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Shardik (Beklan Empire)

3.4 of 5 stars 3.40 · rating details · 1,850 ratings · 117 reviews

Richard Adams's Watership Down was a number one bestseller, a stunning work of the imagination, and an acknowledged modern classic. In Shardik Adams sets a different yet equally compelling tale in a far-off fantasy world.

Shardik is a fantasy of tragic character, centered on the long-awaited reincarnation of the gigantic bear Shardik and his appearance among the half-barbar...more

Hardcover, 529 pages

Published 1974 by Simon and Schuster

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Feb 25, 2008 Summer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Summer by: Stephen King

Shelves: fantasy

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 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 neither ancient a la Clan of the Cave Bear nor quite Christian, but something of both. God manifests himself in the chaos of nature, replete with Old Testament-style smitings.

Taken on its own terms, though, the book has a lot to say – in particular, about the folly of believing the desires of man to be the will of God. There’s a disturbing poignancy in Adams’ imagery of the beast-god caged and drugged senseless by people who claim to be his worshippers. By ‘divine’ will (and the pressure of an ambitious baron), the hunter Kelderek helps overthrow a government, rises to kingship, and legalizes a slave trade to pay soldiers to further the conquests. When a dissident frees Shardik, Kelderek sets off to recapture him and plunges into a hell of his own making. The Streels of Urtah, in particular, captured my attention.

A few random things got in the way. The names frequently struck me as odd, particularly the city-state Ortelga, which to me sounded too much like that brand of canned pseudo-Mexican food. Adams of lapses into extended similes that not only detract from the story but often seem inappropriate for the world he’s created. The weirdest device was Adams’ references to real-world history and myths in his made-up universe. I suppose he intended to bring his own myth into parallel with those of our world – ‘yes, this really happened,’ with a wink. But most of the time I just scratched my head.

Just the same, critics called Shardik better than Watership Down. I read Watership over ten years ago and can’t make a fair comparison. But I am surprised that Shardik hasn’t had the staying power of Adams’ first novel.
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Jul 10, 2008 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like fantasy or philosophy/religion

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 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 Plague Dogs is the setting, and not only did I read all that stuff about the Lake District, it actually made me want to find out more about the area, and even, possibly, to visit there one day.

Anyway, Shardik. I didn't expect Shardik to be the exact type of fantasy novel I usually hate and refuse to finish -- or, not so much refuse, as just be physically unable to due to falling asleep. Adams did a lot of very elaborate, almost Tolkien-quality world-building for Shardik, and this particular brand of detail usually turns me right off. Give me a book that takes place in a world full of people and places with ridiculous-sounding names (Deelguy? Bel-ka-Trazet? Ta-Kominion? General Zelda? BWAH HA HA HA HA!) and I will fling that book across the room before long. However, I did not fling this book. The world Adams has created for the book coheres very well, stupid names aside. And once again, the descriptions of setting/landscape (which are so important to the story) are so beautifully written, they held my interest as they did in The Plague Dogs.

Some reviews of this book complain about its "preachy" tone, and I can sympathize. The tone is oddly stiff, and Adams sometimes spells things out too blatantly where he really could have afforded to trust the reader. I didn't feel it was anywhere near as axe-grindy as The Plague Dogs (which I enjoyed, if that word could be applied to such a book!), and the unfolding of the story was so engaging, I felt the sometimes-stilted tone took a back seat to the story. I don't think anyone could call Richard Adams subtle -- he definitely has "messages" he wants to put across about large ideas. But there's also no denying that his writing is powerful and moving.

Shardik is not a fast read. It's epic and takes a bit of dedication, but it's worth it. Nearly every character undergoes a change of almost cataclysmic proportions. Nearly everyone is redeemed. The point of the book is that redemption -- where does it come from? Via whose actions? Is it always deserved?

And then, of course, there's the question of the bear. Is he the ursine embodiment of the Power of God? Or is he just a beast that's been made subject to human superstitions and human greed?

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys heavy-duty fantasy, or discussions of philosophy/religion. Adams can dazzle you with beautiful writing one moment, and make you question the way you live your life in the next moment. Good stuff either way.(less)

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Feb 16, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Animal-lovers, Tolkien fans

Shelves: fantasy

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 the storylin...more 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 the storyline seemed. Shardik tells the story of the giant eponymous bear that the Ortelgans (a tribe of the Beklan empire) believe to be the divine Power of God. He's discovered by a simple hunter, Kelderek (later the priest-king of Shardik) who declares that Shardik was sent to lead the Ortelgans to greatness and "reclaim" the empire's seat at Bekla. Unlike Adams's other books Watership Down and The Plague Dogs, the bear's perspective is only seen in the initial two chapters and for the remainder of the story he is a powerful and often antagonistic force that merely serves to set the wheels turning in the story.

What I loved in particular about this book was the imagery Adams is able to come up with. The first few paragraphs alone in chapter one has some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read. He does a wonderful and very plausible job of building up this world. There's something very ancient about Adams's world, even prehistoric. I recently learned that Shardik was the work Adams was most happy with, and I think I understand why. It's clear he's spent a lot of time creating his world, along with its geography and its flora and fauna. For the duration of the book, I got the feeling that this world wasn't just some fantasy world, but a world that might have been our own thousands of years ago.

While most of the characters are flawed and their actions evil, you don't find it hard to retain a certain sense of sympathy for their plight even as the novel progresses and the reality of Kelderek's crimes are made clearer and clearer. While the tone of the book can border along the preachy, what I enjoyed most about the story was that it was never made clear if Shardik really were a divine personification of some higher power or if it was superstition and just a twist of fate. Adams leaves us to decide ourselves as we like. The story has strong themes of redemption, suffering and mankind's spiritual search for God in the world.

I would recommend Shardik to anyone who really loves Adams's previous works, animal-lovers or anyone who appreciates the details that come with epic high fantasy.(less)

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Sep 30, 2012 Caroline rated it 3 of 5 stars

Watership Down by Richard Adams is probably my all-time favorite novel. But for whatever reason I have long avoided Shardik, his second novel. Something about the blurbs always rubbed me the wrong way. I have finally given it a chance, and it is just about what I expected: not bad, but a little boring.

The novel is set in a fictional land, perhaps at a dark ages level of technology. (I would hesitate to class it as “fantasy” as there is little in the way of magic). The Ortelgans live on an island...more Watership Down by Richard Adams is probably my all-time favorite novel. But for whatever reason I have long avoided Shardik, his second novel. Something about the blurbs always rubbed me the wrong way. I have finally given it a chance, and it is just about what I expected: not bad, but a little boring.

The novel is set in a fictional land, perhaps at a dark ages level of technology. (I would hesitate to class it as “fantasy” as there is little in the way of magic). The Ortelgans live on an island and worship “Shardik,” the power of God manifested into a giant bear that has long been missing. When Kelderek, a simple hunter, discovers a giant bear in the forest, it is the spark that transforms his life as well as his society. Quite quickly his tribal leaders decide to use the great bear in order to conquer their southern neighbors, a move which has terrible consequences.

The narrative is more old-fashioned in style, a bit like 19th century prose. Kelderek, as the main character, spends a great deal of time in soul-searching, asking questions, pondering morality. The message is on how religious fervor can be misused and misapplied, even by good people. Dialogue is spoken in a formal fashion. The story moves leisurely, a trifle ponderously, rather like the bear itself, I guess. The tone is melancholy; the tale is full of violence and misery and suffering. A whole section chronicles the nightmarish journey of a group of enslaved and tortured children.

I did appreciate how it was never made clear on whether or not Shardik WAS the power of God manifested into a giant bear, of if Shardik WAS simply a wild bear they thought was their deity. Moreover, this ambiguity is not remarked on at all because it simply doesn’t matter. Shardik is divine to his followers and irrelevant to his enemies and that is what was important.

I was somewhat surprised (and appreciative) that the novel ends with a hopeful epilogue, after all the weary darkness. All in all, I am glad to have read it, though I don’t know if I will ever come back to it.
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May 05, 2012 BeeQuiet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Since Watership Down has been one of my all time favourite books since I first read it years ago, it was in a sense inevitable that I would at some point read Shardik, also by Richard Adams. Shardik is a mythical tale of a great bear who comes to symbolise hope, and potential for a new golden age for the Ortelgans. This story follows the path of Shardik, but also of Kelderek whose life becomes intrinsically linked with that of the bear.

I loved this book for its detail, which helps the reader bec...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Corytregoart rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

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 manipulated by the...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Scott Roberts added it · review of another edition

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

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Jul 24, 2011 Anand Subramanian rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 th...more

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Oct 27, 2010 wally rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adams

"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 on suggest no, the way he stops, in...more "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 on suggest no, the way he stops, infuriated by the flames, swatting at them.

kelderek, meeting shardik, believes shardik to be from god. he spreads the news. others have anticipated the arrival of a shardik-like bear. they act on their beliefs. their actions have consequences. that is the story.

as the story unfolds, the people of kelderek's tribe wage war and kelderek goes along with that--shamed by ta-kominion into doing so, shardik happening to be there when needed. but things go wrong.

kelderek's tribe, having spent years on a spit of land on the end of an island, are bent on recapturing bekla, their once upon a time kingdom's major city. it's curious how adams treats that--there is more to do with the lead up to bekla--then bekla is disposed of with a paragraph at the end of a chapter.

the story i take it, is not the war, but what comes before and what comes after. the consequences of belief. and adam's characters have warts. they make mistakes. foolish mistakes.

elleroth, another character, acts like a spy in the house of shardik. some palace intrigue. schemes and plans. unrest and flight.

kelderek flees as well, though his flight takes the form of pursuit, pursuit of shardik who is once again free. some twists and turns, you see characters again and again, elleroth, the baron bel-ka-trazet, the tuginda and melathys. some characters you love to hate, genshed, a child-slave trader. some children at the end, w/genshed, and a long walk they endure and overcome.

a kind of love story that is only realized by the end and an opening to other lands and other ideas, siristrou, from a foreign land, enjoying his time with these illiterate and ignorant people--and kelderek, at the end, the quote from above...the truth--those who hear are in no doubt. yet there are always others who know for a fact that nothing out of the ordinary took place.(less)

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Oct 13, 2010 {eri} rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

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 years before M...more 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 years before Maia, I did not feel that the world was as expansive or glorious as it later became. I often feel this is true of fantasy novels, as it often seems the author matures and progresses as he continues to write and strengthen the world he has created. The list of characters present in Maia was missing from this novel which I feel would have much helped. (There are many characters and titles and it becomes hard to keep track at times). In this regard, the Beklan languages were not as developed as they later became.

However I would definitely recommend this novel. I am glad to have read Maia first, as that is a prequel to this story, thus reading Shardik made sense in chronological order in relation to the book I had just read. I relished recognizing characters such as Santil-kè-Erketlis, Bel-ka-Trazet, Elleroth, Ta-Kominion, Genshed, and even Melathys. I was able to understand their motivations better and to see how they had progressed and related to the story last time. I also enjoyed learning more about the Northern and Eastern parts of the Empire as well as a bit more about surrounding countries (such as Zakalon) which was heretofore unexplored.

The journey of Shardik is moving and intriguing and brings up points about superstition and barbarianism. There is much focus on Shardik and not as much on individuals and politics. However when these are focused on, it is exciting. Certain parts of the novel show descriptions of violence that were more so than in Maia and added to the tension and danger of the story.

Overall, I enjoyed it very much :] I feel it was the perfect book to read before starting The Dark Tower series, as Shardik is mentioned in these books as well. (less)

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May 08, 2013 John Gillespie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Adams followed his masterpiece, Watership Down, with this epic fantasy. I read somewhere that he thought Shardik was his best work, and I can understand that evaluation, but I never developed as strong an attachment to the characters as I did when I read Watership Down. Nevertheless, the ideas here are hard to summarize and, now that I've finished it, really hard to stop contemplating. The only animal character is a giant bear who becomes an inscrutable icon of worship. Shardik, the bear, cataly...more

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Jan 16, 2008 Vanessa rated it 5 of 5 stars

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.

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Aug 14, 2011 Sam Lovelace rated it 5 of 5 stars

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

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Mar 02, 2010 Owen Curtsinger rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 of...more

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Nov 25, 2012 L.M. Ironside rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: didn-t-finish, fantasy, general-fiction, i-do-not-approve

It pains me, genuinely, to have to give a one-star rating to a book by Richard Adams. I love Richard Adams. I have a Watership Down tattoo, for corn's sake. That's how much I love him. But Shardik was just a crummy book, from end to almost-end: I stopped reading in disgust right after the "Genshed" section of the book, which was so graphically violent and otherwise disturbing that it came across as pure shock value, accomplishing nothing in the overall story.

Shardik is set in the fictional land...more It pains me, genuinely, to have to give a one-star rating to a book by Richard Adams. I love Richard Adams. I have a Watership Down tattoo, for corn's sake. That's how much I love him. But Shardik was just a crummy book, from end to almost-end: I stopped reading in disgust right after the "Genshed" section of the book, which was so graphically violent and otherwise disturbing that it came across as pure shock value, accomplishing nothing in the overall story.

Shardik is set in the fictional land of Bekla, which...might be fantasy? Adams has another novel set in the Beklan Empire, Maia, and the astute Goodreadser will notice that I rated Maia no less than five stars. It is, in fact, one of my favorite books. How could I rate two books by the same author set in the same world so differently? I'll go into that later. First, a word on the setting. The Beklan Empire is never explained in Maia, never excused -- it just stands on its own, a world somewhat like our own but notably different enough that the reader can comfortably take it as a fantasy world (albeit lacking in magic or in other fantasy elements). In Shardik, there is a strange and very weak attempt to explain Bekla as a land that once existed in our world, that is now lost to time, but will someday be discovered archaeologically. Okay, fine. I can get on board with that in a novel. But this expository nonsense is just crammed into the book in such a disjointed way that reading it made me all angry inside. There is no need to excuse Bekla. It just is; move on and get into the story, mother of god!

...Which brings me to my biggest beef with this book. Fans of Watership Down (and of Maia) know that Adams likes to go on long, long digressions, in which he needlessly relates whatever is going on in the story to something in "the real world" -- our modern Earth world, the world of human beings...whatever will help the reader relate. These digressions are almost never necessary to understand. A good writer (and Adams is a good writer) can make any world or character seem sympathetic to the reader without all the timid hand-holding. But it is a feature of the Richard Adams landscape, and his fans just accept the purple, long-sentenced digressions and deal with them for the sake of digesting an otherwise top-notch story. In Shardik, the hand-holding digressions some fast and thick, constantly interrupting the flow of the story, constantly yanking the reader out of the setting (and it's already difficult enough to swallow the setting).

The impression I got in reading Shardik was that Watership Down was such a success that Adams' editor didn't want to screw with his genius, and consequently, nearly everything in Shardik was allowed to fly. It is Adams unchecked, full of bizarro asides and sentences of hellish length and convolution. The man was not reined in for this book, and by Cran, he should have been. He should have been.

Kelderek, the main character, is perhaps the biggest problem with this book, although with a tighter writing style even he could have been acceptable. Kelderek is an entirely passive character, following the will of God and never really daring to do anything of his own volition. If he ever does break that mold, it comes very late in the book, and after I stopped reading. On the whole, he is shrinking and timid and entirely too malleable. His devotion to Lord Shardik doesn't even hold water, when a character of no consequence turns him from his alliance with the Tuginda with just a few words. Kelderek came across as silly and trite, nowhere growing into a main character I could believe in. I kept hoping Shardik would rip his fool head off, but he never did.

And now the world-building. If you've never read Maia, you may find Adams' first depiction of the Beklan Empire, here in Shardik, to be acceptable. However, comparing the two is like trying to find some similarity between a delicious, round, juicy Honeycrisp apple and a ball of dryer lint. Maia features a culture that feels real, fleshed, living, with variety in people and beliefs, where the conflicts between factions ring true and impart suspense and urgency to the reader. Maia has a pantheon of gods which feel much more believable in the pseudo-fantasy context than Shardik's single god, as well as rich mythologies and folklore that accompany the religion(s). Shardik has none of that. Even the central conflict in Maia -- political groups warring over slavery -- feels like it is an organic part of the world-building, while in Shardik the same central conflict feels stuffed into the world and forced to co-exist with a setting that never really offers up said conflict as a natural part of its various mechanics.

It is as if, in all possibly ways, Shardik was a first try at a big idea, and Maia is the perfection of that idea. Shardik is Maia with a rickety set of training wheels. Skip it and go straight to the masterwork. You will miss nothing by reading Maia first and Shardik second -- or by not reading Shardik at all. Maia is a polished gem, worked on the lapidary of Shardik. Be grateful that this book exists, because it allowed Maia to be. But don't feel like you must read it. (less)

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Apr 13, 2013 Claire rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 respec...more

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Mar 22, 2012 Iain Coggins rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: students of myth & folklore, anthropology and pyschology.

Recommended to Iain by: n/a

Shelves: speculative-fiction, myth-folklore-ancient-lit

Having read Watership Down years ago, the one book for which Adams is best known, I was intrigued by what a different read Shardik promised to be. Like Adams, I am a student of mythography and Jungian concepts concerning symbology and the collective unconscious. With Shardik, Adams presents a true masterpiece that exceeds the psychological and symbological depth of Watership. There is so much richness here that I believe many readers and reviewers miss it. Case in point: in several places I have...more Having read Watership Down years ago, the one book for which Adams is best known, I was intrigued by what a different read Shardik promised to be. Like Adams, I am a student of mythography and Jungian concepts concerning symbology and the collective unconscious. With Shardik, Adams presents a true masterpiece that exceeds the psychological and symbological depth of Watership. There is so much richness here that I believe many readers and reviewers miss it. Case in point: in several places I have read reviews that suggest Adams is using the sacred bear, "Lord Shardik" as a metaphor for Christ. If one is to accept this superficial view, then all Adams has accomplished is creating a more complicated Aslan for adult readers. Rather, Adams takes an anthropological approach as much as a theological one in exploring how societies find themselves mirrored in their environment and through such reflection reshape their world. Shardik is, explicitly, a wild animal that repeatedly finds itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately for him, those places and times are intuitively the right ones for humanity as they draw profound meaning from his desperate acts of survival.

The question arises as to whether the humans deluded. Is it just a bear and nothing more? To suggest so might seem logical, but it would be to misread the text entirely. It is unquestionable that the bear has as much affect on the human's lives as they do on his. There is a psychic symbiosis taking place between the species, but this symbiosis does not originate in the humans--it is not a projection thrust onto the bear--but rather a phenomenon that emerges from their relationship with one another. Of course other readers may have a different take, but whatever one's view, the book presents a thought-provoking look at the mystery of mind, spirit and environment and the inseparability of the three.

I am giving Shardik 5 stars, but I would prefer to give it 4.5 stars if this interface allowed my to do so. I was riveted all the way through, but I had some trouble with the last two books of the novel. For the sake of preventing spoilers, I will suffice it to say that I struggled with Kelderek's response to Genshed in the penultimate book. I felt that some of his actions as a character were not in keeping how his personality and circumstances had been established in the preceding chapters. There were also some elements in this section that I found a bit improbable. In the final book of the novel I felt that Adams failed to tie up some loose ends that would have lended a fuller, rounder richness to the story; small things, but ones that would have carried his theme further. Regardless, this is a classic that deserves wider attention, especially to students of myth and folklore.(less)

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Sep 27, 2011 Fiver rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 achieving fame in "Harry Potter...more

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May 15, 2011 dara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

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 listen to the so...more

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May 02, 2013 Fox rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: anthropology, fiction, own, religion, 2013, philosophy

Like many who have read this book, I initially picked it up due to Stephen King's reference to it in the book The Waste Lands. It helped that I also loved Watership Down and The Plague Dogs, and that the mythic nature of Richard Adams writing in general speaks to me. Shardik was a much, much more mythic book than the other two, which would mark The Plague Dogs as the most... well, down to earth book out of this particular bunch.

Shardik is the story of a young man (Kelderek) who comes across a gr...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Nev Percy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 get.
It offer...more

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Mar 02, 2010 Cindy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: animals, literary-fiction

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.

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Aug 16, 2010 Lady Shahrizai rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 tha...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Arwen56 rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romanzi

Per la serie “Se ci sono riuscito una volta, magari ce la faccio anche la seconda”. Mr. Richard Adams deve aver pensato suppergiù questo quando s’è messo di buzzo buono per scrivere questo romanzo, sulla scia del successo de La collina dei conigli.

Ma, ahimè, mi corre l’obbligo di comunicargli che non gli è riuscito affatto. Questo romanzo è un pasticcio senza né capo, né coda. Irritante, direi.

Evitatelo con cura.

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Mar 12, 2009 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars

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.

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Sep 23, 2010 Jennie marked it as abandoned

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.

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Jan 15, 2013 Dominick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

This is a remarkable and fascinating fantasy set in an alternate ancient world and offering an evocative but ambiguous depiction of a giant bear that is seen as (and may or may not in fact be) the manifestation of God on earth. It's occasionally ponderous (some of the epic similes, especially, are a bit much), but cumulatively quite powerful.

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Jan 31, 2009 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

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.

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Jun 11, 2010 Michèle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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.

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Jun 15, 2012 Kit★ marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fantasy

Recently did a re-read of Stephen King's Dark Tower series and was sorta interested in reading this, and then on my most recent Goodwill trip I found it in hardback... vintage copy, dust-jacket slightly torn and worn but mostly intact, and the pages and binding still great, so I thought about getting it... but didn't... then I went back and got it the next day, decided not to pass it up. Will read it one o' these days.

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About Richard Adams

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Adams was born in Newbury, Berkshire. From 1933 until 1938 he was educated at Bradfield College. In 1938 he went up to Worcester College, Oxford to read Modern History. On 3 September 1939 Neville Chamberlain announced that the United Kingdom was at war with Germany. In 194...more

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Quotes from Shardik

“Nevertheless, the number of hoots I give for them is restricted to less than two.” — 7 people liked it

“No, no- the sky will grow dark, cold rain will fall and all trace of the right way will be blotted out. You will be all alone. And still you will have to go on. There will be ghosts in the dark and voices in the air, disgusting prophecies coming true I wouldn’t wonder and absent faces present on every side, as the man said. And still you will have to go on. The last bridge will fall behind you and the last lights will go out, followed by the sun, the moon and the stars; and still you will have to go on. You will come to regions more desolate and wretched than you ever dreamed could exist, places of sorrow created entirely by that mean superstition which you yourself have put about for so long. But still you will have to go on” — 4 people liked it

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