The Moorchild, based upon folklore and legend, includes all the important characteristics of good modern fantasy. The author's invented world is detailed and believable. The events are imaginative yet consistent with the story world as are the multidimensional characters. Vivid images are backed by solid, understandable story structures and the age-old themes are meaningful to the reader, illustrating dilemmas consistent with life in the now. In short, the story of The Moorchild more than adequately suspends the reader's disbelief.

As with much modern fantasy, the story opens in an invented, seemingly real world akin to Great Britain in the Middle Ages.

Old Bess, the Wise Woman, is the first to wonder what changed Yanno and Anwara's contented baby into such an ill-favored one who unexplainably shrieks and rages in her cradle. Her parents, representing another element of fantasy, the characters who reject the possibility of magic...