The novel, Martin the Warrior by Brian Jacques, is a book about a young mouse
warrior named Martin, son of Luke the Warrior, a mouse that fought sea rats, One
day, after the murder of most of his tribe (including his wife), Luke set sail
to have his revenge against Vilu Daskar, the stoat pirate responsible for the
massacre. Before he left, he gave Martin his sword, which had been handed down
through their family since Luke's own grandsire lived. This book is about how
Martin travels through a land full of moles, squirrels, and other woodland
creatures which talk and walk upright. Martin goes around meeting creatures from
all different lands and asks them to join his army to fight a tyrant who is
keeping slaves in his fort, Marshank. The plot of this book is how Martin and
his friends fight the tyrant, Badrang, to free slaves. The main idea of the book
is how and why Martin and his army fight the tyrant. When Martin was captured as
a slave for Badrang the Tyrant, he was furious. Not only did the evil rat steal
his father's sword, he beat and mistreated all of the slaves horribly! Devising
a plan, Martin frees himself and two of his friends from the Marshank, the slave
camp: Brome the mouse and Felldoh the squirrel. Brome's sister, Laterose (Rose
for short) and her companion Grumm the mole all set out with Martin and his
friends to go get help from their hometown of Noonvale. Unfortunately, due to
the sea's conditions, Martin, Rose, and Grumm get separated from Brome and
Felldoh. The two strings of the story carry on and tie together at the end:
Martin's group eventually reaches Noonvale, where he returns to Badrang to get
his revenge, and Brome and Felldoh join the Rambling Rosehip Players, a bunch of
happy-go-lucky animals that made the hardships less hard, and also get to the
slave camp. The ending is tragic, and whenever I read it I get depressed.
Martin, in the end, retrieves his sword from Badrang, and succeeds in killing
him, but Rose, who he has become very much attached to, tries to help Martin in
killing Badrang, but only ends up getting killed by him herself. Also, Felldoh
died toward the end-- he had fought Badrang one-on-one but the lousy cheater
called his army to help him. Felldoh, being a great warrior, killed many of
Badrang's men but did not kill Badrang himself. Brome still lived, but found he
did not like war, so he became a healer. Some of the characters that Martin
encountered along his travels changed from being his enemies to being his
allies. The creatures changed when Martin was off to go fight the tyrant and
when he and his friends asked them to which to join fight the tyrant so he could
not capture any more creatures for his slaves and makes his horde any more
powerful. Sometimes it did not seem believable because of how they turned from
enemies to allies instantly and why they joined without even knowing who Badrang
the tyrant was. I felt like I had a similar relationship when Martin was leading
his army into battle. I have this feeling when I’m a captain of my basketball
team and I have the partial responsibility of leading them to victory or defeat.
I thought that the best scene in the book was when Martin’s army attacked the
tyrant’s fort for the second time. It reminds me about whenever I lead or am a
part of an activity of some sort, like basketball or tennis. I think that the
title, Martin the Warrior, is fitting because it’s simple and it tells what
the book is about. I liked the author’s style of telling what was going on in
the book and how he described it. He made it feel like you were actually there.
The story made me feel good in the end, when Martin’s army defeated the
tyrant. I liked this because I love the feeling of victory.