The Moorlanders

The Moorlanders is a great YA story about a group of Moorlanders who go on a quest to find out why their people are disappearing and confront an evil wizard. I found it very Tolkien-esque and enjoyed it a lot. The characters are well written, the settings are interesting and unique, and the plot is engaging. It is definitely a winner.

This Young Adult novel is set in Dartmoor and is full of beautifully evocative descriptions of the landscapes, the tors. When you read a line that likens the tors to a 'shadowy school of humpback whales', you know you are stepping into a landscape that you can see in your mind's eye.

This is the story of a battle for survival. The Moorlanders must defeat a powerful wizard, and his army of fierce warriors, who is planning to destroy their homes and their moor so that he can rip the minerals from the land. As for the Moorlanders themselves, they will be his slaves in the mines. Throughout the book there is the impression that this is the world outside the realms of men and that it is a world that is fading - although that could just be my reading of it. There was once a common tongue so that the Moorlanders could speak to the animals, but this knowledge has been lost to all but a very few. There was once also a race of Giantici but again, you feel that you are witnessing the dying of a race. But I digress, back to the story. The Moorlanders under the guidance of Findhorn, a mage, set out to defeat the wizard and all rests upon Caradoc, Ella and the badger Hamilcar - three youngsters. Caradoc is full of questions, he wants to understand everything, he wants to learn everything and sometimes his inquisitiveness can get him into trouble. Ella is a feisty young girl who takes no prisoners - she says it how it is and doesn't pull her punches. Hamilcar is Caradoc's friend and is totally loyal, brave and dependable. The tension as the book races to the climax builds beautifully and the twist, the revelation at the end is one that I did not see coming.

This is a super YA read.

I loved the world that Steven D. Coles has created with The Moorlanders. This is fiction, fantasy, and adventure enjoyable for readers young and old. Can’t wait to read more from this author!

One of my favorite genres-fantasy! I enjoyed this story: the plot, the location, and all it's characters. It's a story any lover of fantasy will enjoy from child to adult! Only complain- it was too short! Can be read over a lazy afternoon in any season, I can;t wait to see Mr. Coles next book!

This is a story about Moorlanders' way of life and their battle against the evil sorcerer who wants to destroy them all.
Very linear, simple story with nice commentary on preserving nature, being aware of our mortality, the passing of time and changes in the world that come with that.

I found it interesting that the story is based on an actual place in England, called Dartmoor. It is written in a way that makes you believe that all this magic and fantasy beings really existed there in the past, they've just been forgotten.

The story had nice atmosphere, beautiful descriptions of nature and some unique elements (for example Moorlanders are its own fantasy beings, I'd say similar to hobbits, and all names were very unique). But it was sadly quite hard to follow, which shouldn't be the case with it being targeted at very young audience and the story being very simple. The main culprit for that is very dense writing style and lots and lots of infodumps. There were so so many names of people and places and everything throughout the entire book, and most of them weren't even important or explained so I'd forget about them the moment I'd read them. Cardinal directions were the other thing coming up every few sentences which made reading even harder.
I wouldn't say that the story was necessarily boring even though it was simple and felt very slow because not much has happened in it, but it definitely was predictive and it didn't make me want to continue reading at times. I also noticed some inconsistencies in there.
The characters all felt empty because they were barely described at all. I couldn't connect to them at all. On the other hand, nature was described in too much detail and slowed down the already slow pace.
I would not recommend this book to very young readers mainly because of the writing style as it was very dense and quite challenging to follow sometimes, but the story itself is appropriate for children and adults alike.

Even though the book contains beautifully described scenery and a good classic journey across the land in the name of a grand quest, it was a bit too slow and dense, and the characters were lacking a lot of depth.