Q5: Characters in Shardik
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?
Comments
Speaking personally, I'd say no - even though I'm still reading it I'm struggling to remember the names of any characters other than Kelderek, the Tuginda and of course Shardik (who as you say is not really a character but more a force of nature). I had to look up Melathys's name as it had completely gone out of my head. So no, they haven't stood out as memorable.
The slave-trader side of the plot (which I understand becomes more important towards the end) seemed to have been brought in ad hoc - I suppose by inference it was reinstated in the five-year gap after the taking of Bekla, but I don't recall any prior hints about it. But suddenly it gets some prominence, and then during Kelderek's endless wandering around trying to find Shardik it's a super-big-deal and almost results in Kelderek being lynched by some random villagers. I just don't know where this came from so ended up thinking, "ok, I'll just go with the flow and see where this ends up" - which maybe is emblematic of what Kelderek is doing, just kind of roaming about trying to find a giant bear with no food or equipment except what he can cadge from others!
So is this kind of formless chaos an attempt to be mimetic? To try to induce in the reader the sensations of the characters, and in particular Kelderek? He seems to have almost no real agency in the book - he wins battles not because he's a great hunter or whatever, but because Shardik turns up as if by coincidence at just the right time to squash the enemy. It's all by chance and happenstance - which again is maybe how Adams views religion as a whole? It didn't persuade me.
The Tuginda was the only character I empathized with at all, and she was dealt with early. Everyone else was a user or bring used.
I struggled to differentiate the religious characters from one another. Their individual roles were not clear to me, and to make matters more confusing this word 'saiyett' kept being used and I could not tell if this was yet another title for a different person, or an honorific, like 'sir'. Since most of the time it wasn't capitalized, I'm guessing it's the latter but I didn't really get there until the end. I'm not someone who needs to identify with characters, so long as they're interesting. Kelderek was interesting to me - he was obviously finding meaning in seemingly random events and following them to strange conclusions that were totally against his character, and he didn't come around until he could see the consequences of this in person. I thought Bel-ka-Trazet was interesting, since he could see right from the beginning the consequences of the initial Shardik encounter. And though we don't meet him again in this novel, he does stick around to the end. I almost think his arc might have been the more interesting one to follow. Toward the end, I found Genshed and Ruda pretty interesting, and Shouter and Bled, caught in such difficult circumstances and twisted to evil as they were to be pretty interesting as well.
I would have loved to have more exposure to the inner world of the Tuginda. It was unfortunate that she was relegated to the role she was for the most part.
I found the willingness for so many people to not only forgive Kelderek at the end, but to basically revere him, to be really unbelieveable given the amount of suffering he caused as the priest king. His character arc was decent though - nothing too surprising but satisfying enough.
I hated Genshed, so well done there. His death was a satisfying read!