Loamhedge - A Tale From Redwall, Book 16

Brian Jacques' Redwall books were a staple of my childhood reading and I remember hauling home three or four at a time from the library. It little mattered that the stories all shared the same basic plot and character types; they were adventurous and fun—and thick, to boot. While these stories

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were never quite favorites, I spent many hours with the entertaining inhabitants of Redwall Abbey. So I was looking forward to revisiting them through the full-cast audiobook recording, narrated by the author.

Unfortunately, the experience was not a success. I only made it through two discs (of twelve) before setting this aside. First off, the story takes forever to get going. We are introduced at great length to the latest set of Redwall dwellers and the vermin horde headed their way. The vermin horde undergoes no fewer than three changes in leadership (due to assassination) in the space of those two discs, and it gets a bit monotonous after awhile. And the Redwallers were more cutesy and juvenile than I remembered.

Plus, there are technical issues with the recording and the way Jacques narrates. Ordinarily I love the idea of an author narrating his own book, but Jacques sounds like he has a cold and his accent comes across as sloppy and indistinct, sometimes to the point where I had trouble understanding him. This is especially noticeable in the way he pronounces the ends of words; he half-swallows them. And I'm not sure where this was recorded, but there is an awful tinny sound on many of the voices, like they were recorded in a can. In addition, occasionally the audio spikes into distortion when the characters raise their voices. It was annoying to listen to. I probably wouldn't have cared if I listened to these as a kid, but I've picked up some niceties with my years and apparently a clean, clear recording is one of them.

I wonder if I would enjoy Redwall more if I revisited in print rather than audio. The plodding pace of nothing happening would be alleviated, the technical issues of the recording would be non-existent, and the repetitious characters and plots may be less noticeable. I'm reluctant to give up on my childhood reading pleasures so easily, and anyways I've been collecting quite a number of Redwall books over the years. No particular book of the series stands out in my memory; perhaps a fan can advise me as to one of the stronger titles. Ah well.

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