Book Review: Mouse Guard Volume 2, Winter 1152

by David Peterson.

Have I mentioned lately that I am in love with characters that show perseverance?  ‘Cos I am.

Mouseguard is about a group of mice working as guardsmen for the mouse town, Lockhaven.  The mice, while living lives the length of normal humans (I think) live in a world where everything is bigger than they are, there’s very little technology (about Dark Ages/the cusp of a maker-type renaissance), and they taste good.  Nevertheless, they survive.

The characters are more fully realized than most literary novels.  The drawing is fantastic, just fantastic, about a million miles away from the garish, brutal, oversexed stuff of superheroes.  And…cute?  Yes, I’d have to say that from time to time, I have to go, “Oooh, the little mousie is so cuuuuute.”    Not childlike, but realistic – and mice are cute.

Volume 1 was about introducing characters in their everyday world, then disrupting the world – a good tactic for a book named Fall.  Winter is about the aftermath of the plot twists from Fall. The characters are out of food, supplies, and medicine, and begging around the area to get more.  Mysteries abound – but don’t come to fruition.  Which is good for a book called Winter.  I get the sense that the next volume, Black Axe, is going to develop the mysteries further – but not quite move into Spring.

OoooOOOooo.

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