Shardik

Richard Adams has said that he considers "Shardik" to be his personal favorite work, and it's easy to see why. Reading it you can just see how much effort was put into creating such an epic spiritual fantasy, but it's also pretty clear that it's not a book that's going to universally please like "Watership Down".

I think the strongest part of this book is the culture and societies that Adams has created. There's something really intriguing about an indigenous people worshiping an ordinary bear as their deity. The narration never makes it clear on whether or not their faith is justified, rather letting the reader watch and observe as their society acts in accordance to it.

Unlike other Adams' works, I didn't find "Shardik" to be as engrossing, and I would be lying if I said that I would be reading it again anytime soon. I still really enjoyed it in the moment, and I think that it offers enough clever fantasy ideas to justify giving it a look-see.