Rating: 
Summary: One of my most favorite books.
Review: this book has been a staple of my collection since i first read it as a child. i am now nineteen and i still try to read it at least once a year. fiver, hazel, pipkin, bigwig...i love every page of this book...i would righly reccommend it to anyone, anywhere, anytime...it will not disappoint! :)
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic journey
Review: Nothing short of a masterpiece, "Watership Down" does for the English countryside what "The Jungle Books" did for the Indian jungles - and, like "The Jungle Books", should first be read in pre-adolescence but becomes even more profound upon rereading as an adult.We are immediately introduced to two of the three major characters of the novel. Fiver, a small rabbit prone to visions of the future, receives a mixed blessing - a horrendous vision of the destruction of his warren, as well as another of a promised land - a land of safety and security. Insistant that the whole warren must be evacuated post haste, he is assisted by his self-assured brother Hazel, who agrees partly because he has lived his whole life watching Fiver's visions come true and partly because he is becoming weary of the warren's inequality and wants a better life for Fiver - and by extension all the other rabbits who will never become members of the elite Owsla and face a rather bleak future. Their mutual admiration and devotion are the emotional center of the story. We are introduced to the handful of rabbits that they are able to convince to defect, most because of Hazel's influence or because they were discontented anyway rather than that they have faith in Fiver's visions at this point. Chief among them is Bigwig, a commanding Owsla member whose support is an unexpected surprise. As the story goes on, they face many natural and man-made perils, reach Fiver's Down, learn the fate of their original warren, attempt to create a just government and attempt to ensure the survival of their new warren by attracting does to immigrate (the original immigrants are all bucks) It all ends in a nailbiting climax in which Bigwig faces the evil fascist General Woundwort, who vows to personally kill him for spearheading a rescue of oppressed does and a buck from his warren; Fiver faces a quieter but no less gripping battle for his spirit when the realm from whence his visions come threatens to overwhelm him; and Hazel makes a desperate bargain with their god Frith, the personification of the sun. It's actually their more subtle traits that make the rabbits - and the book - so fascinating. We admire Bigwig for his bravery, but love him for refusing to attempt to become a dictator and - after a few hard-earned lessons in humility - acknowledging the merits of those superficially weaker than him. We admire Fiver for his courageous stands when he knows he's right - even when at one point it threatens his relationship with Hazel - but love him for his constant struggle just to remain sane in the face of an ability that might be a public treasure but is also an appalling personal tragedy. We admire Hazel for his heroism at Nuthanger Farm but love him for his integrity and political vision. There are moments of humor - particularly involving Bigwig's unusual friendship with a friendly, flamboyant seagull named Kehaar who's a favorite of fans among the supporting characters, but it's the vivid descriptions of the horrors of rabbit life that will haunt you once the novel is done; like the visceral description of the inevitable holocaust that Fiver predicted as well as more subtle terrors such as when Fiver tries to explain to Hazel that he isn't at all sure that the realm from whence his visions come is particularly friendly. An exciting, deep tale that everyone should read at least once.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Top Adventure Novels of All Time
Review: This story ranks right up there with, 'The Lord of the Rings', 'The Wizard of Oz', and "The Last of the Mohicans" as one of the best adventure novels I've ever read. To be honest, when I first heard it was a story about a bunch of rabbits I wasn't very optimistic that it could have anywhere near as much action in it as it did. I was pleasantly surprised however to see that I was wrong in this regard. The main character is a buck named Hazel (not exactly the name I would have picked for a main character) who leads by utilizing the best assets of the other rabbits around him, each of which has his own special attribute. (They are either a good fighter, runner, storyteller, fortuneteller, tracker, builder, or has the ability to cheer everyone up around them with a good joke.) Due to a premonition that one of the rabbits received (Fiver), Hazel leads a group of rabbits to find a new burrow before impending doom falls upon the warren they lived in. On the way they have to avert many dangers and overcome several difficulties. At one point they find a burrow of rabbits who look in excellent health, but they have some dark hidden secret which they are not sharing. It reminds me of a scene out of H.G. Wells' 'The Time Machine' when the main character travels into the future to finds people being treated like cattle. Richard Adams does an excellent job maintaining all of the rabbits nuances while at the same time giving them additional human attributes. They behave in military fashion, have a type of religion, create art, play games, make up poems, and tell stories. (I especially loved the stories of El-ahrairah who is a very clever rabbit much like Brair-rabbit.) Some of the rabbits in this book have tried to better themselves. In some instances this is shown as a good thing, and in others it is quite harmful. This is done similar to how Mary Shelly in her novel 'Frankenstein' showed the effects of what happens when man tries to act like God. General Woundwort who is the villain is shown in both regards. His warren is prosperous and safe, but he eventually turns into a tyrant. He also has the strength to take on bigger animals than himself which is an unnatural trait for a rabbit. Overall I'd say this book was excellent, and I think it deserves to be listed as one of the best novels of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves more stars
Review: ...This is my favorite book in the whole universe, and loved it with every fiber of my being. I can't imagine hating it, and I can't imagine what my life was like before WD.
Richard Adams is a wonderful author, and writes with such detail that you can almost feel the rain on your skin.
The plot is... beautiful. Nothing can top it.
I would advise every avid reader of the world to read this, and its sequel, which, though less wonderful than its original, is still extremely good.
Rating: 
Summary: enough with the bunnies
Review: I had heard great things about this book, but as much as I wanted to enjoy it I was bored to tears. The endless descriptions of plants I don't care about, the repetitiveness of "oh, another threat to the rabbits, I wonder if they will be okay or not"... it all got to me within the first 100 pages. The reviewer who said he lost his copy of the book can have mine (no really, take it, please!).
Rating: 
Summary: talking rabbits
Review: you may be thrown off by the talking rabbits but this is one of the best books i recently read it is excitng and you really care waht happing to these rabbits.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless Classic
Review: I first read the book when I was 11 years old. I am now 34 and have read it for the sixth time. it left such an impression that I look foward to passing it on to my children.
Rating:
Summary: The view of Watership Down from a child
Review: In third grade I read Watership Down and I found it most interesting book I have read(and I still find it that way). It seems in other books I have found that the auther can try to put to much action in only several chapters. The fact that Watership Down had stories based upon the rabbits belief only (some times) proved to stall the stories, on the other hand I found that the stories were an ingenius way to stop oneself from putting in to much acton. Therefore I will recomend Watership Down to readers ages 13 and up (unless of course you are a highly advanced reader and have found books of your age leval and up to 3 years above your age leval an insult to you. This has happened many times to myself).
Rating:
Summary: A New Year's Ritual
Review: Watership Down is my favorite book of all time. That's all there is to it. I've read it at least once a year since I was nine... it's almost a New Year ritual. The thing is... it follows all the natural rules of rabbithood, but at the same time each character has a distinct personality, each one is easy to identify with. It's a bit like Brian Jaques' Redwall... but with a more realistic(and often more adult)approach. The myths told by the rabbits are as entertaining as the story itself, and you find the characters resemble humans you know. Allegorical? You can see it that way if you want. It's also a wonderful story in its own right.
Rating:
Summary: best of the best
Review: Very simply: my favorite work of fiction ever written. _Watership Down_ is the story of a group of English rabbits who leave their doomed warren in search of a better home. The company contains all the ingredients of an Arthurian court: the great, but humble king; the warrior; the bard; the seer. They have their inventor and their soldiers and their noble dream. These rabbits are armed only with their wits, their simple religion, and the mythological inspiration of an ancient hero. They play out their battles on the humble, legend-steeped downs of England. _Watership Down_ has been described as a political novel based on the authors observations during WWII, but from all I've read, the book was mainly the result of Adam's stories to his two young daughters. While driving them to see Shakespeare's plays, Adams invented animal tales which he believed embodied the spirit, if not he setting, of the classics. He later worked the stories into the book that became _Watership Down_. It is a mark of the novel's scope that, although I read and loved it at 12, I was sitting in a 400-level university Ancient Classics class before I discovered the meaning of one of the chapter titles. _Watership Down_ is one of those books that defies categorization. To call it a "children's book" would be a gross misnomer, although the book was written for children. To call it an "animal story," would be as technically correct as categorically wrong. To call it fantasy would be odd, for it lacks the most prominent ingredient of modern fantasy-magic. That said, the book was magic for me. It deals with ethics, with leadership, with friendship, with biology, with war. The characters have remained with me long after the details of the plot have faded. Now, more than ten years after I first opened it, _Watership Down_ retains an honored place on my bookshelf.
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