“The Long Patrol” by Brian Jacques

I decided that I should return to the Redwall series this summer and read some of the books that I haven’t yet. I own them all up to “The Long Patrol”, so this is where I’m starting.

This book is a little different from the typical Redwall books up until now. Usually the Redwall mice find a riddle and go on a quest and defeat some vermin and return to Redwall. Here the group far from home is the Badger Lady Cregga Rose Eyes, who is hunting down the vermin Rapscallions with their leader Damug. Of course, the vermin decide that they want to defeat Redwall, and the hares and badger all get involved in an epic battle between them.

The main plot isn’t that exciting, there’s only one battle and most of the story is the characters travelling around. There is an interesting part where Tammo and Midge disguise themselves as Seers and infiltrate the Rapscallion camp to lead their leader to the site of the battle that they picked out. I thought it was a little strange for him to go to the site after the two of them fled the camp, but I never really understood rats to begin with.

The main riddle is also pretty short, but it ties into the ending of the story nicely. Overall, it’s pretty much a simplistic version of the typical Redwall story.

There is potential in the sideplot that takes place physically at Redwall. The south wall is sinking because it’s located on top of the north wall of Kotir, a wildcat fortress that dates from the time before Redwall was built. It’s also a nod to the plot of “Mossflower” which is always fun to spot. But other than the characters getting trapped underground in Kotir and finding treasure (that’s just treasure instead of long lost relics) nothing’s really done with this.

Oh and a bunch of characters from “Pearls of Lutra” (which is one of my favorite Redwall stories) are present here as well! Tansy is the Abbess, Craklyn is the Recorder, and Arwen is the Champion of Redwall. There’s never a ton of overlap between these books, so it’s nice to see old characters that you’ve already fallen in love with reappear.

Overall, I wouldn’t say that this is as good as the typical Redwall story. Usually there’s more riddle-y stuff and action involved. However, the ending was very good, and encourages the reader to continue if nothing else. Onward to “Marlfox”!