Duncton Wood

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Darker and Edgier: While Duncton Wood had its share of of horror, Duncton Quest brings it up to eleven with the Disciples of The Word's massacre of the Uffington scribemoles. As with Watership Down, this story is on the surface about animals (moles in this case) but is really about a complex society, complete with moral, political, emotional, and religious aspects.

Messianic Archetype: Beechen, although his teachings lend themselves more towards Buddhism than Christianity. These moles are full of life and personality, yet at the same time they remain moles throughout the book. It's just that it felt that with more confident handling and sharper editing, it could have been so much better. they eventually get very bogged down in religious philosophy and stuff (or perhaps it was the 1000+ page length of each of of the later volumes). While the long setup and introductory section which covers at least the first 6 chapters is to be partly expected, and is interspersed with more than enough of Horwood's superb character portrayals and individual anecdotes to stop it being too much of an info dump, later parts of the novel can rather drag, mostly due to Horwoodd's often somewhat long winded passages of time skip, indeed sometimes when rereading the book now I do rather find myself waiting for the next significant incident to happen in betwene a long passage of generalized description.To the east of the hill live the Eastsiders, who inhabit the drier soil near the cliff's edge and are smaller in number and much less aggressive than the Westsiders.

It’s a story of spiritual quest, with all the trials and triumphs of love, greed, courage, oppression and liberty along the way. Similar to Watership Down, but with moles, this book demonstrates an excellently-crafted world populated by moles (not cutesy anthropomorphic ones but real ones that live and die among nature's often brutal indifference. Similarly, either the writing is strong to convey the drama, suspense, and emotional impact or it isn't. The first book follows them from life to death, as well as the highs and lows that the Duncton System go through in the meantime. William Horwood has created a world that is filled with those events that while familiar are renewed by the point of view they are being told from.

Please if you have a heart an easy imagination for what you are reading to come alive, take my absolute word you will not find a better read. There are no less than six or seven books in the series - but the first trilogy is most worth while. Opinion on this book varies between those people who consider it a towering work of genius and those who find the adventures of human-like moles to be of sorely limited interest.

Cathy from Scotland I read Duncton Wood many years ago and at first thought I would find it difficult to apprehend the moles being the characters, how wrong was I.I wanted something to help me escape into another world and no libraries in town here in Virginia had the book. I don’t guess that is generally a problem but it does feel like somebody is simply trying to copy an idea that was originally quite successful. It's unfortunate that this novel is being compared with Watership Down, due to the fact that Watership Down, a great novel on it's own, falls short when compared against Duncton Wood. However, I guess the originality comes out in how you produce your writings, and if you let your own personality and style dictate your work as opposed to simply copying something else.

In 2007, he collaborated with historian Helen Rappaport to produce Dark Hearts of Chicago, a historical mystery and thriller set in nineteenth-century Chicago.Duncton Wood and its sequels have as its protagonists anthropomorphic moles living in Moledom, a community in Great Britain. Bracken and Bosworth, Rebecca and Cairn, Mandrake and Rebecca, all these relationships are portrayed with great empathy and capable a bringing out great compassion from the reader. THE DUNCTON CHRONICLES This series of six novels was published over thirteen years, starting with Duncton Wood in 1980. With truly identifiable characters that you'll surely come to love and loath, in this tale as old as time, how love conquers, and good can prevail! The moles are given a philosophy and a mythology that is very human, and yet it somehow does not seem to diminish their moleness.