#i once created a redwall fanfic that i planned to turn into an epic but eventually i canned the idea

[someoneimsure]

I saw that you like red wall(I've only watched the animated series), and I was wondering if you've also seen the secret of nimh?

Hell yeah I have! It's one of my favorite Don Bluth films, right next to the original Land Before Time.

Did you know the book and movie are two vastly different experiences?

The Book:

The Movie:

It helps that the book has no magical elements at all and is just showing the lives of rats with human intelligence--and of course Mrs Frisby and her sick son, Timothy.

Did you know that the original book was actually written and published in response to real life treatment of rats? Specifically, an experiment by John Calhoun from a real life research facility called National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)? The experiment is on overpopulation and how it affects the health and mentality of animals, with rats and mice natural being a general stand-in for humans. The results are actually horrific.

TL;DR: When space and available mates become scarce, animals stop reproducing and become depressed because they can't travel to find new mates and fulfill their purpose in life. No brainer, right?

Though... The research might be more applicable to studying potential problems from colonizing other planets that require us to create spaces for our species to survive. Humans tend to be one of the most adaptable species on the planet, even more adaptable than rodents since they have to evolve to fit the environments and humans just make machines that supplant evolution entirely, so the research might not be as helpful as we might like. Just another reason to can it entirely.

I have a question for you! <3 Have you ever heard of this book series?

If you really like the Secret of Nimh movie, I highly recommend checking this out. And if you really like Redwall and want something more grown-up and sci-fi, check out the book: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh.

I can happily report that the Redwall series and the books are extremely similar, though Brian tends to add paragraphs of food descriptions. Where are they getting the milk, Brian?? Who are they milking!? Why are they baking things that need eggs, Brian?? Birds are people, too!

In the Redwall book, there's a lot of continuity weirdness. Scourge shows up in a giant horse-drawn carriage containing thousands of rats when later books have no horses and also the carriages are more badger-sized. It's an awesome image, though, so I can't complain. It's a real shame they didn't make a dark movie about it.

I caution you about some of the things Brian writes. He rarely has good "verminbeast" characters (and those usually are simpletons) and even characters that should be considered good are treated by the narrative as evil (Outcast of Redwall is a whiplash of emotions, let me tell you, and Triss and Taggerung are both basically Mary/Gary-stus respectively.) And some tropes are extremely repetitive. A lot of the villains are cartoonishly evil to an almost hilarious degree--even as a kid I was laughing at Gabool the Wild and his absolutely insane obsession with a bell.

I would recommend Martin the Warrior and the sequel Mossflower, Mariel of Redwall and the sequel Bellmaker, Marlfox (for the chaotic fox family), Pearls of Lutra (for the nuance in the cats), The Long Patrol (for the bunnies and actual nuance), and of course Redwall and the sequel Mattimeo for the best Basil Stag Hare moments. Outcast of Redwall is my personal fav, but my boy Veil was done dirty at the end there.

And if you like to read a story and universe similar to Redwall but is more linear and focused on one small cast, there's the Mistmantle Chronicles.

I am missing one book in the series so I can't say if it's all good. I find the lack of descriptors boring. These books are hard to find so I would just start looking for pdfs. Who knows? You might like the series better than I did.

#long post #sorry the long reply i got carried away #book recs #i once created a redwall fanfic that i planned to turn into an epic but eventually i canned the idea #and decided to use it as inspiration for original fiction #the book has been in progress for five years with no sign of actually getting written lol #asks #thanks for the ask! <3 #oh shit i forgot to recommend Rakkety Tam #that book sends me to a higher plane of existence with how wild everyone is #they fight fucking cannibal Wolverines in that one #and those things are monsters #the only shame is there wasn't a badger vs wolverine fight #totally missing out