“Lord Asheye of Salamandastron has a prophecy: a new Badger Lord will
soon reign over the legendary badger fortress, one who ‘shuns armour
and sword’. But who is this young beast and how is he to be found?
A haremaid from the Long Patrol regiment is dispatched on a dangerous
mission to find him, but the unsuspecting future Badger Lord has been
captured by a murderous gang of Sea Raiders who are intent on
conquering Redwall Abbey.
While the fate of many creatures, both good and evil, are caught up in
the saga, somehow the young ruler must escape and find a way to defend
Redwall, for only then will he be able to fulfill his destiny as
leader of Salamandastron.”
This is the story behind the lastest book in the Redwall series of
books. And what I think is one of the best. it’s has action, drama,
three plot threads, (hehe, been learning the talk from Mr.
Stackpoole.) that come together in a very exciting book and very well
told tale.
But……Let’s start at the begining.
Gorath is a young badger, who lives humbly on a farm with his folks.
He doesn’t know a lot about the outside world, and really has not been
very far from his home at all. Then one night a group of sea raiders
come ashore looking for food. They find the farm, kill his parents,
knock Gorath out and burn down his home. They kidnap him, hoping to
make a raider/warrior out of him. His world is turned upside down, yet
he refuses to to do anything the raiders want of him. Vowing to take
his revenge on them all as soon as he can. The lash him to the main
mast and will not give him food or water until he changes his mind.
Lord Asheye is the current lord Of the warrior fortress,
Salamandastron. He is getting very old and he is blind now. He
realizes that he will have to find a replacement soon. He has a
strange vision of a badger : ” Who will defend Redwall Abbey in it’s
days of peril and strife? The beast who shuns both armour and sword.,
torn from the simply life. He with destiny marked on his brow, who
walks with the banished one. Send forth a maid to seek out the flame,
to rule when the rule when the old lord is gone.” He soon learns he
will have to send out someone to find this badger and bring him back.
but who to send?
Mad Maudie is an assistant cook in the fortress Salamandastron, she
loves to cook and is very good at it…….most times. But say
anything bad about her cooking, and you will get a punch in the nose
for sure. Maudie doesn’t like people who are certics to her cooking.
She is something of a fighter, and will mix it up with anyone. Which
gets her in a lot of trouble there at the fortress, and causes Lord
Asheye to ask; “What are we going to do with you?” After a while he
comes up with the idea of sending her out after the badger in his
dreams.
Orkwill Prink is a young thief living with his grandmother in Redwall
Abbey, although he doesn’t steal for personal gain. He does it because
it comes easy for him, and it’s “fun”. He is also good at hiding, so
when he steals things from the folks in the Abbey; it is very hard to
find him. But of course they find him, along with some of his
treasure. Although the abbot and the people of the Abbey are kind and
forgiving, they can only stand so much, And they decide to send
Orkwill away, so he will be on his own to learn first hand how hard it
is to make a life out in the world. Where he will have to fend for
himself. But he soon learns, being hungry isn’t his only trouble when
he runs into the sea raiders, who are looking for Redwall Abbey.
Eulaliah is a fantastic book! Full of great characters, (all animals
by the way.) all four plots are interesting and it is very cool how
the writer pulls it all together in the end. I liked how it showed how
Gorath grew as a person and how he over came a lot to become a great
warrior.
Can the badger Gorath and find the abbey before the raiders in order
to warn them? After being whipped, knocked on the head, and starved
for three days; will he even have the strength to try??
Will he learn to control the bloodrage that is in him and rise to be
Salamandastron’s greatest warrior???
I don’t to spoil anything here, so you wil just have to read the book.
I will say that the Redwall series is some of the best young adult
books out there. Also, I found something very cool I wanted to add
here. I found that there was, and maybe still is in places a Redwall
cartoon series. I found them on youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=redwall&aq=f
So if you have kids, younger than teens really; you should go there
and look. I hope they put these on dvds, I would watch them myself. 
I do on youtube. Be nice to own though.
So go check out the latest novel Eulaliah, and pick up others that you
might have missed. They are all good. Eulaiah is available from
Penfuin books, and sells for 7.99 for the paperback.
Darcy
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