Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 15 years and 8 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Martin the Warrior finds himself trespassing on the land of Verdagua, King of a Thousand Eyes, as he lies sick and near dying. With his last strength, Verdagua is struggling to make a decision on who should replace him as ruler of Mossflower Country. As Martin and his newfound friend and fellow prisoner Gonff become embroiled in the battle against Verdagua’s ruthless daughter, Tsarmina, a bloody fight between good and evil ensues.

It took us a little longer than book one, but my daughter and I finally finished the second book of Brian Jaques’ Redwall series, “Mossflower.”

“Mossflower” takes place an unspecified amount of time before “Redwall” but in the same general location. The now-familiar cast of woodlanders are all present again: mice, moles, hedgehogs, otters, badgers, and squirrels. The antagonists this time are the usual armies of rats, stoats, weasels, and foxes, led by the evil wildcat queen Tsarmina. The book tells the story of Martin the Warrior: how he came to Mossflower country and his quest to free Mossflower Woods from the armies of Kotir. Along the way he must repair his father’s sword, the same sword that ends up playing a central role of Matthias’ quest in “Redwall.”

It was great seeing my daughter’s face light up as we read together and she put together the pieces linking the characters and locations in “Mossflower” to “Redwall” (especially at the end). She also enjoyed comparing the maps in the front of both books. I think her favorite characters in this one were Ferdy and Coggs, the two young hedgehogs. My favorites was young Dinny, the mole. Molespeech is really hard to read out loud. 😉

My daughter has already read (by herself) the third book in the series, “Mattimeo” (I guess she got tired of waiting since it was taking us so long to finish “Mossflower”). So now I’ll have to read that one next (by myself) to catch up and then we can move onto book four.