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A review by abomine
Shardik by Richard Adams
4.0
Perfect Musical Pairing: Pharao by Freedom Call
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Reading this book is a journey, in which you invest your heart, soul, and mind. It's a long, bloody, and arduous trek, across rivers and mountains, through cities and slums, all the way to the very heart of faith and humanity and forgiveness. You come to love these characters as friends, and to see them suffer so hideously throughout the course of the novel almost makes reading unbearable at times, but the ever present thoughts of "What happens next? Will our beloved characters earn their respective happy endings" keep you turning the pages. Once you reach the end, there's a certain exhaustion and exhilaration you feel, like after running a marathon, and the novel ends on a beautifully hopeful and optimistic note.
Shardik is not for everyone, though. This is a VERY long read (like, [b:Moby-Dick|153747|Moby-Dick; or, The Whale|Herman Melville|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327940656s/153747.jpg|2409320]-long, at least that's how it felt as I was reading it), and it is considerably dark and gruesome at times (sometimes a bit overly so, especially in the treatment of a certain female character, hence my four-star rating instead of a five-star), but trust me, it is completely worth the venture.
This is the third book I've read and enjoyed by Richard Adams, the other two being [b:Watership Down|76620|Watership Down (Watership Down #1)|Richard Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405136931s/76620.jpg|1357456] and [b:The Plague Dogs|12442|The Plague Dogs|Richard Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388951112s/12442.jpg|826957], and Shardik most certainly did not disappoint.
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Reading this book is a journey, in which you invest your heart, soul, and mind. It's a long, bloody, and arduous trek, across rivers and mountains, through cities and slums, all the way to the very heart of faith and humanity and forgiveness. You come to love these characters as friends, and to see them suffer so hideously throughout the course of the novel almost makes reading unbearable at times, but the ever present thoughts of "What happens next? Will our beloved characters earn their respective happy endings" keep you turning the pages. Once you reach the end, there's a certain exhaustion and exhilaration you feel, like after running a marathon, and the novel ends on a beautifully hopeful and optimistic note.
Shardik is not for everyone, though. This is a VERY long read (like, [b:Moby-Dick|153747|Moby-Dick; or, The Whale|Herman Melville|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327940656s/153747.jpg|2409320]-long, at least that's how it felt as I was reading it), and it is considerably dark and gruesome at times (sometimes a bit overly so, especially in the treatment of a certain female character, hence my four-star rating instead of a five-star), but trust me, it is completely worth the venture.
This is the third book I've read and enjoyed by Richard Adams, the other two being [b:Watership Down|76620|Watership Down (Watership Down #1)|Richard Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405136931s/76620.jpg|1357456] and [b:The Plague Dogs|12442|The Plague Dogs|Richard Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388951112s/12442.jpg|826957], and Shardik most certainly did not disappoint.