In the midst of these events is the birth and martyrdom of the Stone Mole, a focal messianic Christ figure named Beechen.

I also disliked greatly the descriptions of mating - these were far too sensual for what is, in essence, a book about animal (however human they may act at times). I wanted something to help me escape into another world and no libraries in town here in Virginia had the book. At one point, Rebecca, the main "fe-mole" character asks Bracken, one of the main mole characters, "Do you believe in the stone? It's popular enough in the UK though that I found all the rest in paperback at the WH Smith at Heathrow airport!Gone with the Wind would be a more fitting one, and that probably took me at least as long to read the first time. S. I don't know how many printings it went through, but I was a bookworm boy who had purchased it while living in Singapore, and I attempted to evangelize it to friends in the States and I never saw a single one. Duncton Wood is the moving love story of Bracken and Rebecca and the trials they must face and overcome to be as one. Prior to its completion, Duncton Tales, originally conceived as a stand-alone sequel, had evolved into the first volume of a second trilogy.

Actually, one of the major flaws that I did find in this book was not so much that it was too long but rather that it contained two distinct stories and thus it could have worked much better, and been much more interesting, if Horwood has divided it into two books. We learn over the course of the book that there are reasons for Mandrake's ability to be so cruel - his upbringing on the wild slopes of Siabod bred him that way - but Rune is pure evil. Duncton Wood is a truly breathtaking and enchanting read that reminds us how savage yet full of love the animal kingdom truly is.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. Rebecca loves life and brings joy to all she encounters but her father is Mandrake, the most feared mole in Duncton, a leader whose control is marked with blood.

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. While Duncton wood's over all descriptive writing is more beautiful to read than most, and thus this pacing problem isn't quite as bad as in some series, undoubtedly it does exist rather more than elsewhere in Horwood's writing. As the tagline on the book suggests, this is "A clash of good and evil in the savage kingdom of moles. Mind you, Mandrake also forbids moles from traveling outside, which means that even the sight of the stone becomes a myth.That’s partly due to Horwood withdrawing the book from publication in the 90s (the special edition, first time it’s been published since, is currently being crowdfunded on Unbound – https://unbound.

The religion the moles practice hints to me of pagan celtic nature worship, they revere the standing stones, still standing, left by that civilization in the fringes of western Europe and Ireland millennia ago. All in all, a very uneven book, which was entertaining in parts, but couldn't hold my interest over the long haul. And so he makes his way into the world, which is well constructed and bleak, and the story is beautiful. If certain elements of the ending seem a little contrived and designed more to provide a false sense of completeness than anything else, well I can forgive the author those small mis-steps.It's the story of two Moles, Bracken and Rebecca, and the adventures they have as they try to protect Duncton Wood from Mandrake an outsider and oddly enough, Rebecca's father.