Shardik (book review)

This book was written by Richard Adams, the same person that made the better-known works Watership Down and Plague Dogs. Unlike those two, Shardik is mostly told from a human's perspective, rather than than an animal's. That being said, the book is titled after the name of a giant bear that is held sacred by a fictional group of people known as the Ortelgans.

And while most of the story is from the perspective of a man named Kelderek, it does start from Shardik's point of view. Despite being described as being of impossible size and never having known fear, the story begins with the bear being humbled. He's retreating from a fire, gets burned and passes out after being dealt grievous injury.

When I first read this, I thought that the story would be about industrialization and the destruction of nature, even Earth's mightiest creatures being dwarfed by the impending threat of technology. Looking back at the beginning, I understand why I thought this. The descriptions of the fire, while likely accurate, don't match what I would associate with one.

"Afraid -- this breaker of trees, whose tread shook the ground -- of what could it be afraid?

Shardik is described as old and of unmatched strength. It seems odd for it to be so taken off guard by something occuring naturally. It's stated that, never previously knowing defeat, Shardik turns to attack its pursuer, only to be repelled. I suppose I don't see the temptation to try and physically fight a fire.

 "And then at last appeared a visitant yet more terrible than the giant bear"

This vague mention of the flames as being a "visitant" made me feel invited to speculate on the nature of Shardik's aggressor. A "strange" and acrid smell is stated to permeate the forest. Since this is being told from the perspective of animals, it gives the impression of something alien to them.

But it's just a forest fire.

Despite feeling a little misdirected, this first part is important to the rest of the story. Here, Shardik develops a phobia of fire, which is impactful at numerous other points. It also describes both Shardik's might and limitations. As a bear of legend, the Ortelgans believe him to be the "Might of God", and while his power is indeed impressive enough to change the course of the story time and time again, this book is largely about watching him slowly succumb to his wounds. Not just from the fire, but through misadventure throughout the book.

Shardik escapes the fire by falling into a river. A young hunter named Kelderek stumbles upon him. Being from a tribe of bear worshippers, he recognizes Shardik as the lost subject of their mythos and chooses to report his finding to the authorities back home.

Kelderek is known as "Play With the Children" because he would rather play games with the local youth over pursuing women, consuming substances, gambling or other passtimes considered more appropriate for his age. As he demands the presence of higher and higher authorities to tell his story to, refusing anyone of middling status at the risk of his own life, various people blame this on his "simplicity".

One complaint I have is that, despite Kelderek's mentality being treated almost as an allusion to what we would understand as a cognitive impairment, it doesn't come across that way at all. We are privy to his thoughts, which are complex. He often feels like the audience surrigate, reacting to the eccentricites of The Baron, the Priestesses, and the High Priestess known as The Tuginda. In later parts of the story, Kelderek's knowledge of trade is important. 

Once he manages to impart his message, he learns that the Ortelgans once ruled the largest settlement in the region, Bekla. At this time, Shardik walked among them. After the bear was betrayed, he left and the Ortelgans fell from power. There is a tale that Shardik would one day return, presenting himself to a man and woman that would be the only ones safe from his wrath.

Indeed, it appears that Kelderek is the man of legend as he and a group including The Tuginda, assumed to be his female counterpart, take it upon themselves to find and follow the bear. The priestesses manage to quell its anger through ritualistic song, with great effort and shaky success, enduring a few casualties. Kelderek however, is able to walk right up to Shardik and take naps laying against him without any resistance.

As the story progresses, this favorable treatment of the protagonist gets more and more annoying. Shardik saves Kelderek from peril numerous times despite having great incentive to maul him.

The biggest twist of the book is learning that the people we are following are actually the villains.  Kelderek is swayed by a low authority of Ortelga to drug, imprison, and weaponize Shardik against Bekla. As this goes against the sacred principles of The Tuginda, he exhiles her and uses her authority to his advantage, telling her followers that his demands are hers, leading to the death of one of the priestesses.

On their way, the army stops to pillage the civilization of Gelt. We aren't actually present for the capture of Bekla but we get descriptions of it. Apparently, the presiding General is coaxed out by the Ortelgans commiting child sacrifices until he agreed to leave. Under the new leadership, it's said that the slave trade gets expanded.

Shardik escapes after the city is taken, and it's said that Kelderek spends the better part of a year recapturing and imprisoning him. This is because he believes that his status as Priest-King is only secure if he's able to show the people that he is able to be in Shardik's presence unharmed. 

Why are the good guys going against their own beliefs to weaponize the subject of their worship? Why would they exhile their own priestess and use her voice for their own means? Why are they attacking a city unprovoked? Why are they invading civilizations that are unrelated to their conflict? They're the good guys and they're committing child sacrifices? Expanding the slave trade?

When I list it out, it seems obvious. But we're only given Kelderek's perspective, and it's all written in a detached way, as if this is normal for the times. His distaste of the child sacrifice and refusal to be present as it happens, and his regret about the slave trade are framed as testement to his quality of character. His ability to pray in the presence Shardik who is hostile to all else, and the fact that he marches through the city instead of being carried as an acknowledgement that Shardik is the true king and himself merely a servent, is presented as a show of humility.

But Kelderek is the highest authority, and all these negative outcomes were either enabled or carried out expressly by him.

I grew really irritated by the protagonist. 

In the second half of the book we're introduced to the perspectives of the Beklans and their allies. As it turns out, the warlike nature of the Ortelgans and their affinity to the slave trade are not normal at all. This is where it feels like the narrative gives us permission to acknowledge the messed up nature of Kelderek's actions and it feels validating.

From here on, the writing becomes more introspective. After an assassination attempt causes structural damage to Shardik's enclosure, the bear escapes and Kelderek leaves in pursuit. On his journey he encounters the ghosts of fallen soldiers, he gets mistaken for a slaver and witnesses the resentment of the citizens, and he remembers his betrayal of The Tuginda with grave regret.

He also finds himself at some deep fissures in the earth known as The Streels. Shardik dips into them and then when Kelderek is assailed by some locals, the bear leaps out and kills the attackers. Later on we find out that in this world, this place is like an opening into Hell and anyone who enters it is cursed.

Shardik is weak from his extensive stay as a prisoner in Bekla and wounded from his enclosure being set on fire in the assassination attempt. Yet the mighty animal plods on, seemingly in the direction of his homeland Ortelga. This eventually leads Kelderek to the Transvrako, an inhospitable land where criminals go to escape the law.

Kelderek finds a trap for game and chooses to wait for the person who set it, intending to beg them for food and shelter. This proves successful, as a hunter named Ruvik appears and accomodates our weary traveller. When Kelderek mentions that he's looking for a giant bear, he's lead to a small encampment where The Tuginda has been staying. As it turns out, Ruvik found her travelling the Transvrako and offered the High Priestess his protection.

I became very interested in this citizen of The Transvrako. Kelderek hates him. He attributes his charitable acts toward The Tuginda as a merit of the High Priestess being able to tame the supposedly wild man. Kelderek sees Ruvik in his own home, randomly assumes that he's about to be killed and begs him to make it quick. Confused, Ruvik just offers some words of inspiration to keep one's morale while in The Transvrako. Later, when Kelderek would encounter actually depraved individuals, he would always mentally compare them to Ruvik. He's as obsessed with him as he is with Shardik and The Tuginda.

I wasn't sure if the book was actually trying to present Ruvik as a monster that was swayed to civility based on circumstance, or if this was just the product of Kelderek's status as an unreliable narrator. When we look at what we know of Ruvik's behaviour, his actions come down to: helping Kelderek, protecting The Tuginda, and offering the two advice on how to traverse The Transvrako. All pretty benevolent. We know he's a criminal, and we're never told what for, but The Tuginda, who does know, offers him a pardon if they survive the journey. So she at least believes him to be redeemable.

I don't know where Kelderek gets his superiority complex from. He grew up in a small civilization as a hunter that was thought to have a child's simplicity. Also, he himself is a criminal that was exiled to The Transvrako. 

As they continue, they encounter Melathys, a former priestess under The Tuginda. She appeared earlier in the book as one of the group who was charged with taming Shardik through song. After one of her peers was slain in the effort, she lost her courage and abandoned her station.

She now appears in the remainder of a rough civilization that was developed by the former Baron of Ortelga, one of the authorities that Kelderek reported to earlier in the book. Both of these characters took to The Transvrako as outcasts for their dissenting views on the subject of Shardik.

However, at this point The Baron has passed away and Melathys and some of the locals are struggling to keep what little order they had cultivated in this inhospitable land. The former priestess is overjoyed at the sight of The Tuginda and takes her appearance as opportunity to work toward atonement.

Kelderek falls in love with Melathys. This bothered me because: 

1. After all he's done I don't think he deserves a romance arc.
2.  Part of his character is that he is supposedly as simple as a child, which led to him being chaste even when he held his high position of authority and it was considered weird
3. One of his reasons is that he sees her as a kindred spirit as a criminal of Ortelga. He even becomes jealous of her, since The Tuginda seems to forgive her more readily than she does for him.

But the scale of their crimes is completely different. Kelderek poisoned, imprisoned, and potentially mortally wounded what they believe to be The Power of God. Melathys just quit her job.

Also, this dynamic undoes what little chance Kelderek had of redemption, in my eyes. Melathys feels that it's his duty to continue his quest to protect Shardik. This causes him to think that the bear is standing in the way of them being able to live a simple and peaceful life as a couple. So he decides to kill Shardik

It wasn't much earlier in the book that Kelderek had monologued internally, at great length about how he would follow this great animal, enduring hardship and under pain of death, in service as means of atonement for all the wrongs he'd committed. At this point, he had come to have almost the opposite perspective that he'd gained on his ascent to power. Him changing so drastically and suddenly again made me lose faith that he had the capacity to develop any consistency of character.

Before he's able to do anything, however, he's captured by a notorious child slaver that was enabled under the Ortelgan rule of Bekla. Thus begins an incredibly drawn out and tedious telling of the methods of enslavement as Kelderek is, once again, forced to experience first-hand the consequences of his actions.

Internally, he compares the slaver to Ruvik. He'd also previously made this comparison for someone who had said he wanted to forcibly "take" Melathys.

Eventually, in his final act, the wounded Shardik kills the slaver, freeing Kelderek and the children. They are received by the Yeldashay, who were pursuing them. One of the children who happened to be a member of their royalty, advocates for Kelderek as a friend under hardship.

The Yeldashay host a death ceremony atop the water, honouring Shardik. I was happy that this wasn't done in the manner of the Ortelgans, who wouldn't have deserved it at this point.

For some convoluted reason, Kelderek is deemed to be best suited for the development of a major civilization in The Transvrako. He marries Melathys and the story ends when he receives an ambassador from a far-off land and explains the events post Shardik's death.

All the way until the end I was hoping for a reappearance of Ruvik. It was kind of like the last bit of The Silmarillion when I was hoping for a mention of the Hobbits, which eventually came in the four last pages.

There was a similar precedent here. The last chapter includes waiting for a ceremony, to which The Tuginda was summoned. As we are told she is still in The Transvrako, which is where Ruvik lives, him having a history as her protector, and she having offered him a pardon, it would make sense for him to be reestablished in this new civilization, where other people had gathered to recover from their past.

This theory might even be true. We'll never know, as the story ends before The Tuginda arrives.

All in all, this was a long and heavy read. It wasn't badly written, but the first half was difficult as Kelderek's status as an unreliable author hadn't been made clear. You wind up cheering against the protagonist, and his redemption doesn't feel earned. All in all, I'm glad I read it but it wasn't an enjoyable experience and don't think I would recommend it to anyone else.