“Taggerung” by Brian Jacques

I think of this story as the counterpart to “Outcast of Redwall”. In that tale, a weasel (I think, a vermin species anyways) is brought up at Redwall and then proceeds to prove that he is still a jerk. In this tale, an otter is brought up in a clan of vermin and hen proves that he is still good and eventually returns to Redwall.

It gives more of an insight into different tribes in the Redwall universe, such as the otters and the Juska clans of villains. Which is pretty cool, since previously we had more insight into the Guosim shrews than the otters. The vermin no one really cares about.

Abbess Song is mentioned a lot, but really the only character from previous books is Lady Cregga, who is still kicking as the badger of Redwall. She’s awesome.

Really the only aspect of the plot that I had an issue with was that at the end a clan of vermin come to attack Redwall again. And then Russano and his gang of hares show up and basically conveniently drive them off. There isn’t even a battle. How quaint.

So that’s a little too convenient for my liking, but the rest of the story mostly involves small gangs of characters running around, not large armies, which is an interesting change.

One thing I did expect more of was Fwirl’s mother. Fwirl tells her story, and then Tagg meets her mother in the forest, but then that plot line isn’t brought into it any further. It would have been nice to have another family reunion or something like that.

And then there’s something about both this story and “Outcast of Redwall” that bothers me. Jacques never shows that the characters are capable of changing. Sure, someone like Cregga can go from being a bloodthirsty warrior to a creature of peace, but hey never go from bad to good or good to bad. Their basic nature is set from day 1. And if you are a stoat, then you’re a horrible little creature, but if you are a mouse, then you’re a hero. It doesn’t seem fair or accurate to life. (Of course, a better way to put it would be to say that if you’re good you’re a mouse and if you’re bad you’re a stoat, but once again, why can’t this be changed?)

But this is also a series of kids’ books, so I’m probably looking at it too intensely. Being too black-and-white is something that a lot of children’s series do.