Holy crap, what an epic.

I cant believe machus died.

Killed my favorite character. Damn.

I do not have words for how awesome and beautiful this whole story is. Thank you so much.

This is a worthy addition to the Mossflower universe. Well done!

Whew! That was quite a story to get through. Excellently crafted. I think this story is equal in many aspects to the actual Redwall books. Definitely a must read.

I see her point on not provoking him, but the Abbess' choice reminds me too much of Britain's and America's when faced with Nazi Germany.

It's very easy to pretend sorrow after your foe is slain... Urthblood may be logical but he is no goodbeast.

Will do! And I plan to read some of your other stories which have interested me.

I'm already getting the idea that Urthfist may have just been set in his ways. If his brother hadn't broken their vow long ago, I'm sure Urthfist would not be dead like he is. Not the best way to deal with the situation, but I suppose it makes Urthblood more mortal and the story more believable. I don't want the story to end! It's wonderful! It's got me hook line and sinker!

I'm having so much fun reading, it's hard to put myself to work doing other things sometimes. Expect my review in some of your other stories. I will get this finished, my work done, and start on the Shrew Wars real soon.

No, worries, S.I.S.! Even at the start of your first review, I could tell you'd really formed strong and emotional opinions about my two Badger Lord characters. If Urthblood represents something new to the Redwallian universe, then Urthfist stands in for the traditional Badger Lords, who in BJ's novels have slain more vermin than I can even begin to count; his "insanity," as you put it, is merely the attitude of any number of Badger Lords from the published novels, perhaps exaggerated a bit to contrast Urthblood's conscription of the vermin but still very much rooted in what BJ gave us. It's a clash between the orthodox and the revolutionary and, viewed in those terms, is about a whole lot more than just the rule of some mountain by the sea.

Many thanks for the reviews! I cherish them all! And please do continue the tale in "The Shrew War!"

Sorry about that lost post if it seemed like a flame; you should probably skip to the ending and read what I said there first, if you feel your being criticized. Sorry, I need to work on better ways for writing my reviews.

(It occurs to me that I forgot to mention that I believe you could probably write a book for Redwall - if they let you - and be partially mistake for fancier Mr. Jacques. Marvelous skills and talent, I say, chap.

All this talk of fighting... and for what? Ruling Salamanderstron. I never liked Urthblood from the beginning because of his tactics, his emotionless and distant manner, and his obvious corrupt ways which he brought with him from the northlands, regardless of his respect and politeness to Redwall and of the fact that I like what he did to the vermin - giving those creatures a chance to defy the stereotypes which have existed since the beginning of Redwall stories!

However, considering the alternative, I dislike Urthfist even more so. He's obviously insane on some level and completely inconsiderate to the creatures he swears he means to protect. He's out of control, even though his brother eggs him on. Neither of them have very good footing in this fight for Lordship because neither of them deserve the throne, but I suppose it's a matter of the lesser of two evils.

All in all, as you can probably tell, I absolutely adore your very creative and well-constructed story and I'm dying to see it to it's resolution which I'm getting to as you are reading this (if you are reading this). I'm not sure if you get much encouragement from your readers but I should probably say this - you have talent and keep up the jolly good work, wot!

Let me just start off by saying that you sir, without a doubt, have written one of the best Redwall stories I've ever had the pleasure to read, possibly THE best I've ever read in fact.

The amount of detail you give to the characters, to the environments ranging from the Abbey to Salamandastron and the surrounding Mossflower country, to the battle sequences, to the different species mannerisms and speech patterns, even to describing the food, reminds me time and again that you have, without a doubt, emulated Mr. Jacques writing style perfectly in this story. Countless times it felt like I was reading an actual story penned by him, but I don't think that even Mr. Jacques himself could've come up with such a gripping story, nor would he probably have had the nerve to write it, since, admittedly, it does break from the normal Redwall conventions quite a lot, but to me, this is but a minor quibble when I think of just how epic a story this has turned out to be for me. And just to think, I haven't even started the sequel! I can't wait to start reading that as well, I'm sure it'll be just as good, if not better than The Crimson Badger.

If you would indulge a curious fellow writer, I'd love to hear the story of how you came up with the idea for this story if you wouldn't mind telling it. :)

And just as a final bit of praise, I just want to say that this story would be, in my mind, a more fitting conclusion to the Redwall series than The Rogue Crew ever could (not to badtalk The Rogue Crew, it's an awesome story in its own wright). The amount of detail you gave this story, as well as the content of the story itself, just completely blows The Rogue Crew away.

Congratulations once again on penning such an awesome story, and see you in the sequel!

csigamer1990

I must say! You had me laughing like a mad beast on caffeine! From all that terrible stuff and tragedy I've been eating up like someone starvin it's a great wonderful thing to laugh and not be on the verge of tears. Oh, I really needed a good laugh, and you supplied me with such. Thank you.

Lol grins