Shardik
core novel 1974 The Beklan Empire
Record
| First published | 1974 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.52 (4,688 ratings, collected 2026-10-07) |
| Page count | 526 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780713909524 |
Synopsis
On the island of Ortelga, at the edge of the Beklan Empire that their ancestors once ruled, the half-barbaric Ortelgans keep the memory of Shardik, the Power of God, a giant bear who was their god incarnate and whose return has been promised. A forest fire drives an enormous bear across the river to the island, and the hunter Kelderek, who finds it and will not kill it, becomes the centre of a religious revival: the bear is Shardik returned. Carried on this faith, the Ortelgans march on Bekla, and when Shardik's charge routes the imperial army they take the city, with Kelderek as priest-king and the bear caged in the temple. The Ortelgan regime restores the slave trade and the empire sours; when the bear escapes, Kelderek follows it into the wilderness and into a reckoning with what he and his people have made of their god.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Beklan Empire
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Richard Adams
Notes
- Allen Lane in association with Rex Collings, 1974; Adams's second novel. ISBN recorded is the first British edition's. The bear-god Shardik is borrowed by Stephen King's Dark Tower.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within The Beklan Empire (standalone work): position 1 of 2: next Maia (1984)
Sources
← The Beklan Empire dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.