Rakkety Tam: A Novel of Redwall

This story, Rakkety Tam by Brian Jacques took me a long while to finish. This is no fault of the book, which was actually really good, but my laziness. This is a fantasy/ adventure book, featuring mice, badgers, otters, squirrels, water voles, a hawk, foxes, rats and wolverines. The animals talk, and the book is filled with their songs and poems. There is a map, thankfully, at the beginning of the book, to give the places mentioned a bit of perspective.

A wolverine, Gulo, from the land of ice and snow, killed his father, the ruler of the land, for something called the Walking Stone. His brother, Askor, took the stone before Gulo could get his paws on it and fled to the seas. He landed on the shoreline of this little world. His evil brother followed him and spent the book searching for his brother and the stone. He was an evil beast, and came with foxes and vermin in his army. They murdered any creatures they saw and ate their carcasses. They also stole the creatures' belongings. In the process, they pissed off the hares of Salamandastron and the squirrels of King Araltum's Groves.
Rakkety Tam McBurl was a squirrel who was sent by a ridiculous king to retrieve a ridiculous banner from the evil creatures. He and his friend, Wild Doogy Plum were on a mission of revenge for their fallen friends at the Groves.
The story contains many different creatures coming together to defend an Abbey with no defenses, save for the brick wall, and fighting for the safety of their friends and families back home. The personalities of the characters were very wide ranging and well thought out from the clever vole thief to the silly little dibbuns. The book is a good read, and contains enough action and adventure for adult readers, despite the use of talking animals with strange names. The book deserves 4 stars ****