Today, a legend of my childhood died. Brian Jacques, author of the great Redwall series, died of a heart attack at age 71. Just look at that picture, he wasn't some lame children's writer, he was committed to the craft. Look at how he dresses.
The Redwall series has 22 books, one of which will be released posthumously this May. The book series was a mainstay on library shelves at elementary and middle schools across the country, dare I say the world. In addition to Redwall, he wrote a trilogy series of the stories of The Castaways of the Flying Dutchman, which I also read and enjoyed. Redwall was the best. Animals of all kinds fought for good and evil, usually with a lot of mice, squirrels, and otters, sometimes even Badgers, the beasts of the Redwall series, fought against foxes, stoats, pumas, and et cetera. Good, rightfully, always ended up on top. But these books weren't just silly stories about talking animals. They were awesome adventures with crazy fight scenes involving volcanoes, poison, and anything else you could imagine. I don't know why a movie of one of these books hasn't been made yet. For all the kids out there who loved Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and other odd book series, I say they missed out on Redwall. It was the best book series of our youth. Everytime I see a mouse take up a sword against evil, I'll think of you Brian Jacques.
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