Below is the complete list of Brian Jacques’ Redwall books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Redwall Books
Publication Order of Tribes of Redwall Books
Publication Order of A Tale of Redwall Books
Publication Order of Redwall Picture Books
Publication Order of Redwall Non-Fiction Books
About Redwall
Brian Jacques’s Redwall series is a large children’s fantasy saga set in a richly imagined world of woodland creatures, abbeys, fortresses, seacoasts, mountains, vermin armies, riddles, songs, feasts, and heroic quests. The books are often associated with Redwall Abbey itself, but the series is not confined to one building or one generation. It moves across time, following different mice, badgers, hares, otters, squirrels, moles, shrews, and other creatures as they defend homes, recover lost histories, face invaders, and discover what courage requires of the small as well as the strong.
The first published book, Redwall, introduces the Abbey as a place of peace threatened by Cluny the Scourge and his horde. Matthias, a young mouse, becomes the heart of the story as he grows into a defender shaped by the legend of Martin the Warrior. That connection between present danger and remembered heroism becomes one of the series’ defining patterns. Redwall’s heroes rarely act in isolation; they inherit songs, prophecies, weapons, stories, and moral examples from those who came before them.
One point that can confuse new readers is that Redwall’s publication order is not the same as its internal chronology. Mossflower, published after Redwall, is set earlier and explores the story of Martin the Warrior and the liberation of Mossflower from the rule of Tsarmina. Later books continue to jump through the timeline. Some are prequels, some follow descendants or later Abbey generations, and others move to distant locations before returning to the larger Redwall world. Because Jacques built the series through legends and eras rather than one continuous protagonist, the world feels like a tapestry of heroic memory.
Martin the Warrior is the closest thing the series has to a central mythic figure. He appears directly in books focused on his life, and his spirit or legacy influences many later characters. His sword, courage, and example help bind the sequence together even when the main cast changes. Yet the series is not only about warriors. Its best stories also celebrate cooks, healers, wanderers, riddlers, scouts, abbey elders, dibbuns, and ordinary creatures who rise to danger when their homes are threatened.
The tone of Redwall is distinctive because Jacques combines epic adventure with domestic warmth. Battles can be fierce, villains can be cruel, and quests can carry real danger, but the books are also famous for hospitality, humor, songs, dialect, seasonal celebration, and lavish descriptions of food. Feasts at Redwall Abbey are not decorative pauses; they express the kind of community the heroes are fighting to protect. The contrast between abundance and invasion, welcome and cruelty, home and exile gives the series much of its emotional clarity.
Villains are usually drawn from “vermin” species such as rats, stoats, ferrets, foxes, weasels, and wildcats, while the Abbey and woodland communities are associated with more peaceful creatures. Modern readers may notice that this moral pattern is broad and archetypal rather than psychologically subtle. The books operate in the mode of legend, where courage, treachery, greed, loyalty, cowardice, and sacrifice are made vivid through action, speech, and role.
Reading in publication order shows how Jacques developed the world over time, while chronological order highlights the long history behind the Abbey and Martin’s legend. Either approach can work, but publication order preserves the way the mythology was revealed to readers. Across the full series, Redwall endures because it offers a powerful fantasy of home defended by courage, memory, fellowship, and the belief that even the smallest creature can stand against darkness.