I tried. Got as far as the end of "Book One" at page 97 before deciding this one wasn't for me. I think for two reasons. The first being the style seemed clunky to me and the dialogue cheesy. It's an omniscient narrative but without personality, humor or charm. Granted, this novel was written to be a children's book. But so was The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Watership Down, Narnia, The Last Unicorn and The Sword in the Stone and that doesn't keep them from being compelling reads for an adult.
The other reason is this is one of those books where the characters are animals. The kind where animals wear clothing and pretty much act like people. The rabbits of Adams, the unicorn of Beagle and the dragons of McCaffrey, Lackey and Novik feel just alien enough to not strike me as humans in different clothing. The mice, badgers and otters of Redwall Abbey and their rat foes are a different matter. It's not even clear whether the characters are animal-shaped people of human size or talking animals in a human world. The central character, Matthias the mouse, a novice at the Abbey, is the kind of hero that stumbles over his own sandals but then miraculously becomes a skilled warrior when need arises.
I found what I read of the book tedious, slow-moving, and lacking in striking lines, original ideas or memorable characters. I suspect I might have loved this book when I was ten years old. Problem is that was decades ago...
