Duncton Wood

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Instead, Horwood falls back on explaining how you're supposed to feel about events and how we're supposed to think about characters. I used to love this book, and it is still good, don't get me wrong, but I guess it takes a level of commitment I wasn't quite up for. While it is perhaps obvious that this was Horwood's first novel, it is still undoubtedly a master peace and one which is only enriched and enlivened by the rest of the series. It's popular enough in the UK though that I found all the rest in paperback at the WH Smith at Heathrow airport!

Not only does Horwood have a brilliant grasp of the natural settings of his books, from temperature to plant life, but also he does not ram this down readers throats, so that the "beauty" of flowers, rocks and hills is not overshadowed by their scientific nature or even their uses in the life of moles. Furthermore, to emphasise the religious nature of the story, we even have the protagonists let one of the antagonists go free, namely because they do not see a reason to kill him, but also because the antagonist (who isn’t Mandrake by the way but one of his lieutenants), has become such a pathetic individual that killing him will simply make them no better than him. And so he makes his way into the world, which is well constructed and bleak, and the story is beautiful. If you read it from the wrong mindset or point of view, I can see how it might not work as well, but for anyone who still holds out hope for a whimsical, powerful, unquenchable love, this book connects to your inner-most longings and brings them powerfully to life.It is this capacity to love that brings us the story of Bracken and Rebecca, two moles who grow up in the Duncton Wood system. The author would love this to be a ‘meaningful’ novel full of subtle comparisons with human society but the made up languages and poor poems are trite and meaningless. But along comes a hero: a young mole named Bracken who leaves to find himself and a way to win his fight against the evil of Rune and Mandrake while winning the paw of his love, Rebecca, Mandrakes daughter. e.no thumbs) and while he gives the animals character, cats are actually pretty sociopathic and that makes them a little less sympathetic than the moles of Duncton Wood. In modern etiquette, this book would have a trigger warning for those occasions when the red in the black \ white\ red morality fears it's head.

Would Hurt a Child: Rune has no hesitance to kill Bracken's pups to further his cause in which he blames it on Mandrake to get him deposed; worst of all, he kills them right in front of their sister, whom he spares, leaving her traumatized no doubt for life, knowing she was too frightened to convey the whole story, which only made his plan succeed all the more impressively. This is particularly of note since political power play by the manipulative Rune, and the decline of religious ritual are two major themes of the novel, yet neither feels as real here as later in the series. It was followed a few years later by the Book of Silence, a follow-on trilogy set far into the future of the moles of Duncton Wood. Further down the hill, where the beech trees give way to oak and ash trees and thick fern banks, is the main system of Duncton. The characters are lovable, you will really care what happens to them and the world they inhabit underground is well developed to the point of fascinating.Art and nature, all brought together by Horwood's unique ability to pull you into this world he creates in such a way that you never want to leave. Sharon from Fylde coast, Lancs Something drew me to the first Duncton book many years ago and I have never regretted stumbling upon them despite the darkness one is asked to traverse amongst the many adventures in all six volumes!

The worship of the Stone colours every little part of this book, which Horwood declares in his notes at the end is an allegory - probably for pagan worship. In the center of the system, a place where the oaks thin out and is warmed by the summer, is Barrow Vale, a place for chatter and gossip. It's just that it felt that with more confident handling and sharper editing, it could have been so much better. I know I cried my eyes out often while working my way through the biggest book I’d ever read, and I read it again back sometime in the 90’s. With Rebecca a captive to her father after having mated with Cairn, a Pasture mole, she sinks into a long depression during and after her pregnancy when her pups are killed by Mandrake.So, lofty reviews granted, and nodded to, but these books are drenched in crimson, and in the best way: Up close and personal! At the time of their birth, the system is being overthrown and then led by two evil moles - Mandrake and Rune. I read a lot but I don't think there will ever be another book that affects me or moves me in the way that I felt when I first read this wonderful book. I remember first reading Watership Down, Shardik, and Maia, books I also got at the base library, during the times my husband was doing assignments in Sardinia and I was back in our little house with our cat.

Debra from Virginia, USA I borrowed this book from the library at RAF Alconbury, where my then-husband was stationed with the US Air Force. Bindle, his good friend, still holds faith to the old ways, and with his and Hulver's help, they celebrate the long lost rites of the Stone, with Bracken, Hulver's apprentice, hidden away. Don't get me wrong, Watership Down is a book that is excellent in its own right but the themes and morals of Duncton Wood are on another level and children would really benefit from reading about the fight between good and evil that is integral to this book. Bracken was born on an April night in a warm dark burrow deep in the historic system of Duncton Wood, six moleyears after Rebecca. The moles are given human elements (speech and faith for example) and this makes them easily identifiable to the reader.

Disney Death: at least three characters simply "disappear" and come back later: Bracken, though it's fairly obvious he'll be alright since it's very early in the book; Mandrake, who seals himself inside the Ancient System without a way out; and Rune, who suffers the same fate of Bracken, only to come back in the sequel. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Thank you for being my saviour Mr Harwood and to the many heroic moles that were lost during my reading of these novels.