I read the first two Mouse Guard books in an hour or so sitting in my favorite coffee shop – La Vida Java in Louisville, Kentucky. I breezed through the first book thinking I could take my time with the second one. How was I to know that I would want to devour the both in one sitting, like so much delicious espresso?
JRob has covered the first of the books in his review of Mouse Guard: Fall 1152, by David Petersen. I’m here to take a look with you at Mouse Guard: Winter 1152. When JRob gave me the choice of which to review, I jumped on the chance to take this one.
Winter 1152 takes place just where Fall 1152 left off. From the introduction to Chapter One:
“The Fall of 1152 left the Mouse Territories unprepared for winter. The malcontent, Midnight, raised an army to breach the gates of Lockhaven and kill Gwendolyn, the Guard’s matriarch. As the seasons changed, underlying problems with food and medicine threatened the Mouse Territories themselves.”
The book opens with Kenzie, Saxon, Sadie, Lieam, and Celanawe, who are on a mission to Sprucetuck, another Mouse city, and back to Lockhaven, the home of the Mouse Guard. They fight the snow and a nasty predator – a vengeful owl – to return home, but are separated when Saxon, Sadie and Kenzie fall into a tunnel. The book takes turns following the two groups as they face struggles to return to Lockhaven, with brief glimpse of the troubles within the Mouse Guard safe hold.
The great promise of this book comes with the characterization of the mice. Particularly endearing (to me as well as JRob) is Lieam, who shows potential to be a great hero in this series. Also promising are the story questions brought up in Fall 1152. Is Celanawe the mythical Black Axe? If so, how has he survived so long? And what are his real motives?
Weasel cities, bat hordes, ice storms and another traitor in Lockhaven all served to keep me sipping coffee from the start of this book to the finish. The seamless combination of literary and artistic story-telling make Winter 1152 a delight to read through. The writing is tight enough to keep an entirely serious, life-or-death tone to the story. I can see that this would be tricky, given that the book is, after all, about mice. The art is atmospheric and textured. I particularly enjoyed the ice storm scenes, where I could feel the weight of the glittering ice pulling down on the characters.
One of my favorite pages comes in the epilogue, but it typifies why I love this series. As Gwendolyn recounts the winter in a journal, we see scenes of the summit in a room with a large table and a huge stained glass window behind. The stained glass depicts a mouse in armor plunging a sword into a snake’s jaws. Such a seemingly insignificant detail created such an awe in me. The artist may have simply needed something to fill in the background, but it seemed like a gorgeous bit of world-building that could have been overlooked by a quick scan of the story.
Overall, Mouse Guard as a series deserves a coveted five stars from me. I only give five stars to books that I sincerely wish were in my library and that I hope to read again. I would recommend Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 to mature comic readers who appreciate a well told story where all the elements work together seemlessly.
Many thanks to Beth, who mentioned the series just often enough to pique my curiosity and send me looking for it.
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