Customer Reviews
kidnapped 
2006-10-19
Long ago the clan of Swaney Rath took a child from Redwall. The baby otter deyna, destined to be the "Taggerung" a warrior of legend chosen to lead the Juska. In his fifteenth season he rebells aginst his destiny.
this book is filled with detail and excitement. Taggerung also has many many riddles and songs throughout. over all this is a very good book. (warning may cause extreme hunger)
Other books:Redwall, mossflower, mattimeo, mariel of redwall, the bellmaker, the outcast of redwall, and so on and so forth.
I was surprised! (pleasantly) 2006-06-27
I have always picked up the Redwall series when I needed a nice light read, always fun and carefree, and never very deep or inventive. This book surprised me! This is the first Redwall book I've read to deviate from the cookie-cutter plot that is practically always used. This book's plot was inventive, interesting, and interlocking (which is why I won't give it away). The lead character is quite a deviation for Jacques, as is his story and growth. Tagg is a character I could actually become involved with, multi-faceted and deeper than any other character I think Jacques has written. All of a sudden in this book his characters are becoming real. I am looking forward to reading what he writes next. If you, like me, have toyed with the other Redwall books, enjoying them the way you might enjoy a spoonfull of whip cream (sweet, but fairly empty), pick up this Redwall book--it's a whole piece of pie.
Taggerung Review by Jackson 2006-06-01
TAGGERUNG
By Brian Jaques
This book is an incredible fourteenth novel of Redwall. It is one of my favorite books in the series alongside Martin the Warrior. It is an incredible mix of comedy, mystery, and action. The thing that makes this book and all the other books in the Redwall series shine is the accents that various animals have. For instance, Moles speak like this: "Oi bees `ungreey!" This means "I be hungry!" at first the strange writing and accents will be a bit hard to read, but once you get used to each animal's accent, what they say will often be quite funny. For readers that crave action in their books, there are a number of fights, tracking, hunting, and a hint of animal fantasy violence in places. In all, it is a wonderful, great, exiting story that many readers will enjoy. Readers might want to read the first thirteen books before reading Taggerung, but you should be able to enjoy the book, even without doing so.
My All Time Favorite Redwall Book!!!! 2006-05-20
This book is just awsome!!!! It is my all time favorite Redwall book. I won't give away any secrets though! I HIGHLY recommend this book to any one who's read some of the other books, or just likes a good read.
Brads review on Taggerung 2006-04-01
This book is about an otter whois kidnapped at birth by a brutal clan of animal warriors. They rase him to be the toughest warrior ever in the history of redwall abbey. The later catch a theif in ther clan andTaggis forced to skin him by the clan cheiftan Swaney Rath who is his "father" he then realizes that he is the only otter in the clan and decides to leave with Swaneys blade. he runs to find a mouse friend named Nimbalo they then return to his homeland of the great redwall abbey to protect it from his old clan win and live happily ever after.
A great installment in the redwall series 
2007-09-06
A stunning novel, once again by Brian Jacques. He never fails to capture me as a reader. My favorite books have been by Jacques. I started off with the roots of this extensive series and read "Redwall", and as I was pleased with the results, I continued and read "Martin the Warrior". However, "Taggerung" is by far my favorite. The characters are really quite interesting. By far my favorite being Nimbalo the Slayer, a fierce mouse warrior who is brave beyond belief, as he faces numerous enemies that are many times his size. And to boot, Nimbalo has quite the ego.
And as usual, Jacques describes the environments explored throughout the story with the utmost precision. Every nook and cranny, every twig and pebble, not even the slightest detail goes unnoticed.
And the plot was also quite well written. Each book published by Jacques comes with a new and fresh storyline. The only reason I made this 4/5 and not 5/5 was because I thought the plot seemed slighty, ever so slighty, resembling of some of the previous books, with all that talk of a mighty soldier foretold in a prophecy and all.
A great installment in the redwall series 2007-09-06
A stunning novel, once again by Brian Jacques. He never fails to capture me as a reader. My favorite books have been by Jacques. I started off with the roots of this extensive series and read "redwall", and as I was pleased with the results, I continued and read "Martin the Warrior". However, "Taggerung" is by far my favorite. The characters are really quite interesting. By far my favorite being Nimbalo the Slayer, a fierce mouse warrior who is brave beyond belief, as he faces numerous enemies that are many times his size. And to boot, Nimbalo has quite the ego.
And as usual, Jacques describes the environments explored throughout the story with the utmost precision. Every nook and cranny, every twig and pebble, not even the slightest detail goes unnoticed.
And the plot was also quite well written. Each book published by Jacques comes with a new and fresh storyline. The only reason I made this 4/5 and not 5/5 was because I thought the plot seems slighty, ever so slighty, resembliing of some of the previous books, with all that talk of a mighty soldier foretold in a prophecy and all.
A great installment in the redwall series 2007-09-06
A stunning novel, once again by Brian Jacques. He never fails to capture me as a reader. My favorite books have been by Jacques. I started off with the roots of this exyensive series and read "redwall", and as I was pleased with the results, I continued and read "Martin the Warrior". However, "Taggerung" is by far my favorite. The characters are really quite interesting. By far my favorite being Nimbalo the Slayer, a fierce mouse warrior who is brave beyond belief, as he faces numerous enemies that are many times his size. And to boot, Nimbalo has quite the ego.
And as usual, Jacques describes the environments explored throughout the story with the utmost precision. Every nook and cranny, every twig and pebble, not even the slightest detail goes unnoticed.
And the plot was also quite well written. Each book published by Jacques comes with a new and fresh storyline. The only reason I made this 4/5 and not 5/5 was because I thought the plot seems slighty, ever so slighty, resembliing of some of the previous books, with all that talk of a mighty soldier foretold in a prophecy and all.
The Daring Adventure 2007-02-17
It begins with a new born otter named Deyna who went with his dad to a river. While that was going on, evil vermin were using omens to find the Taggerung (the Taggerung is an extremely strong animal that is supposed to be almost invincible) and they found out that it was baby otter so they kidnapped him and killed his dad. Years later he left the vermin and his (fake) father was killed by a jealous stoat. Tagg (Taggerung) later found someone and became his friend named Nimbalo the Slayer. Tagg has a dream one night about his dad and the rest of his family which are at Redwall Abbey so he started his quest toward Redwall.
Tagg is kind and generous despite being raised by evil vermin. Tagg is also very patient and honest. I think this book is wonderful because it shows bravery, skill, intelligence and there are many feasts (at Redwall Abbey). This book is a great contribution to literature not to mention there are about fifteen other books Brian Jacques has written.
A Tip 'O the Hat to Mr. Brian Jacques 2006-10-20
At just three days old, Deyna's father was slain, and he was taken from his family by the Juskarath clan. The Juskarath believed Deyna to be the prophesied "Taggerung," the uber-elite warrior/ruler of all the Juska clans, even though he was an otter born of Redwall Abbey. After fifteen seasons of rigorous training reminiscent of the Spartans, Deyna realized that he wasn't cut out to be a savage killing machine like the rest of his clan. He broke free of them, and ran off to find his true family. But leaving a Juska clan wasn't that easy. Deyna soon found himself being hunted by his archrival, Gruven, and his vicious fellow clanbeasts. He ran for days across the countryside and through the forestlands, and finally met a creature that he grew to call friend. The creature was a harvest mouse by the name of Nimbalo, who himself had a mysterious and painful past. Deyna and Nimbalo traveled to the mountains in hopes of losing Gruven and his band of vermin and instead found an old shrew named Ruskem, who sheltered the two for a night. During the night, Deyna awoke to find Nimbalo yelling in his sleep, reliving the day he left his father's farm. It seemed that Nimbalo's father had beat him, and that's why he packed up and left. The pair left when morning came, and continued on through the mountains, only to find Gruven's gang yet again. Gruven caused a rockslide that killed several hundred pigmy shrews, even though they were meant to kill Deyna. Nimbalo and Deyna helped the shrews to bury their dead, and then continued on to find a hedgehog named Robald trapped in a mudball. The big otter freed Robald, and followed him back to his home. Robald was due to visit his Great-Aunt Lollery, who lived along the riverbank, so the pair accompanied him as sort of bodyguards. Unfortunately for Robald, he had chosen to visit at the same time as his rowdy country cousins, the Dillypins. Deyna ended up making an enemy out of the leader Dillypin, Jurkin, shortly after arrival. He and Jurkin settled their disagreement with a round of spiketussling, a hedgehog form of wrestling. Jurkin accepted Deyna as an equal, and offered to ferry them down the river towards Redwall Abbey. The Dillypin raft soon came upon the watermeadows, a favorite place of the Dillypin children. Nimbalo went off on his own, and Deyna took a long time finding him. But he was finally found, in his father's farmhouse, standing over his father's corpse. Nimbalo said that he was already slain when he arrived, with a mortal wound that could only have been caused by his father's own axe. A little sadder, the pair returned to the raft and set sail again, to stop at the edge of Mossflower Wood. Jurkin accompanied them a little ways in, but had to return to the raft. Deyna and Nimbalo kept on through Mossflower, and eventually came upon Redwall Abbey, where they were promptly mistaken for vermin and taken captive. It so happened that the Abbey was currently under siege by Gruven's lot, and they wanted the Abbey to hand over the Taggerung. Deyna desperately pleaded to be set free to kill the vermin, and the abbeybeasts complied. Deyna grabbed the sword of Martin the Warrior in his mad dash outside to get to the vermin. Swinging the big sword, he charged straight into the cluster of vermin, taking three arrows to the chest, and slew every last one of them. Deyna finally ended his killing spree several miles down the road, and was found by Redwall's Skipper of Otters. Skipper took him back to Redwall, where his mother Filorn and his sister Mhera saw their long lost son and brother for the first time in sixteen seasons. Filorn suggested that Deyna be taken to Rukky Garge, the otter healer, to heal him, of course, but to also remove all the tattoos covering his face. The process took a good week, but when Rukky had finished, he was even better than new. With renewed strength, Deyna and Skipper returned to Redwall. Filorn and Mhera raced out of the front gates to meet Deyna, who ran equally as fast to meet them, and all three collapsed in a joyful heap on the path.
Taggerung by Brian Jacques is a marvelous epic of one otter's journey home. This book is stunningly lifelike, even though the characters are talking animals.
All of Brian Jacques' eighteen Redwall novels have kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire story. The books are chock full of verisimilar creatures that truly cause you to feel sad if they die or become mortally wounded. Mr. Jacques has a certain knack for captivating readers of all times and ages with his entertaining narratives of delectable foods, such as turnip 'n' tater 'n' beetroot pie, and the most exotic beverages, like the delightful strawberry fizz.
The Redwall books have been my ultimate favorite book series since I first picked up the very first book, Redwall. Ever since, I have encouraged my friends and family to read them, but they just brush them aside because of "talking animals." Although the animals talk, these books are certainly not fit for very young children to read. The battle descriptions are quite graphic, and some references to alcohol brewed in the Abbey could be deemed inappropriate.
Out of all the Redwall books, Taggerung is my all-time favorite, because of the organization of the clans. The book follows the Redwall tradition of mindbending puzzles and nonsensical rhymes, and also has vagrant healers and bloodthirsty clan leaders. I suppose that's what keeps me hooked, but I'm honestly unable to completely explain why I love it so much. I know that's kind of a pitiful explanation, but it's the honest truth.
Anyhow, Taggerung is a novel well worth the read, even if you're a newcomer to the series. It is, in my opinion, Brian Jacques' absolute best work, hands down.
-C. Edwards
