“Doomwyte” by Brian Jacques

Honestly this story is just what I’ve wanted in a Redwall book recently. Jacques here returns to the format of some of the earlier stories: with riddles and quests and friends!

We first meet Bisky, a young mouse from Redwall who is telling a story about Gonff, Prince of Mousethieves, stealing the eyes from a raven and a snake. Gonff appears throughout the story, Bisky claims that he’s a descendent of him, along with old Samolus Fixa. Some of his descendants were banished from Redwall for stealing, creating the Gonfelin tribe of mice! Having Gonff back in is great, Jacques once said that he was modelled after the author, and is one of his favorite characters.

A new tribe of mice outside of Redwall is a welcome addition to the world, it’s been so long since we’ve been introduced to any novel ways of life outside of the Abbey. The Gonfelins are a band of mice who steal, but are honorable about it. They’re rowdy and humorous (all of their names end in “o” for no particular reason I can tell) and I really hope that they’re in more stories.

The main quest is to find these jewels that Gonff stole from a raven and a snake, which involves following riddles and clues to their locations. It’s so nice to watch characters solve a riddle again! And having some of them throughout the Abbey is very reminiscent of Redwall with the clues to Martin’s sword hidden around.

Speaking of connections to other stories, the Painted Ones have returned from Mattimeo and are antagonizing our heroes again. They haven’t changed a bit. The snake Baliss is compared to Asmodeus (from Redwall) a number of times as well. On a happier note, the Dibbuns Against Bedtime (from Triss I believe) are back at it once more. It’s so nice having connections to the previous books, reminds you that this is all part of one universe.

The story in general is wonderfully written! There are many characters, each of whom gets their chance in the spotlight as the riddles lead on, and various foes come into play. This fleshes out all of them into their own personalities, and I never got them mixed up as a result. There’s the owl that joins the Abbey, the first (and only) dormouse Abbot, and a hare from the north that becomes Abbey Warrior. The characters have always been the best part of this series, but since they are in a plot that serves them well all of them become twice as lovable.

I think I have gone off about this enough, I really enjoyed this story, it’s a classic Redwall tale that plays off of the fun tropes. So it remains connected to the rest of the series, but goes off on its own enough to establish it as its own story.