The Moon's Prophecy

In this first book in the planned Brave Tails series, debut author Sparrow offers a generic high-fantasy adventure about anthropomorphic forest-dwellers. Ever since the mysterious Brave Tails, a band of woodland creatures, banded together to rid their mountain home of carnivores and predators, Riversplash Mountain has been a peaceful haven. Now, an army of malevolent boars has invaded, intent on despoiling the mountain's resources. A small group of rebels, including the farmer mouse Thrym, the wise hedgehog Muspul, a father-and-son team of shrews, and the beautiful mouse maiden Olweena, must claim the long-lost mantles of the Brave Tails to repel this new threat. While the Zorro-like concept is workable and the setting well-done, it's hard not to compare this adventure to the vastly superior Redwall series. The relentless use of assorted accents and dialects for the various species is distracting (“Mountain farmers be tough an' wily.... We'd not be the first boar horde crushed marchin' uphill 'gainst war machines rainin' rocks an' spears down on us”), eroding the potential of the premise and the characters. Ages 8–12. (Nov.)