and his best hunters pursued hotly on his trail.

The other half of the story is about the going-ons of Redwall Abbey during Tagg’s adventures. It’s particularly focused on Mhera, a Redwall otter. She discovers a riddle hidden within Cregga badgermum’s bedroom (who’s the substitute Abbess at the time, as the last Abbess didn’t officially appoint anyone before she passed on). She then, along with her mole friend Gundil, badgermum Cregga, and other Abbey beasts such as Broggle the squirrel, Boorab the hare, Drogg the Cellarhog, and Hoben the Recorder (lots of characters to meet!) all keep their eyes out for clues to solve the riddle. Unfortunately, it only becomes more curious with each part they solve!

As someone who loves action, I’m always surprised at how Brian Jacques – or anyone, for that matter – can make peacetime interesting. You can rest assured that the second part of the story is far from being filler. You might be pleasantly surprised by the solution to the riddle, and both stories tie together well at the end.

The progression of both is also as smooth-sailing as ever. Characters are easy to keep track of despite their number, and there’s no bouncing back and forth in the timeline; scenes that happen at the same time are placed sequentially, with timeline overlaps being expressly noted so the reader is never confused. While scenes between characters switch often, it’s unobtrusive, scenes are always ordered according how they relate to previous scenes, and the POV prevents confusion by not focusing on anyone too long.

I also feel the need to note that no villain seemed to be punished more than is justly deserved. That’s yet another thing modern stories annoy me on, is when the author punishes an antagonist quite badly when it isn’t really needed. Brian Jacques doesn’t do that. If it’s natural consequence, he almost has you pity the creature. If it’s between villain and villain, it mostly serves to emphasize who’s the greater threat to our heroes – again, without being overly explicit. Finally, *thankfully!*, his heroes are worth loving, always equipped with admirable traits such as mercy, courtesy, forgiveness, the will to protect and heal, a desire for peace, and an actual spine for the men.

Is it cliche to love the old story model of lovable heroes, despicable villains, and the great adventures and battles between the two? Maybe, but I’ll say that it never grows old. It’s a breath of fresh air, in today’s world of grim-dark storytelling pumped up with propaganda. Taggerung couldn’t disappoint even if it wanted to, and the other books are no different. I can’t wait until I have the entire Redwall collection to read again!