Monday, November 1, 2010

Day 1, Holiday Reviewarama MOUSE GUARD


Mouse Guard Volume 1: Fall 1152
Mouse Guard Volume 2: Winter 1152

David Petersen
Publisher ARCHAIA

There is a great deal to like about the book MOUSE GUARD. The pages are beautiful, the characters are wonderfully imagined, and the story, of a small people, the Mice, and those that prey upon them, in particular the Weasels who are led by a warlord to take from the mice their land, and food.

The target audience would seem people who like cute characters, but, while the mice here look cute, the story is epic, heroic, and noble.

There is nothing nearly so cute or whimsical here, as you might expect. The war is brutal in reality, however tastefully displayed, and the wounds suffered by the living, are matched by the sorrow for the dead.

There are always stories that have epic proportions, some that are brutally told, others artfully. This manages to tell a sad story beautifully, and for the lover of beauty, the love of fantasy tales that are closer to truth than dainty fiction, MOUSE GUARD is a book for them. If you like cute, sure, go for it, I just see a helluva lot more. If however you dislike war tales, no matter how cute the characters look, you might be sad more than delighted. The stories are real, and like fairy tales do not always have the happy endings we think we deserve.

Consider this a well impressed reader.

The Publisher
The website for Mouse Guard

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