140. (December 2024) Shardik, by Richard Adams — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club

Q2: Shardik the God

Apocryphal — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:38:17 +0000

Shardik the bear is at times described as a god, and at other times as a manifestation of God, where God is spoken of separately. Shardik himself never resembles much more than a bear distinguished only by his large size and seemingly random actions. His influence and meaning seems to be mostly assigned to him by, well, basically everyone in the setting – even Bel-ka-Trazet, who just thinks he’s a bear, but a significant one. What, if anything, do you think Adams was trying to say about the role of God and his prophets in our world?

Shardik the game?

RichardAbbott — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 08:21:59 +0000

Although I wasn't gripped by Shardik as a book, I did wonder from time to time if there was any mileage to it as a source for gaming?

I suspect there wasn't enough strikingly new stuff for an RPG (but maybe others differ?).

But I wondered a couple of times if there was a feasible board or table top game here? You have multiple competing factions and a range of different terrains to cross, so some strategy is possible. I suppose you could have something like Diplomacy or even Risk?

Any thoughts?

Q6: Beyond Shardik

Apocryphal — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:42:49 +0000

Shardik was Adams' second novel, published in 1974. He met with great success with his first novel, Watership Down, a book we read here at the club in the early G+ days. His 1977 novel, The Plague Dogs, has also met with some success and thematically recalls Watership Down in being told from the perspective of the animals. In 1984, Adams published Maia, which is also set in the world of Bekla, slightly before the events of Shardik, and not really related to them. At over 1000 pages, Maia is twice as long. Would you be interested in reading it? Other works include Traveller, a tale of the American Civil War through the eyes of General Lee’s horse, and The Girl in a Swing, a sort of romantic ghost story. Adams also wrote short stories, children’s books, and non fiction books on nature (including one about Antarctica). Are you familiar with his work? Would you like to be?

Q4: Shardik the Novel

Apocryphal — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:39:34 +0000

Shardik is a long novel, certainly, and not always fast-paced, though at times it moves well enough. At other times, Adams takes his time, describing a river crossing over a page and a half, for example. What did you think of the pacing and sequence of events in the story? How well does it hold up as a story? Can you compare it to another story we’ve read?

Q5: Characters in Shardik

Apocryphal — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:40:12 +0000

There are a fair number of characters in Shardik – lords and priestesses, certainly, as well as slavers and children. And there’s Shardik himself, around whom events unfold but who seems a bit beyond the label of ‘character’. Were they well-developed? Any favourites? For a long time, it seemed like it was going to be a novel without villains – any thoughts on that? It is often said than modern fantasy novels are longer than vintage ones because it gives more space to develop setting and characters. Did Adams use that space to good effect?

Q3: Shardik the Bear

Apocryphal — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:38:45 +0000

Shardik seems to represent something greater than a bear to the characters in the novel. In this sense we can compare this to other novels like Sarah Canary, where the characters ascribe meaning to the inexplicable title character, or Roadside Picnic where characters draw meaning from The Zone, or even Moby Dick. Do you like this trope in fiction? How does Shardik compare to these or other similar novels you’ve read?

Q1: Shardik the Fantasy

Apocryphal — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:37:01 +0000

Shardik is a fantasy, set in a fantasy world, or a fantasy part of our world since it seems to share at least some similar history. Is it a convincing world? How does it compare to Middle Earth, Hed, Gormenghast, or other fantastical places you might have read about?

Cover blurb for Shardik

RichardAbbott — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 19:22:29 +0000

This brilliantly inventive fantasy epic by the award-winning author of Watership Down immerses the reader in a medieval world complete with created languages, detailed maps and elaborate traditions and rituals. Centring on the long-awaited reincarnation of a giant bear among the half-barbaric Orelgan people, Shardik's appearance sets off a violent chain of events as faith in his divinity sweeps the land. Closest to the bear is the hunter Kelderek, a naturally pious, ignorant, well-meaning man who becomes - in his dedication to Shardik - a prophet, victorious soldier, corrupt priest-king and ruler of an empire.

A gripping tale of war, adventure, morality and slavery, horror and romance, Shardik is a remarkable exploration of mankind's universal desire for divine incarnation, and the corrosive influence of power. Recently ranked in the top 100 bestsellers over the past 40 years by the Sunday Times, Shardik is a book for our age.

About Richard Adams

RichardAbbott — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 19:24:37 +0000

Richard George Adams (born 9 May, 1920) is best-remembered as the author of Watership Down, but wrote many other novels, short stories, poems and a biography.

He originally began telling the story of Watership Down to his two daughters, Juliet and Rosamond, on a trip to Stratford-on-Avon, to see a play. They insisted he publish the tale as a book. When Watership Down was finally published, it sold over a million copies in record time in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Watership Down has become a modern classic and won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972.

Others of his books include Shardik, Maia, Tales from Watership Down, The Girl in a Swing and The Plague Dogs, the last two of which, together with Watership Down, have been filmed. His goal was always to tell a good story, ideally one so good you can't put it down! His last work, The Adventures of Eggbox Dragon, which is a picture-book for younger children, will be published posthumously by Hodder in 2017. It was written when he was 93.

During his later years Richard and his wife Elizabeth lived in Whitchurch, Hampshire, very close to Watership Down, and not far from where they had both grown up. He wrote about his childhood and youth, including the time he served in the army in World War II, in his biography The Day Gone By.

During the last year of his life he kept a blog: https://www.watership-down.com/blog/. He died peacefully on Christmas Eve 2016.