Rating: 
Summary: An unappreciated masterpiece
Review: Richard Adams's _Shardik_ is set in an imaginary world, though Adams, like Tolkien, hints that in fact it is simply the remote past of our own world. The central action of the story concerns a giant bear worshipped by a tribe living on the southern limits of the great Beklan empire. This tribe, the Ortelgans, believe that Shardik's purpose is to lead them to greatness, and so when he appears they follow him in a glorious campaign to conquer the Empire. But is Shardik really a god, or just a very big bear whose thoroughly animal-like actions are given meaning by his followers? Adams wisely never really answers this question, and this is the great fascination of the book. Adams faces head-on the charge that religion is simply a tool for oppression and exploitation. He avoids a simplistic answer largely through his complex portrayal of the central human character, Shardik's prophet Kelderek. Kelderek is a simple tribesman who sincerely believes himself to have been chosen by Shardik for great purposes. While many of his actions are evil, we are never allowed to lose sympathy with him or to suspect him of hypocrisy, while at the same time we come to sympathize more and more with the characters who oppose his fanatical regime. At the end, Kelderek sees the evil he has done in the name of God, and begins to understand what Shardik's true purpose is--or does he simply misunderstand yet again? The greatness of this novel is in the fact that while it has a strong moral message, it always conveys this message through the actions and words of its characters. Adams lets the world he has created speak for itself. In the end we can choose to believe or not to believe.
For readers like myself who themselves practice a religion, the novel is a powerful portrayal of the way the divine can be distorted and misunderstood by even the sincerest believer, even while God always remains transcendent, able to pierce through our comfortable blindness with the shocking light of his grace.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful book full of twists and enchantment
Review: Shardik is a wonderful book by an amazing author. I read it for the first time when I was ten, and have read it many times since, and I still love it!
Rating:
Summary: This was a great book
Review: This book was amazing, with the use of rich description and detail. Although a few parts dragged a little, it is one of the best books I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most brilliantly written books I have ever read
Review: This is Richard Adams greatest book. It not only contains the excitement and adventure of Watership Down and Maia, it also contains the most involving unpredictable plot, the most complex and passionate characters, and the most interesting locations. Locations? I generally hate descriptions of how someone is dressed or how an office is furnished ad nauseum. However, I have never enjoyed and visualized the look and feel of a place I have read about as I have in this book. Methalys' description of Zeray is perhaps the most descriptive passage I have ever read. The book is hauntingly real. I wish it would simply continue beyond the end.
Rating:
Summary: My all-time favorite book!
Review: What can I say that hasn't already been said? Richard Adams is an incredible storyteller, with a mastery of the English language beyond any other author I've read. I've read this book pretty much annually for the past 6 or 7 years, and it amazes me each and every time.If you can, also pick up a copy of MAIA, Adams' prequel to SHARDIK. The two books complement each quite well, and should be reprinted as a set, in my opinion. (Although SHARDIK remains my favorite.)
|
