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A review by 23149014345613
Shardik by Richard Adams
3.0
BEAR JESUS BEAR JESUS BEAR JESUS! "The bear is a folly, a madness, treacherous, unpredictable, a storm to wreck and drown you when you think yourself in calm water. Believe me, Kelderek, never trust the bear. He'll promise you the power of God and betray you to ruin and misery." He's Jesus but he might rip you to shreds and eat you! Hell yes! Wish I was raised in a bear cult!
I picked this book up on a total whim, when what I really wanted to read was Watership Down again. So I was hoping it would basically be Watership Down but with bears? Which would be a really stupid novel for Adams to write directly after for his next work. Very unfairly, I was a little disappointed at all the humans in the book, and especially in Bekla things dragged for me with all the politics. Though that was a time when all the characters were stagnating, so it was probably somewhat intentional.
Adams never resists an opportunity for a long, drawn out simile (Kelderek is afraid, so next paragraph is a long "as a pilgrim of an angry god is afraid to look upon the idol" blah blah blah). Generally the book is written well, but the formula is tiresome by page 500. I liked the wide expanse of the story - like Siddhartha or East of Eden, you follow a character across his whole life and his various values, religions, and paradigms, which gives a holistic view of who he is as a man. I was in the mood for something kind of antique and pulpy, and this did it without having troubling sexism or overt racism that you often have to wade through for a good time in 1974. Plus, bears are fucking cool.
I picked this book up on a total whim, when what I really wanted to read was Watership Down again. So I was hoping it would basically be Watership Down but with bears? Which would be a really stupid novel for Adams to write directly after for his next work. Very unfairly, I was a little disappointed at all the humans in the book, and especially in Bekla things dragged for me with all the politics. Though that was a time when all the characters were stagnating, so it was probably somewhat intentional.
Adams never resists an opportunity for a long, drawn out simile (Kelderek is afraid, so next paragraph is a long "as a pilgrim of an angry god is afraid to look upon the idol" blah blah blah). Generally the book is written well, but the formula is tiresome by page 500. I liked the wide expanse of the story - like Siddhartha or East of Eden, you follow a character across his whole life and his various values, religions, and paradigms, which gives a holistic view of who he is as a man. I was in the mood for something kind of antique and pulpy, and this did it without having troubling sexism or overt racism that you often have to wade through for a good time in 1974. Plus, bears are fucking cool.