Book Look: Redwall

Here is something that made up a huge part of my childhood, the precursor to Mistmantle, but with a lot more black and white morality, happy endings, and monster horror. Redwall has 22 books with a 23rd one in development before Brian Jacques's untimely passing.

Which still bums me out like seven years later.

While this is the first book written for the series, it is chronologically number 9. I'm curious as to how many of them I can get through before either DirectTV or Xfinity restores our services.

Being the first book, there are some major things that stand out differently from the rest of the series; Hence, why this book is more or less considered Canon Discontinuity with the other 21.

• I think the Sandstone Quarry is mentioned once more, in Doomwyte, book #20, but not anywhere else.
• There's a beaver. It's not native to the British Isles, which would be the running theme of the books after this one with a few exceptions. 
• Horses, dogs, and goat('s cheese) are also mentioned. Later books would eschew those animals entirely and have cheese and dairy products come from plants.
• They also mention Portugal. The world Redwall inhabits is completely separate from that of one with human beings, although it is alluded to in #18, High Rhulain, that a distant section of the wildcats' ancestors were domesticated by something. 
• What the fuck. That's mindboggling. As late as that arrives in the series, it's probably relatively firm canon. Or at least the wildcats believe it. Although considering that it's clearly mentioned and alluded to that dinosaurs walked (& swam) this version of earth, it's completely possible that cats were once domesticated by fucking dinosaurs. Or maybe this is an alternate world where wildcats gained sentience right when the domestic cat was becoming a thing and wiped out basic humans. This series is a ride.
• Abbot Mortimer dubs Martin's sword with the name of Ratdeath. That was the first and last time anyone called it that.
• Most of the names are pretty real-world esque. More fanatical names show up in Mossflower, but by series' end we get names like Vilaya, Tiria, and Rakkety Tam and there's not a "normal" one to be found.
• Guosim is a character instead of the acronymed name of the group. It's even spelled out that her name is supposed to be an acronym - Guerilla Union of Shrews in Mossflower. Later books would name the entire clan The Guosim.
• There is no mention of a Skipper of Otters. Oddly, there's only one otter mentioned.
• There is also no mention of Salamandastron.
• It was a lot more steeped in the rules of a religious order. "The Order of Redwall Mice" is said a few times. Later books would eschew it and treat Redwall as more of a glorified group home orphanage.

From book 15 (Triss) to the end of the series (The Sable Quean), there really is no continuity from the previous book besides the locations and the great Sword. 

If you don't feel like reading, you can also watch three seasons of a television show that adapted Redwall, Martin The Warrior, and Mattimeo.