Duncton Wood [Mass Market Paperback]

William Horwood (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Random House of Canada, Limited (1994)
• ASIN: B000I189JU
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hello? Sombody, ANYBODY, read this!, July 18, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Duncton Wood (Mass Market Paperback)

Hi. Glad you found this. I can't help finding it really depressing that one of the greatest books of the 20th century goes unnoticed in Amazon's huge databank by all the readers out there. It's the saddest thing I've ever heard of. "The Worm Ouroborus" has more reviews under it, and it has far more reason to sink down into the depths of ignominy. This is really pathetic. Someone, anyone who has read this book and knows how good it is, please write a review. Or better yet, if you haven't read this book, go out and buy a copy, even if you have to go to Europe to get one, read it, and write the review. Whatever it takes, there have got to be more entries here.

For those of you who haven't read "Duncton Wood" and want some info, whether it has any effect or not, here it is.

This is an animal story. Anyone who has ever read and loved "Watership Down", scope this book. I am not saying the two are anything alike, but you people are likely to be more open to an adult fantasy in which the characters are all animals--moles in fact.

This is a love story. It is about two moles, Bracken and Rebecca, and the trials and tribulations they undergo to finally be together.

It is a story about a society, the venerable system of Duncton Wood, which is slowly falling into decay, becomes a dictatorship under Mandrake, a truly awesome character(in the biblical sense of the word "awesome"), is reborn as a struggling young community under Bracken, and grows to become the great system which is the focus of five more brilliant books.

Most importantly in the long run, it is the story of a quest, physically and spiritually, for a stone, the Stone of Silence.

This is a book with well realized characters, a gripping plot, beautiful lyrical passages, humour, tragedy, and a lot more.

It is the first book of a series which, if you give it a chance, will have immense implications for your future, in fact for your whole life, and I'm not just being a gushing, enthusiastic fan here. This series is quite literally of biblical importance.

Of course in all probability no one's going to listen to me as what I'm saying is so typical, which is a crying shame. Because every word is true, and few will ever know.

I haven't given away much of the plot, which may have been a mistake. Maybe it would draw some readers at the cost of the amazing experience of falling into this remarkable book without already knowing too much of the story. I leave that to the discretion of future reviewers, for whose appearance I have, regretfully, not much hope.

I draw to a close, disheartened and genuinely dubious of any effect this review may have had. This book, this entire series, is one I feel passionately about, and would rate it a 10 if I hadn't sworn to reserve that honor for the ultimate book, if such a creature exists. Hell, maybe this is it. I wouldn't be too surprised.

To any who may find this, I leave it up to you. If I haven't scared you off with this "Give one for the Gipper" speech("He's wacko--I'm getting out of here!")I'm not trying to preach. Give "Duncton Wood", give the entire Duncton series a chance. Your life may never be the same.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Novel Of Everything, October 27, 2004

By 

Stephen B. O'Blenis (Nova Scotia, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Duncton Wood (Hardcover)

"Duncton Wood" is a very difficult book to describe, not because it's not about anything but because it's basically about everything. Adventure, love, hate, destiny, terror, the mechanics of how evil arises both within a society and within an individual, romance, play, disaster, the clash of species, hope, faith, mystery, abyss-deep horror, nature and character. And it's all from the perspective of moles. Not utensil-using, clothes-wearing, machine-building moles, but real, furry, tunnel-burrowing moles. There are a few unorthodox speculations - they know how to use herbs for medicinal purposes, they have stacks of bark chips whose scratches across the surface are the moles's own written history, etc. - but they are not 'little humans in mole form'. Centering around two moles in particular from their infancies onward, Bracken and Rebecca (yes, one of the main themes of this novel is a romance between two moles, and no, it's not remotely a children's book), it nonetheless has an extremely wide and diverse cast - studious, faith-rich, quietly brave scribe-mole Boswell, the devious and unspeakably evil Rune, the small, tender, and enderaingly-nervous Comfrey, the nurturing Rose, and the living darkness that is Mandrake, to name a few. The only novel that equals "Duncton Wood" in array of all-time great characters is "The Gnole".

Written with tremendous skill and heart, with surprises and not some but many of the most memorable scenes in the history of the written word, "Duncton Wood" is indispensable for fans of the novel format of storytelling. Total excellence.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book - MUCH better than Watership Down, August 12, 1998

By 

William Sugarman "nprfan1" (Great Neck, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Duncton Wood (Mass Market Paperback)

I remember reading this book over fifteen years ago, but (sorry to say) I could barely remember any of the details of the story. I could only remember that it was the story of two moles, Bracken and Rebecca, and how they brought peace, prosperity, and other assorted good things to their "system", as Horwood calls it - the title, Duncton Wood. The book has long been out of print in this country, so I despaired of ever getting my hands on a copy again.

Well, a few years ago, I was on vacation in England, and was very pleasantly surprised to discover that Duncton Wood was still in print there. Not only that, but it was the first book in a series about the moles of Duncton, and all of them (according to the local reviews) were just as good as the first! Sad to say, I didn't take the opportunity to buy those books then, but I recently managed to get my hands on a copy of Duncton Wood through one of Amazon's European competitors. I'm only halfway through it now, but it's just as good the second time around.

This is as basic a story as you can get about good vs. evil, and there are very few who tell it better than Horwood. There are definite religious elements in this story (and, I assume, in the sequels as well), but who cares when the story is written this well?

I look forward to finishing Duncton Wood, and to getting my hands on the sequels. Unfortunately, Amazon apparently only deals with American publishers, so they can't get their hands on any of them - so this is a very blunt hint to the American publishing establishment: get off your duffs and get the American publishing rights to these books! If the reviews here are any indication, you'll more than make your money back (and earn the grateful thanks of the American reading public besides)!