Shardik

Description

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.

Richard Adams, the son of a country doctor, grew up in Berkshire and studied history at Worcester College, Oxford before and after the Second World War, in which he served in the First Airborne division. He originally began telling the story of Watership Down, his first book, to his two daughters to while away a long car journey to Stratford-on-Avon. They insisted he write it down, and it became a huge success on publication with people of all ages, winning both the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal. Watership Down is now considered a modern classic, and recently appeared at number thirty- seven on the Sunday Times list of bestsellers in the last forty years.

'A story told with conviction and creative zest' * Guardian * 'Shardik is my masterpiece' -- Richard Adams 'Recalls the imaginative scale of Lord of the Rings.' * Financial Times * 'Riveting reading.' * Daily Mail * 'Striking enough to confirm Richard Adams as one of the most talented descriptive writers to emerge in this country for years.' * The Times * 'Grips with suspense, haunts with mystery... a memorable work, not to be read once only but to be reread as loved books are... a human saga.' -- Wall Street Journal 'Shardik is a powerful work, dipping deep into old forms - allegory, epic, myth - resonating in the caverns of the readers' unconscious... It is an exciting story, the adventures compelling.' -- Los Angeles Times