Customer Reviews

The Pearls of Lutra: A Novel of Redwall

5 star:		(131)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book, by Brian Jacques, is one of the many Redwall series books using animals as the main characters. In this particular Redwall book vicious pirates stole six priceless pearls from Lutra, an otter settlement. All otters, save one were murdered. The remaining otter vows vengeance; and sets off to track down the sea pirates that killed her family. So along the way, she meets a group of Redwallers, who are searching for their abbot, and the story goes on from there. Most of this book I liked, and there were great scenes of food and feasts that made my mouth water. Another thing I liked was that the characters weren't always peaceful. Martin, the Redwall warrior actually went into rages of war lust, which is unusual in fantasy books, for the main characters often will only fight in self-defense. That made the characters seem more real. The one aspect of the book I didn't like were the parts when the characters would start a ballad or talk with poems. Those parts seemed to go on forever. I usually skipped those parts (which sometimes went on for more than a page) and went on to the action scenes usually soon after. Overall, this book was interesting, and if you're a fan of the Redwall series, or just like fantasy stories, this will be a good read.

This tale from the redwall series is
about an evil pine marten named Ublaz who send out a group to steal six mysterious pearls. In the group, there were two traitors who end up escaping from the ship with the pearls. The pearls finally ends up at redwall.Then the story unfolds from the captured abbot to the riddles of the pearls to the journey of a warrior mouse. Would they find the pearls in time to exchange them for their abbot or will Martin do something about it? you'll just have to find out by reading this amazingly well written story.

First of all this was a great book, the way the story is written kept me coming back for more. The suspense found in the extremely clever riddles is only one of many factors that made this book a real page turner. Overall i think this book is great, but not the best compared to the other Redwall books i've read.

The Pearls of Lutra revolves around several central characters. First and foremost is Tansy the hedgehog. It is she who undertakes the quest to find the hidden pearls, and her sections of the book are filled with the usual enderaing Redwall dialects, characters, and riddles. The riddles were fun without being incredibly difficult to solve...children would have a good time thinking them over to see if they can figure it out before Tansy and her friends.
Martin the second makes a return appearance, this time setting out to rescue kidnapped Redwallers. He proves to be his dependable self, protecting the innocent and bringing the vilians to their knees.
Grath Longfletch is an otter bent on bringing vengeance on the corsairs that slaughtered her family.
I could go on and on about so many of the characters in this book: owls, hares, the Guosim shrews, seals, and more!

I enjoyed this book for the most part. The only drawback is that I found the varying storylines more distracting than usual. There are always a lot of things going on in Redwall books, but it was difficult to keep things straight this time. Perhaps the similarity in the names of several characters was part of it.

As you can see this is my favorite book in the Redall books. I am a big fan of fantasy, and this book really upheld my expectations. And, being a Lord of the Rings fan my expectations are really high.
Two years before the story starts Emperor Ulbaz, called Mad Eyes behind his back, send a shipload of Corstairs to steal the Tears of all Oceans, six perfect, rose colored pearls. But to do this, they must murder the Holt of Lutra the Otter. Unfortunatly for the Corstairs, they made one big mistakes. they left Lutra's daughter, Grath Longfletch, alive.
One of the crew turnes out to be a trator, he steals the pearls, and finds his way to Redwall Abbey where an Fermald the Ancient takes him in and befrends him. He later leaves the Abbey, but dies before he gets too far. Before Fermald dies she hides the six pearls is different places around the abbey, leaving clues in the form of riddles to enable some one to eventually find them.
Fast forward two years. Tansy, a hedgehog maid and Arven, a squrrell Dibbuns are out gathering herbs for Sister Cicely, who is in charge of the Infermatary. Getting caught in a rainstorm, they seek shelter in some old caves, where they discover an old skeleton. Later, we find out it is the skeleton of the old Corstair.
As the story unfolds Tansy is faced with the challange of finding the six pearls, while Martin the Warrior #2 has to sail to Sampentra, the corstair's home isalnd, to recover the Abbot Durall and Viola Bankvole, who were kidnapped by some of Ulbaz's Monitor Lizzards.

I found this story to be a good read. The characters are very realistic, some of my favorites are Clecky the hare, and Arven the Squrrell, whose speaks in a cute baby voice(her is an example: Firsta sunny thena rannywet, it'sa maggit!) Unlike Tolkien, the names are easy to pronounce and the story is not as confusing, even though there are at least two or three subplots; which are very nice because they help you understand what has been happening by the time our Heros become involved.

I must warn you though. If you prefer books to be more real then DO NOT read this book. It most defenatly will dissapoint you.

Having just started my journey into the series called Redwall, Pearls of Lutra is my 9th read after Redwall, Mattimeo, Mossflower, Martin the Warrior, Outcast of Redwall, Mariel of Redwall,& The Bellmaker. Now like all Redwall books I have read, It started innocently enough, but then escalated into a plot so thick that you really had to pay attention in order to keep up during the ride, which made a very refreshing read and even made you think to solve the many riddles involved into finding the Pearls of Lutra. My favorite character was Grath Lutra, whose family was massacred when the evil Mad Eyes sent a crew to steal the Pearls of Lutra, I found that by the end of the book, I thought of them not as animals but as people and I was ready to aid them in the fight for good. Some old characters appear, like Martin, Mattimeo's son, also you meet the current Abbot, Skipper, and even a Long Patrol hare. I would, in closing, highly suggest The Pearls of Lutra fo anyone, young or old for an escape from reality.

I think that the book The Pearls of Lutra was totally cool! It was about a different sort of crisis in Redwall. When the an evil pine marten, Emperor Ublaz "Mad Eyes" of Sampetra,sets out to claim the "Tears of All Oceans",six beautiful pink pearls, for his own,the trouble on Sampetra naturally turns North towards Redwall Abbey. One of the corsairs from the island stole the Tears from his Captain,who was taking them to Ublaz. Greylunk(the corsair) received a fatal head injury from his accomplice,and painfully made his way to Redwall, where he was nursed by Fermald the Ancient until his death. Fermald hides the 6 pearls around the abbey. When Ublaz sends a young,kind-hearted corsair ferret named Romsca and a score of filthy monitor lizards to reclaim the pearls, they kidnao the Abbot and a young vole named Viola, and sail back to Sampetra with them. However, some complications arise.... Ok, mateys, I anit sayin no more! Read this yarn for yerselves. The book was beautifully written, and though the characters were a bit 2/D at times, I loved it. I especially thought that Romsca,Barranca and Conva(for the short time he lived) were really cool.

I could not put it down. It was very well written and intense. I like all the books from Brian Jaques, but my brother,...well, we won't go into that

I'm not a fantasy fan, and when I started I kind of went, Whoaaa! But after I started going, I couldn't stop! I probably would have never have read it, but it appeared on the Battle of the Books list for 7th/8th grade battle of the books, so I didn't have a choice. Incredibly descriptive, this is one of the best of the Redwall books. Trying to figure out the riddles before the characters was entertaining, not that I did all that well, and the character development was interesting. At the beginning, there were too many characters for me to handle, of course I had never read a Redwall book before at that time, but by the end, I could tell you about each and every character. This story beautifully addresses greed and the ability some find to abuse power. If some one were hesitant about starting the series at the begging, although this one is a ways after, it's a good place to start.

A riveting story about animals that are astonishing human-like. If you enjoyed the other books of the Redwall series, be sure that this book is in your bookcase. If the next books are as page-turning as this one is, Brian Jacques is sure to have a few classical book under his belt.

The Redwall star! What a book. I have read all the books but this book passes all. The story opens with the young capable hedgehog maid, Tansy, who takes the little dibbun squirrel named Arven out into the Mossflower woods for a nice picnic. A storm overtakes them just whenthe woods are their best and brightest. The disappointed duo run to the shelter of a small cave. A great book, full of good mice, moles, squirrels, otters, hedgehogs, and hares. Also many sinister animals and above all the leader, a sleek evil cunning pine martin named Mad Eyes. He is served by rats and flesh eating lizards. If you have not read this book, read it. If you have read it, read it again. Thank you Mr. Jacques for this masterpiece.