SHARDIK

Shardik is one of the greatest novels I have ever read, definitely top five.

It is a tour-de-force of such magnitude and power that this book stays in your mind well after you finish the last page.

I was book seeking at a local library When I first laid hands on this big novel i was drawn to it by the mighty bear head on the cover and, when I looked closely, saw that it was written by Richard Adams, author of the beloved Watership Down, I knew I had to read it. I read this book in a sort of rapture when I was about 22 years old. I remember how I was intrigued by the subject matter at first and then, as the pages turned, I was propelled into an odyssey of pure splendor as I had never read anything like it. It is a big, sprawling, strikingly original piece of literature.

Shardik is the story of Kelderek, a young, lone hunter in a semi-civilized world full of wonder and danger. Kelderek goes on a quest to find the great Bear Shardik, believed to be the Power of God. This is a thundering epic of massive proportion driven by brilliant narrative with a mastery of the English language rarely seen in literature. Richard Adams has constructed some sentences in this novel that I have never forgotten; one of my favorite somes in chapter 9 :

"Even so, a man in grave illness tosses and moves, seeking relief, but then, finding in movement nothing but wretchedness and futility, desists. "

Kelderek is a wonderful lead character, The mighty Bear Shardik is unforgettable, and the monstrous Slave-trader Genshed is one of the cruelest men in fiction. even prompting Adams to mention him in his  acknowledgements:

Lest any should suppose that I set my wits to work to invent the cruelties of Genshed; I say here that all lie within my knowledge and some-would they did not-within my experience.