REDWALL FANFICTION REVIEW: SNOWSPINE'S "VENGEANCE QUEST"

Role-playing games, or RPG's, have long been one of the more popular activities in the Redwall Online Community. While only a relatively small percentage of the ROC membership indulges in the writing of fanfics, a great many more participate in RPG's, mainly because the interactive nature of such roleplaying more fully engages the average fan and lets them enjoy the fun of acting out stories with other character/writers. Many clubs and websites have their own forums for such games, and then there are the writing contests such as ROC: Survivor and Questors Bold.

Of course, the qualities that make a good fanfic and the skills that make a good roleplayer are not necessarily the same. A roleplayer writes mostly for himself, creating the action on the fly and responding to plot twists introduced by his fellow RPGers. A fanfic writer must produce more polished prose that appeals to an outside audience. A roleplayer doesn't have to worry about immaculate spelling, punctuation and grammar, or even keeping the plot straight or providing adequate detail, whereas a fanfic author must concern himself with all this and more, lest he find himself with no readers.

This may be why only a relative few RPGers graduate from roleplaying to fanficcing. Yet, paradoxically, the RPG arena provides a perfect proving ground for fledgling authors to hone their skills and develop their technical and storytelling abilities to the point where they can, if they choose, become fine literary talents.

Perhaps the ultimate example of an author successfully making this transition is Snowspine, whose magnum opus "Vengeance Quest" had its genesis in her extensive RPG experiences. This superb chaptered fanfic - one of the most famous in the ROC, and deservedly so - follows the exploits of the squirrel warriormaid Riala Goldentail. As a youth, Riala sees her father Rilar Battlecry slain by the treachery of the wolverine Nightdeath Longclaws, and swears vengeance even as she narrowly escapes from the vermin who slew her sire. Thus commences an epic saga that took years for Snowspine to finish writing and covers many seasons in the life of her fearless heroine.

The early chapters follow Riala from her home in the Northern Mountains to the shores of the western sea, and finally to Mossflower and Redwall itself. At each stop along her travels, she throws in her lot with the woodlanders she meets in their struggles against enemy vermin, freeing slaves and making a valiant stand with the goodbeasts who inhabit the seaside caves where once dwelt Martin the Warrior and his father Luke. Journeying farther south, she comes to the mountain fastness of Salamandastron, where she discovers she has a part to play in the prophecy of the Badger Lord Firesight in his conflict with the fox horde leader Zarok. Surviving yet another battle on the sands around the natural fortress, Riala takes her leave of the Long Patrol and strikes out east toward Mossflower, where a chance wintertime encounter with a pair of rats nearly proves her undoing. Badly injured, she wakes up in the Abbey infirmary, where she is informed she has seasons of healing and therapy to endure before she can ever hope to regain her fighting shape.

These parts of the story are all very much in the traditional Redwall vein, written with a fine attention to both natural detail and the characters' emotions and thoughts, with action scenes that are crisp and concise. Snowspine clearly demonstrates her ability to write well for an audience, juggling a plethora of well-developed supporting characters and orchestrating her admittedly straightforward plot with the skill of a master storyteller. The limitations one might expect from an author who cut her teeth in the world of RPGing are nowhere in evidence, while the abilities Snowspine undoubtedly picked up in her roleplaying serve her well here.

This background comes into play in other ways during the middle chapters of "VQ," in the form of the Wanderers of Mossflower, a peacekeeping force that has its roots in Snowspine's roleplaying days. Co-opting several characters created by her fellow RPG authors, Snowspine begins to blur the boundaries of traditional Redwall at this point in her novel, for it turns out that the Wanderers include not just woodlanders but vermin species as well, all working together for the security of Mossflower. Presented with the opportunity to become a Wanderer herself, Riala must come to terms with the idea of working with foxes and other kinds of creatures she never before could have considered friends and allies. This dilemma provides plenty of opportunity for introspection and psychological debate, examining the nature of prejudice and precisely what it is that makes a beast good or evil.

A providential run-in with a defector from Nightdeath's army rekindles Riala's lust for vengeance. Resigning from the Wanderers - as much for her brutal treatment of the unfortunate female stoat as to resume her search for her wolverine nemesis - Riala heads south toward her destiny, her only companion the young squirrel Malaya whom Riala had rescued from slavery and taken as her warrior-in-training.

It is at this juncture that "VQ" makes its most radical departure from traditional Redwall. The next couple of very long chapters follow what has been happening in the Longclaws horde during Riala's time in Mossflower. We meet the stoat commander Kiern and the various captains within the vermin horde, see their ruthless methods of dealing with woodlanders and recruiting new fighters ... and learn that even within this vast assemblage of rats, weasels and foxes, not all beasts are necessarily evil. This is perhaps the most comprehensive examination of the workings of a vermin horde ever undertaken in any Redwall fanfic, showing the logistics and organization necessary to keep such a large group going, the layers of intrigue as different hordesbeasts jockey for position and influence and favor, and the thoughts and feelings of these creatures, every bit as real and valid as those of goodbeasts. These chapters raise "VQ" to the next level and help distinguish it as one of the very best Redwall fanfics ever written.

The final chapter, detailing Riala's final confrontation with Nightdeath Longclaws in the environs of Southsward and Castle Floret, reverts to the more traditional Redwall style that permeates the early chapters, bringing the story full circle. By the time readers finish the epilogue, they will feel as if they have been on a grand adventure and then some, venturing into areas seldom explored to this extent in Redwall fanfiction. "VQ" is indeed a glorious and gripping tale, epic in its scope and deep in it resonance, executed with a literary skill matched by few if any other fanfic writers. If you only read one work in this genre, this is probably the one you should choose.

(NOTE: "Vengeance Quest" does include a number of scenes depicting violence somewhat more jarring and intense than is usually encountered in Redwall, including torture and rape. While Snowspine handles the more mature themes with subtlety and tact, just as she did in her short story "Stolen Song" which I reviewed in this column last spring, younger and more impressionable readers are advised to proceed with caution. For anyone over the age of 13 who doesn't mind the more unsavory aspects of Medieval conflict, however, "VQ" is the pinnacle of Redwall fanfiction.)

-Highwing