Adams, Richard
SHARDIK
Richard Adams
The Overlook Press 1974
Pb 604 pages
ISBN# 1-58567-182-7
One might remember the name of Richard Adams from his famous WATERSHIP DOWN. Though SHARDIK is just as well written (and maybe even better), it does not have the same flavor as WATERSHIP DOWN. SHARDIK is darker. It is both horrific and beautiful. It is the story of a man's search for the divine in life. Experts classify this as a fantasy because, even though it is set on Earth back in a more barbaric past, the places and culture of this story are made up. But there is no magic as one would ordinarily expect in a fantasy novel set in the past. Yet, for all the experts want to classify this as fantasy, it seemed more to me to be a piece of historical fiction written so beautifully as to be classed true literature. Mr. Adams uses simile extensively and with expert grace. This is the kind of book you read when you want to experience the beauty in language and nature.
Shardik is a bear, a great huge enormous bear. There's nothing magical about
him (remember, there is no magic in this story) but many of the story's people
consider this bear to be holy, "The Power of God", divine. This story isn't
about the bear, however--though it does revolve around him. The story of SHARDIK
is about the man who discovers this bear and all that happens to him thereafter.
Kelderek is from Ortelga, a community of hunters and fishermen living on an
island in the middle of the river Telthearna. Kelderek is a simple man who hunts
for his community and spends much time playing with the local children. Some of
his peers think he is too simple-minded. But their opinion of him chaanges when
he brings back news from a hunting trip. Kelderek has found Shardik, that most
divine of creatures for their culture that worships the bear. Kelderek had an
amazing encounter with the bear, one that could be passed off by non-believers
as sheer coincidence, but an encounter that never-the-less begins a relationship
between this man and this bear where Kelderek becomes known as a priest of
Shardik because this monster will tolerate Kelderek's presence. This monster
bear kills and mauls many men, though curiously he never eats them even when
starving--this is the only part of the story that stretched my belief, the fact
that the bear wouldn't eat the fresh meat of a man he has just killed in anger.
But other than that one minor point the story is a nearly flawless
representation of what can happen to a man when fate hands him the Power of God.
Things go wrong, of course. A young baron takes Shardik's return to the
people as a sign to rise up in rebellion against the largest city in the region,
Bekla. Through a series of very plausible coincidences, the Ortelgans win Bekla,
but not without the loss of their rebel leader. So Kelderek is set up in Bekla
as priest-king with his bear that is now caged. The previous and more civilized
inhabitants of Bekla flee south to regroup. Over a period of years they isolate
the Ortelgans from trade to the extreme point where the only way the Ortelgans
can continue to hold Bekla is to revert to slave tradding for the money needed
to support their army.
The story comes to a fine edge when a very resourceful nobleman from the south
manages to fire the roof where Shardik is kept. Kelderek, who is constantly
trying to seek God's will, follows his bear out of Bekla and into the
countryside. Not even injury or near starvation keeps Kelderek from following
this bear. At one piont they stumble into a very nasty place called the Streels
of Urtah and almost do not survive. Later, Kelderek finds out that very few men
have ever returned from the Streels and his having done so makes him even more
holy in the eyes of the people. Yet Kelderek's life is not blessed. Indeed, he
suffers many great hardships and pains before he discovers the true will of God.
(The story does have a happy ending, though--one that gives an intellegent mind
much to think about).
An excellent book, one highly recommended for insightful and enlighted
readers (or those who wish to be).
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