Pick of the paperbacks; Duncton Wood, By William Horwood.New York: Ballantine Books. $3.50.

"Duncton Wood" will do for moles what "Watership Down" has done for rabbits. The story takes place in a land of moles wher the forces of good and evil grapple for supremacy. Our hero, Bracken, is a tiny, timid thing, caught in a dying society. But through a process of self-discovery he finds the power and conviction to save his world.

Yet, this tale has a deeper turn which makes it more than just another tale of anthropromorphized creatures. We are inspired to believe the solutions to society's woes rest in a power outside ma nkind but which finds expression through man.