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vince_reads's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Shardik is a slow-paced, reflective, historical fiction novel from Richard Adams, the author of Watership Down. His rabbits, however, have as much in common with the monstrous, titular bear as a pillow has with a bloody hatchet.
Adams impresses with his ability to relate the enormity and absolute force of nature that Shardik is. Lamentable, then, that this bear-god shows up in only a handful of scenes.
Adams' world building is methodical and thorough. The jargon of this world, the stream-of-consciousness thoughts of the protagonist: they help to suck the reader into the story of the bear-maybe-god.
However, it really takes its time. Similes and metaphors can drag on for a page. While they are effective because they are instilling very specific thoughts and feelings into the reader’s head, they more often than not are long-winded explanations that can just as easily alienate and confuse. There is a rhythm to the story-telling where it is easy to see these moments coming. And it is very hard to ignore the urge to begin skimming the incoming section.
There are also moments where Adams is writing amorphously, like his words are meant to instill vague and confusing feelings. It is a bold choice, and to some, may work to engross. In this case, it created frustration and a strong urge to set the book down, with no promise it would be picked up again.
The pay off for sticking out these moments comes in the last fifteen percent of the book, when things get absolutely Biblical. The plot chains the reader to a group of child slaves and gives them a front row seat for the barbarism and gore this story refuses to shy away from.
If this section does not wake one up from some of the dreamy, drawn-out moments from earlier, just put the book down and do not look back.
After getting through this harrowing section, Shardik rewards the reader with one of the best denouements ever written, not to be spoiled here. In keeping with the rest of the novel, it is long and takes its time, but it turns out to be the fastest and most rewarding part of the book to read.
The epigraph includes a quote from C. G. Jung: “Superstition and accident manifest the will of God.” This quote gets to the heart of what Shardik will leave the reader with; the contemplation of the chaotic forces of nature and how man corrupts them through an undying struggle to have it all make sense.
Adams impresses with his ability to relate the enormity and absolute force of nature that Shardik is. Lamentable, then, that this bear-god shows up in only a handful of scenes.
Adams' world building is methodical and thorough. The jargon of this world, the stream-of-consciousness thoughts of the protagonist: they help to suck the reader into the story of the bear-maybe-god.
However, it really takes its time. Similes and metaphors can drag on for a page. While they are effective because they are instilling very specific thoughts and feelings into the reader’s head, they more often than not are long-winded explanations that can just as easily alienate and confuse. There is a rhythm to the story-telling where it is easy to see these moments coming. And it is very hard to ignore the urge to begin skimming the incoming section.
There are also moments where Adams is writing amorphously, like his words are meant to instill vague and confusing feelings. It is a bold choice, and to some, may work to engross. In this case, it created frustration and a strong urge to set the book down, with no promise it would be picked up again.
The pay off for sticking out these moments comes in the last fifteen percent of the book, when things get absolutely Biblical. The plot chains the reader to a group of child slaves and gives them a front row seat for the barbarism and gore this story refuses to shy away from.
If this section does not wake one up from some of the dreamy, drawn-out moments from earlier, just put the book down and do not look back.
After getting through this harrowing section, Shardik rewards the reader with one of the best denouements ever written, not to be spoiled here. In keeping with the rest of the novel, it is long and takes its time, but it turns out to be the fastest and most rewarding part of the book to read.
The epigraph includes a quote from C. G. Jung: “Superstition and accident manifest the will of God.” This quote gets to the heart of what Shardik will leave the reader with; the contemplation of the chaotic forces of nature and how man corrupts them through an undying struggle to have it all make sense.
pagewraith's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This one is for everyone who loved Aslan as “good” but not “safe” when they were younger, and who wants to explore that idea through a rich adult fantasy story.
“To be deprived of little, common pleasures that honest people take for granted—that’s imprisonment, that’s retribution, that’s grief and loss. […] Birds sing in the trees, find their food, mate, build nests. They don’t know anything else. […] It’s a narrow life for birds. But you catch one and put it in a cage and you’ll soon find out whether it values what it’s lost.” (373)
I adore Watership Down, and bears are an animal that are very dear to me, so when I learned of Shardik, I knew I had to read it. I got my copy secondhand from a library sale, and at the time it really did feel like the book found me just as I was looking for it.
Much like Aslan, Shardik acts as a sort of Christ-figure: a great divine bear sent to bring truth to humanity. However, this is not the sort of fantasy where animals talk—in fact it is mostly an exploration of the corruption of humanity, and the devastation of greed, power, guilt and regret, war, and slavery; but it’s also about love and community care. There’s a lot of really wonderful foreshadowing and gradual thematic development woven into this story. Little descriptions that I at first dismissed as merely evocative grew to carry so much meaning by the end of the book! So much of the prose that is deeply meaningful and emotional is built up in the context of the story that sharing quotes out of context fails to do them justice. And the character development! I had so many complicated feelings and opinions for the characters, often alternating between love and disappointment and hatred and pity for the same person.
I was struck by how unlike other fantasy settings the Beklan Empire is—this is a barbarian land (not derogatory!), that sometimes evokes a sense of the Roman Empire. As with any other fantasy setting, though, I quickly fell in love with it’s linguistic nuances, and character and place names. Adams invents names and language unlike any other!
Shardik is a book that reads like an old, descriptive folktale, sometimes even taking on an almost biblical tenor. All around, just a really great, big fantasy tale.
quoththegirl's review against another edition
2.0
I adored Watership Down more than words can say. Shardik, alas, was not nearly so enthralling. It was, in fact, really disappointing. Why, Richard Adams, why?? I guess it could be good, if you're someone else, but I just found it all exceedingly boring and not compelling. I could tell I was supposed to be compelled. I dunno. Maybe if I'd read it for a class where we could've thrashed out the symbolism, I would've enjoyed it more. As it was, I dragged through it at a snail's pace and felt like I'd collapsed after running a marathon when I finally did finish it.
amadswami's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.75
arthurgdean's review against another edition
1.0
This is my first review but i thought i should get started so yeah.
This is the second worst book I ever read.
First of all, this is the only book I read from this author, so I can't compare it with his other works.
This reading was so slow, and I couldn't read more than 5 pages at time because it was just so boring. I couldn't care less about any of the characters or how the story would have gone on.
It was written horribly: There were so many intrusive comments that were really just uninteresting and just added to the boredom and to slowing the story. It was mostly told and not shown too.
This book doesn't even deserve one star to me
This is the second worst book I ever read.
First of all, this is the only book I read from this author, so I can't compare it with his other works.
This reading was so slow, and I couldn't read more than 5 pages at time because it was just so boring. I couldn't care less about any of the characters or how the story would have gone on.
It was written horribly: There were so many intrusive comments that were really just uninteresting and just added to the boredom and to slowing the story. It was mostly told and not shown too.
This book doesn't even deserve one star to me
anlattner's review against another edition
2.0
I was expecting more, as a big fan of a Watership Down growing up. It turned around towards the end, but the beginning to middle was a slog
andreaedits's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
jsilber42's review against another edition
4.0
Unlike Richard Adams' better-known novel "Watership Down", "Shardik" is neither appropriate for, nor likely interesting to, children. Set in a magic-free fantasy setting that could easily be a post-apocalyptic earth, Shardik is about a group of primitive people called the Ortelgans that worship a giant bear (of the same name) that they believe is a divine messenger or agent of God. The novel follows one man, Kelderek, who seems to be safe from Shardik's unpredictable temper, and his rise and fall as a sort of priest-king of the Ortelgans.
Adams is interested in weighty themes here - the nature of belief, the propensity of humans to interpret ambiguous events as symbols of the divine, how religion can be a force for both good and evil, how humans can justify terrible things in the quest for a greater good, and the nature of redemption. The very specific focus of the book on these ideas and themes is unusual, and while the giant bear is a great hook, it was Adams exploration of these concepts that made the book worth reading.
The first half of the book is very page-turning once it gets going, but the second half is a bit of a slog in places, as it turns bleaker and bleaker and bleaker. Without spoiling anything, Kelderek goes through hell. It's sort of necessary for the arc of the main character, but that necessity doesn't really make it any easier to get through, and I found myself frequently putting the book down for days at a time until things got more interesting in the final quarter. I was satisfied by the end, and even the overly long epilogue had its use. Ultimately, though, this book is meant to be thoughtful, rather than a page-turning adventure.
Adams is interested in weighty themes here - the nature of belief, the propensity of humans to interpret ambiguous events as symbols of the divine, how religion can be a force for both good and evil, how humans can justify terrible things in the quest for a greater good, and the nature of redemption. The very specific focus of the book on these ideas and themes is unusual, and while the giant bear is a great hook, it was Adams exploration of these concepts that made the book worth reading.
The first half of the book is very page-turning once it gets going, but the second half is a bit of a slog in places, as it turns bleaker and bleaker and bleaker. Without spoiling anything, Kelderek goes through hell. It's sort of necessary for the arc of the main character, but that necessity doesn't really make it any easier to get through, and I found myself frequently putting the book down for days at a time until things got more interesting in the final quarter. I was satisfied by the end, and even the overly long epilogue had its use. Ultimately, though, this book is meant to be thoughtful, rather than a page-turning adventure.
chris_cousins's review
4.0
I first read this book many years ago, I think it was as a late teenager. Forty years later I enjoyed the second reading more than the first. An epic story with themes of religion, slavery, civil war and good vs evil.
I have the second book in the Beklan Empire Series (Maia) on my reading list.
I have the second book in the Beklan Empire Series (Maia) on my reading list.