This book is about a colony of badgers. As other reviewers have noted, it was probably inspired by Adam's classic Watership Down. However, there are some key differences between the two.

Cold Moons seems to be written in a stream-of-consciousness style, which means that you get all the thoughts of the badger (similar to Crane's The Red Badge of Courage). This idea is interesting in theory, until you realize that people (and badgers) have all sorts of rambling thoughts that go all over the place and don't create a very coherent way to read a story. At many points in the book, it is difficult to even figure out what is going on because of the incoherent style of the badger's thoughts.

While some would praise this experiment in style, it doesn't make reading the book a very enjoyable experience because one is always trying to decipher what is happening from the rambling thoughts of the badger.

If you enjoyed the Red Badge of Courage and want another Stream-of-consciousness novel from an animal point of view, try Cold Moons. Otherwise, stick to Adam's classic and its more readable offspring.

With humble apologies to other reviewers, I must say that I can see exactly why this book is out of print. _Cold Moons_ is a book in the spirit of Watership Down, but it lacks clarity and originality. It has a copy-cat quality: the horror of the poisoned den, the flight to new home, the cruelty of man and betrayal of fellow animals, the trials along the way, etc. These elements are pulled straight out of Watership Down with a few un-improvements. The writing itself is inconsistent, varying from fairly good to quite poor. For instance, in places, the characters appear to be floating in empty space. We are not told where they are standing, what is around them, what the weather's doing, no background scenery at all. This is puzzling in a novel that relies solely on the countryside for placement and texture. Without these details, time and distance become confused. In parts of the story, it becomes unclear how much time has passed or how much distance the animals have traveled. (We're talking: "Has it been one day or one week?" sort of thing.) I found these details exceedingly distracting. In addition, I personality found it difficult to care about the characters. Their personalities seemed too "stock," pulled right of the "adventure-characters" shelf. Near the end of the book, the writing improved somewhat, and I have the idea that if the writer had spent more time editing, he might have come out with something really worth reading. As it was, I had difficulty finishing the book.

I cannot recommend this book enough to fans of non-Redwall-style anthropomorphism. In theory, it's the same concept as "Watership Down." In practice, it's considerably better. I can't say exactly what it is about the characters, but they and their problems seem so much more *real*. Perhaps it's the inclusion of various "newspaper articles" about the badgers' plight, or perhaps it's the corruption within members of the group, but "The Cold Moons" is ultimately the more satisfying adventure, and I'm quite sad to see that it's out of print.