Mariel of Redwall takes place between Mossflower and Redwall and once again splits the story, this time between Mariel, daughter of Joseph the Bellmaker on a quest for vengence and a(nother) sea rat attack on Mossflower Abbey.

In a lot of ways, these stories are rather formulaic. There always seem to be two plots: one threatening the abbey, and the other a quest guided by mysterious verse, with Martin’s sword along for the ride. That being said, they’re still wonderfully fun and whimsical stories and the repetitiveness is actually really nice when I’m primarily listening to them while walking/running/driving various places. Deep, attention seeking books these are not. Light fun tales of various woodland animals killing one another in the name of peace… :D

The more we jump around in the timeline, the more I wonder when (if ever) we’ll get to see some of these same characters again. I really like Mariel and the gang, but if we time jump again, will we ever see them again? She wasn’t even mentioned in the ‘future’ of Redwall, that I recall. We shall have to see.