Q6: Beyond Shardik

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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?

Comments

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    Personally I wouldn't rush to read anything else he's done! Shardik is the first of his books that I've read, and has kind of put me off him - I certainly wouldn't rush to tackle 1000 pages of this (though I suppose it might tell me more about the slave trade that so confused me in this book)

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    I loved Watership Down, and read and enjoyed that, Shardik, The Plague Dogs, and Maia long ago. I remembered liking Shardik, but apparently my tastes have changed now that I am old and useless, and I doubt I could sustain any enthusiasm.

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    @clash_bowley said:.
    I loved Watership Down, and read and enjoyed that, Shardik, The Plague Dogs, and Maia long ago. I remembered liking Shardik, but apparently my tastes have changed now that I am old and useless, and I doubt I could sustain any enthusiasm.

    I wondered lots of times if the problems I was having with Shardik were simply that it has not dated well? Some of the attitudes and tropes seemed stuck in their era (early 70s) and haven't survived the years in between very well. (I'd certainly class the superficial attitude to spirituality in this). Of course there are lots of books of equal age which have survived, but a great many haven't - Piers Anthony for one, who I used in my teens to really like, but was hugely disappointed on trying him again a couple of years ago.

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    You may be right, Richard. Many things of that time which I used to enjoy seem shallow and strident to me now.

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    @clash_bowley said:
    I loved Watership Down, and read and enjoyed that, Shardik, The Plague Dogs, and Maia long ago. I remembered liking Shardik, but apparently my tastes have changed now that I am old and useless, and I doubt I could sustain any enthusiasm.

    Talking to my other half about Shardik, she said almost the same as you... read it years ago and enjoyed it, but on hearing my comments about the book now doubts whether she would like it a second time around.

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    @RichardAbbott said:

    @clash_bowley said:
    I loved Watership Down, and read and enjoyed that, Shardik, The Plague Dogs, and Maia long ago. I remembered liking Shardik, but apparently my tastes have changed now that I am old and useless, and I doubt I could sustain any enthusiasm.

    Talking to my other half about Shardik, she said almost the same as you... read it years ago and enjoyed it, but on hearing my comments about the book now doubts whether she would like it a second time around.

    I lost any enthusiasm I had to begin with - which was ebbing anyway - when I hit that 5 year leap after the battle. From then on it was a grind.

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    I loved Watership Down every time I've read it. I thought The Plague Dogs was very good, though it's quite a dark novel. This was my first time reading Shardik and I knew very little about it. I had assumed it would be someone like the other two, only with a humanized bear instead of rabbits or dogs. This was quite wrong obviously. And I'm pretty sure I had heard there was a shamanic element to story, which I now also don't think was correct. And yet somehow I found Shardik to be rather like I expected - not sure how that's possible.

    Maia was never on my radar, but I found a nice used copy in a shop for $6 just before Christmas, so I bought it. I'd like to give it a read sometime. It's over 1000 pages, so almost as long as The Lord of the Rings, and I'm sure not nearly as rich as that. But I like the notion of reading a long fantasy novel. It also deals with slavery to some degree, and again I wonder to what degree Adams used these novels to deal with personal issues.

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    My first Richard Adams book. I definitely need to get to Watership Down and Plague Dogs at some point. I could see how I may enjoy his books in a tighter format. I don't think I would gravitate towards an even longer book by him with Maia.

    I tried poking about to see if there was ever an intended sequel that may continue on after the introduction of the folks from across the river, but couldn't dig anything up.

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    No, I've never heard of a sequel. Maia is in the same setting, but an unrelated story set slightly before.

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