Martin the Warrior
core novel 1993 Redwall
Record
| First published | 1993 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.17 (45,745 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780091761509 |
Synopsis
Set generations before Redwall, Martin the Warrior tells the origin story of the sword-bearing hero whose legend shapes the entire series. Martin is a young mouse enslaved at Marshank, a fortress ruled by a cruel tyrant, where he endures torture and captivity with open defiance. His refusal to submit inspires fellow prisoners, including the mousemaid Rose, a mole, and a squirrel, to help him escape, and the group sets out together toward the settlement of Noonvale to raise an army capable of striking back at Marshank. As Martin and his companions gather allies from across different species along the way, the novel follows the formation of the rebellion that will eventually challenge the tyrant's hold over the enslaved creatures of Marshank.
Where it sits
- Universe: Redwall
- Series: Redwall core; position 6 of 22 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Brian Jacques
Notes
- From the series record (Redwall): Brian Jacques's 22-novel high-fantasy sequence of anthropomorphic animals centered on Redwall Abbey, one continuous author-written saga (1986-2011; Jacques died shortly after The Rogue Crew's publication, completing the series). Listed here in original publication order; internal chronology deliberately left unpopulated -- the series' own well-documented publication-vs-internal-chronology divergence (e.g. Mossflower and Martin the Warrior are set generations before Redwall itself) is stated in prose per the same convention already applied to Valdemar's Last Herald-Mage set. Registered per the genre-boundary-transparency convention (talking-animal fantasy, same treatment already extended to Pern's dragons) -- this canon's marketing/critical consensus treats Redwall unambiguously as fantasy, not an animal fable in the Watership Down sense. No independently confirmable award history found.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Redwall: position 6 of 22: previous Salamandastron (1992) · next The Bellmaker (1995)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Redwall
- FantasticFiction: Brian Jacques's Redwall books in order
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_the_Warrior
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