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Abandoned Dissonance by Les Rallizes Denudes - T - Redwall

Discussion in 'Books' started by Agravaine, Oct 31, 2016.

4.5/5, 2 votes
  1. Agravaine

    Agravaine Seventh Year

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    Oct 31, 2016 #1
    Title: Dissonance
    Author: Les Rallizes Denudes
    Rating: T
    Genre: Horror
    Length: 18,000 words
    Status: Abandoned
    Fandom: Redwall
    Summary: "Redwall's never been conquered."
    Link: ff.net

    Brought to mind by the date and this thread. Yeah, Redwall. And abandoned. I know.

    The players—Dantalion, a charismatically mad wildcat cast as a millennialist revolutionary; Landers the fox, a fatalist grasping at humanity, a self-aware foil to strawmen; and the very forest of Mossflower Wood, wrathful and wraithful. The story—surreal and creepy, wildly eschatological, straining against graftings of real-world modernity, teetering against the brink of certain doom; an exploration of in-verse race and class against a backdrop of supernatural vengeance, or maybe vice versa. "Death to cowards, traitors, and empty words," Dantalion howls, marching on Redwall to destroy the notion of vermin itself. It's a failure, ultimately, though a grand one—plagued at its start by words just wrong and writing just flat, plagued thereafter by rejection of traditional style sheets, insufficiently sophisticated and never to be complete—but gosh is it worth a read if you liked these books as a kid.
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2016
  2. Sorrows

    Sorrows Queen of the Flamingos Moderator

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    Nov 1, 2016 #2
    I loved Redwall as a kid, its one of those great ideas you wish you had thought of first. The idea of applying traditional English medieval stereotypes to a bunch of woodland animals works so well and gives Jaques such a wide range of characters and legends to crimp from. I always imagined it starting life as a series of made-up bedtime stories. Never thought to look up fanfiction for it though.
     
  3. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    Nov 1, 2016 #3
    WTF is this... I mean, damn. It's a mixture of horror and maybe even some kind of study on human nature.

    It's only 18k words, I'm only two thirds through it, and it's screwing with my head. In a good way, mind you, but... yeah.

    I might be biased because it addresses something that bothered me as a child with these books - namely that your species seemed to predetermine whether you'd be a good guy or a bad guy. Rats are always bad. Otters are always good. So forth, so on.

    The protagonist is a Fox, which categories him as vermin, and he wants to change that. Except he is in that category for a reason so it's not all sunshine and roses.

    Not the best thing ever, but at 18k it's worth a quick glance if you're bored. I didn't get into it until things started screwing with Landers though, which was probably around chapter 8 or 9.

    4/5? Probably only 3/5, will rate once I've finished it.

    On that note... sure, it's abandoned. But really it sort of ... could end where it's left at, if you twist your head a bit and take a grim outlook.
     
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2016
  4. Majube

    Majube Order Member DLP Supporter

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    Nov 2, 2016 #4
    Huh, So I only read one Redwall book a long time ago but this was oddly compelling if confusing in how disjointed and jerky the writing feels. I'd personally give it a 3/5 if only because of it being abandoned. I don't see how the ending can even be called a satisfactory ending. Never thought of the Abbey as creepy, huh but Landers being a seer because he's a fox was pretty clever (heh clever-fox). I like how the author explored what it feels to be a vermin and how they're percieved and how self-loathing it is to ultimately prove them right and how the obvious connotations that follow this as well in real life. Still I'd give it overall 2.5/5