A fantastic journey!

This story serves as one of the major inspirations to Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series. Not just way of using the giant bear "Shardik" as one of the characters, but in the speech and mannerisms of the people. It was great to see where some of this came from.

The story itself is great as you follow an uneducated hunter through his journey alongside Shardik. Watching pure intentions turn to corruption at the hands of soldiers and politicians idea of the greater need.

The Bear is a symbol of power that can not be easily defined or interpreted because at the end of the day it's just a bear. All violence, all hunger, all softness, all peace.
And Shardik after all is a bear. A huge bear, but a bear.

9 people found this helpful

Overlooked, underappreciated and forgotten epic

So many people love Watership Down--I am one of them--for its gentle and magical English storytelling. This book by the same author is such a different kind of story that if you read it expecting the same kind of experience, you are sure to be disappointed. If you instead put aside those expectations and read this book for what it is, it will draw you in and enthrall you. It starts with another animal character, which no doubt mislead some readers into what kind of book it will be. But the animal in question (an impossibly large bear) is just the catalyst for the very human stories of the people who encounter it. The novel traces the journey of a common man through very uncommon circumstances. Adams is masterful at world-building and at writing clear action sequences. His characters are incredibly different from one another yet entirely believable as residents of the same world. The chain of events as all the characters struggle with the consequences of their actions are at times graphically violent and other times deeply disturbing (such as torture of children) but at all times realistically human. As an audiobook this richly detailed story rewards repeat listenings. You pick up more nuances on each revisit. John Lee is superb as always--not many narrators could have handled the unusual character and place names as fluidly (if you never read the print version when it first came out, you may need to eventually to pick up the print copy to figure out what you're hearing--not uncommon with Fantasy books).

7 people found this helpful

Marathon, not a sprint

I loved Watership Down and that was the inspiration for me to listen to this one. Richard Adams claimed it to be his own master work. I really enjoyed the laying of the groundwork through the first third of the book but found my interest lagging through the middle chunk before Kelderek and Shardik leave Bekla a bit long and meandering. Pushing on, the buildup to the climax and the resolution were really satisfying and I thoroughly enjoyed the book as a whole. The performance was spot on, the voice actor was passionate and used many voices and accents well.

6 people found this helpful

Good, but not as good as I hoped.

I absolutely loved Watership Down, and I was hoping that I would enjoy this as much (on hearing the author say it was his best work). I was a bit disappointed. It was a very different type of story, and it was missing some of the warmth and camaraderie that characterized Watership Down. The story was quite dark in many places, and there was little lightheartedness to be found anywhere else in it. As an agnostic, I suppose that some of the story's religious allegories were less important to me than they might have been to someone who was deeply religious. I could see the points he was making, but the questions he spent so much time trying to answer were not ones that occupy my mind much. Still, it was a well told story.

I have really liked some of the reader's other work (his reading of China Mieville's work for instance), but his reading of Shardik seemed in some places to be tonally at odds woth the work itself. A bright, clipped, cheerful English accent seems out of place when the subject matter involves depression, battlefields, or other kinds of darkness. I would have liked the reading more if the tone of the reader had more closely tracked the tone of the work as it was read. With that said, I enjoy this reader very much in general, and I think he does a very good job overall.

6 people found this helpful

Deserves its stature, reminds me of Moby at times

Shardik is one of the classics I've always wanted to get to. It is rather long so you need to settle into the world Adams has created. It is a bit Tolkien-ish in its world building aspect, but there is no magical element, unless you count the bear himself. It is not strictly about Shardik himself, but rather his influence over those around him. In certain aspects it reminds me a little of Moby in that so much depends upon how the characters, and reader, interpret Shardik's actions and presence. And there is much about the use and abuse of power and the usurpation of Shardik's "existence" for self gain or political reasons. I also noticed how often there is fire imagery throughout the novel, in conjunction with Shardik and in general and when you finish re-listen to wonderful opening to see how the end in a sense is contained in the beginning. I have always thought the opening chapters describing the jungle etc were beautifully written. Deceptively well constructed novel.

6 people found this helpful

I thought this was a tremendous story and a great job on the narration

I don’t often write reviews for books but this one really deserves my appreciation. I had first read Watership down and really really enjoyed that story and so I decided to try this book out by the same author. I am really glad that I did. I have put this in my favorites category and have listen to it twice already with the intent of listening at least a couple of more times. There is just so much depth and thought put into this story line. I hope that this author considers a sequel for this book.

2 people found this helpful

Good story made better by John Lee

This is a very good book by Adams, but if you're looking for more Watership Down this isn't it. Also, if you're looking into this book because of its connection to the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, you also may be disappointed. Adam's world building is at its finest here, and his character's journey is very interesting. John Lee's narration is, as always, top notch and kept me interested even when things got slow.

5 people found this helpful

amazing epic

i loved watership down and plague dogs, but i was not prepared for the masterful work with a very different story style. it is my favorite book ever to date.

1 person found this helpful

Amazing performance

There will never be a better reader than John Lee...At least as far as I have heard yet.

3 people found this helpful

Different

Watership Down did not prepare me for this! After reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series I wanted to see the origins of “Shardik” and having enjoyed the earlier work by its author, I dove in. This is a different animal entirely but worth making my way through it. I admit attention wavered through some of the intricate, detailed descriptions of surroundings but the story— no, the SAGA, is involving. The innocent beginning, decent into abuse, misery and pain, and finally, a kind of redemption— is extreme. It’s not a quick read, by any means. I’m very glad I read it and I will revisit it again I’m sure. Just don’t expect it to be like Watership Down at all. (And yet in a way, by the time you reach the end, it somehow leaves a similar feeling.)