I prefer early Redwall for this and various reasons, before the tropes and stereotypes were established. Actually I just wrote up a whole thing about why Mossflower is the best on my fan tumblr (kotir-propaganda)!

Following and checking that out right away!! I'm a huge fan of Taggerung & Lord Brocktree, I really gotta do a re-read of both of them, esp since my next project is heavily inspired by what I remember of Brocktree haha