Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Feb 25, 2008

Summer rated it:

I knew the title from a Stephen King reference ( The Waste Lands) and picked it up because of my interest in predator worship myths. Shardik, a great bear revered as the power of the divine, is very much a Monster of God in the sense that David Quammen writes of in his book by that title. Unlike real bears, who nosh whoever happens to get in their way, Shardik never eats someone who doesn’t deserve it (though I daresay he may have snacked on some innocent cattle.) The religion Adams creates is More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 10, 2008

Becky rated it:

I went into this book knowing very little about it, other than the reference to Shardik the Bear in one of Stephen King's books in the Dark Tower series. I did have some prior experience with Richard Adams, having read/enjoyed/been impressed with Watership Down and The Plague Dogs. In fact, while reading Plague Dogs, I noticed that Adams manages to keep me reading right on through something I cannot stand in most books: lengthy description of setting, particularly landscapes. So much of The Plag More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

Ever since I've read Watership Down I've been a big Richard Adams fan. This book makes for pretty heavy reading, and I won't deny it took me a while to get through it. The pacing could be quite slow at times, but I think it is well worth sticking through. Shardik is epic fantasy, and nothing at all like what he created in Watership Down. You could argue that the book isn't even about the bear, but the events that surround it.

One thing I first noticed about the book was how original More...

1 comment like

Jan 25, 2012

Corytregoart rated it:

Like so many readers, I absolutely adored Watership Down, and afterwards I was eager to get into some more of what Richard Adams had to offer. However, I have to confess that Shardik left me disappointed. I also have to confess that I got less than half way through the book, so this review may not hold as much weight as one from someone who completed it.

The main reason I didn't like like this story very much is the main character. He seemed incredibly passive and weak, easily manipul More...

0 comments like

Feb 17, 2011

Scott added it

One of my favorite books. Read it over thirty years ago, and several times since. For Christmas my girlfriend found me an autographed copy! This book is as timely as ever in today's world. Shardik is a tale of what people will do in the name of religion. War, slavery, anything is forgiven in the name of a deity. Yet Shardik is never portrayed as anything but a bear- very real and very dangerous. This is not a talking animal book like Watership Down, and that may have confused some readers when i More...

0 comments like

Jul 26, 2011

Anand rated it:

I'll keep this review short, as I need to read this one again. Too many plot details have escaped my mind in the intervening few years since I finished it. I will say that this is a novel of rare power and poignancy, and not one that will be immediately appealing to all fans of Adams' much more famous work, Watership Down. For one thing, it is clearly an adult novel; its content is not inappropriate for children, but its sophistication in ideas and language make it a far more challenging read More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 27, 2010

wally rated it:

"the truth--those who hear it are in no doubt. yet there are always others who know for a fact that nothing out of the ordinary took place."

words spoken by kelderek, a simple hunter several chapters into the story, a changed man at the end, when he speaks the words.

this is a good story. shardik, an unusually large bear flees from fire, getting burned in the process, falling into water and having to struggle to stay alive. is shardik from god? his actions early o More...

0 comments like

Oct 13, 2010

{eri} rated it:

I really enjoyed this book :] Writing a review for it seems hard because much of the subject matter was philosophical and metaphysical in nature. Religion, civilization, divine intervention, truth, fate, slavery, as well as duty and honor were all explored in this book. There is much to ponder when reading this novel and while there is external action, the internal conflicts of the characters are great as well.

I did enjoy revising the Beklan Empire. Because Shardik was written ten year More...

0 comments like

Jan 16, 2008

Vanessa rated it:

When I read a Richard Adams book, it takes over my whole life. Every event in my life mirrors what the characters are going through. I stay up way too late reading so that I can see the characters through to the end of the scene. His books are way too real to me.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 14, 2011

Sam rated it:

A powerful story of faith, political struggle, war and xenophobia set in Richard Adam's Beklan/Ortelgan Empire. This epic tale about a Huntsman who finds his people's supposed, anticipated God-Bear half-dead in the woods in the aftermath of a forest fire is gripping from page one (especially to someone familiar with the world and history from 'Maia'.) All of Adams' stories are timeless mirrors of people and politics everywhere. Simple truths and/or many shades of meaning are there for the taking More...

0 comments like

Mar 02, 2010

Owen rated it:

I was excited when I first heard about this book (as a side note Robert Michael Pyle's writing about the forest ecosystem of the Olympic Peninsula). I have read Watership Down and Plague Dogs and enjoyed both very much, so I expected great things from this book that sounded like it was more developed than either of those two. While quite thick, the novel never presents a richness of detail that you would expect. The descriptions in Adams' prose rely on preconceived notions from other examples More...

0 comments like

Sep 27, 2011

Fiver rated it:

It's a recurring pattern that we see over and over again in books and film: an artist makes a solid, but not particularly profound effort into a genre aimed towards children. They suddenly find themselves a stunning success, and immediately up their game by deciding to write, direct, or act for adults instead. It happened when Tolkien drastically changed styles from "The Hobbit" to "The Lord of the Rings". It happened when Daniel Radcliffe starred in "Equus" after a More...

0 comments like

May 15, 2011

dara rated it:

I (like anyone else with a pulse) loved Watership Down so it was only a matter of time before I gave Shardik a chance to win my heart. It didn't quite. There are aspects I enjoyed, moments when I was truly invested in the characters, but those moments (the conversations between Elleroth and Mollo, for example) were fleeting. I wasn't fond of the main character Kelderek, and he, not Shardik, is the focus of the book. People... how boring! ;)

"As a man led to judgment might halt to More...

0 comments like

Jan 18, 2012

Nev rated it:

Had this from the school library in my teens along w Watership Down and The Plague Dogs... and somehow managed to like it without really having 'got it': "It's just about people wandering around in the wake of this bear."
Obtained and read it again recently as a sophisticated and erudite adult looking to make up for this past failing (and rather fancying Osric my lore-master alterego naming a bear friend 'Shardic'). But I still didn't really get it -- if there was anything much to g More...

0 comments like

Mar 02, 2010

Cindy rated it:

Adams writing is deep and broad. In this book, although named for the great bear that is undoubtedly the main character, Adams delivers some amazing truths about humans, and how they go about civilizing themselves as they seek answers about the world around them.

I have a first edition copy of this book somewhere - found at a half price books in college town. It isn't in great shape, having been read several times, yet I still consider that day in the bookstore a win.

0 comments like

Sep 14, 2010

D_Davis rated it:

So Shardik is really, really good so far. I'd be shocked if this wasn't a huge influence on Miyazaki. As a matter of fact, Studio Ghibli should make Shardik into a film - it'd be totally amazing. It's basically a huge, epic, historical fantasy dealing with humankind's (in this case an indigenous people's) relationship with nature and the ecological troubles they encounter when the spirit of the forest - God - manifests itself in the body of a giant bear. Oh wait, Studio Ghibli already made that More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 11, 2011

Lady rated it:

While the writing of Richard Adams is exceptional in his descriptions and allusions to ... well, just about anything you can possibly imagine relative to the plight of his protagonist, I was disappointed with this novel in that there were very few female characters throughout represented save for a few priestesses. Still, without revealing anything, such is somewhat redeemed eventually. Granted, the copyright of the paperback copy I completed today is dated at 1974. I think we will all agree More...

0 comments like

Mar 12, 2009

Andrew rated it:

Shardik will allways be among my favorite books. In this Novel Adams creates a rich world as complete in every way as Tolkiens Middle earth, in which a mythical bear returns in flesh to a barbaric people, and is used by The Barons of this culture to start a revolution. Universal concepts such as fate, honour, futility and divinity are central to the story.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 23, 2010

Jennie added it

For more than fifteen years I tried over and over again to read this book. Since I was about 12 the first time I tried, I would pick it up periodically thinking I just needed to mature a little more. I never made it past the first chapter; I could never sit through the half-page description of a dew drop sliding down a leaf. I'll stick with the bunnies.

1 comment like

Jan 31, 2009

Robert rated it:

I rarely read fantasy, but I found this to be totally absorbing. I had some doubts before beginning, because I found the rabbits in Watership Down to be unsympathetic. I couldn't develop any feeling for them at all, whereas the characters in Shardik, not least the great bear, have remained with me after many years.

0 comments like

Jun 11, 2010

Michèle rated it:

Le deuxième livre de Adams que j'ai lu, et complètemetn différent comme ambiance!

Assez étrange sur le départ, car on suit un anti héros naif qui est ballotté par les événements. Shardik est un ours gigantesque dont un état tente de se servir (par symbolisme religieux) pour asservir une région.

0 comments like

Aug 12, 2009

Jenny rated it:

I think I'd give this one about 3.5 stars. I absolutely love Watership Down and I've tried to read Shardik in the past but I don't think I had the maturity to appreciate it at the time. It was still difficult for me to get into it now (15 years later), and I wouldn't say I enjoyed it until about 3/5 of the way in. What bothered me the most was not having any idea where he was leading us, and not being sure that he really knew for awhile. I didn't feel like my time was being well spent. However, More...

0 comments like

Jan 31, 2010

Linda Branham rated it:

I read this book many years ago... but I still have it. It made an impression. What I remember is a man...stumbles upon a gigantic bear. He names the bear Shardik and believes the bear is a messenger of God and begins to follow him.
Maybe it is time for a reread

0 comments like

Apr 14, 2009

Frankie rated it:

can't fault Richard Adams... this one is more of an adult book than watership down, which was a firm favourite when i was six, and therefore grimmer. good though. still love the quote "the number of hoots I give for his opinion is restricted to less than two"...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 21, 2011

Pete rated it:

I personally really liked this book. Sometimes the plot did get a little slow, but the story is good enough to be worth it. It's truly an epic tale. If you're looking for a story you can only describe as colossal, this is the book for you.

0 comments like

May 03, 2011

Rosalie rated it:

Very Disappointing! As someone who loved Watership Down and read it aloud to my family again after I read it. I was excited about another Richard Adams. I was more than a little disappointed.

3 comments like

Apr 14, 2009

Carolyn rated it:

Less well known that Richard Adams lovely novel Watership Down, but better in my view as it is about humans and the search for truth. Adams writes better than almost anyone else I have read.

0 comments like

May 21, 2009

Indraroop rated it:

A tough read, but I would say it was worth it. It is interesting how little the book is about the bear, but at the same time, how important the bear is to the book and all its characters.

0 comments like

Aug 30, 2008

Cyan rated it:

Perseverance required. I was determined to get through this, having read Watership Down just before this. Made it through, but it was hard going. The last few pages took the longest, for some reason - I think it was the jump in narrative for the denouement.
I thought it was average - balanced by extremes.
Positives: Beautifully descriptive writing at times and voluminous extended simile/metaphor; huge character arcs.
Negatives: main character was kind of a damp squib; in fact, I More...

0 comments like

Feb 07, 2012

Dawn rated it:

This book was recommended to me by a friend who said it was one of her most favourite books ever. I got about halfway through it and gave up. It was sooo boring!

0 comments like

reviews