Watership Down (Watership Down)

This is a perennial favorite of mine. Be advised, it is not a book suitable for reading aloud to young children: it is long, has many neologisms in Lapine (rabbit language, but there is a glossary), and the material would be disturbing to children who are pre-adolescent or not reading well above their grade level.

Drawing on the ever-popular quest mythos, a la King Arthur's knights and the Holy Grail, Adams has written a fascinating tale of a group of rabbits who do the unthinkable: leave their home warren for unknown territories. Prompted by the dreams and visions of his odd littermate, Fiver, a buck named Hazel tries to communicate his brother's ambiguous fears of "fields drenched in blood" and other impending horrors to the Chief Rabbit of the warren, with no effect. Disregarding threats of punishment, Hazel confides in some other young rabbits and encourages them to leave. Thus begins a dramatic, sometimes chilling, always challenging search for safe ground where Fiver's unnamed horrors will not reach them.

Each chapter opens with a very apt, foreshadowing quotation. Adams mixes actual rabbit natural history, his own version of rabbit mythology and plot twists that can hold the reader in thrall to the very last page.

Early on, the pilgrims encounter a strange warren of rabbits who are plump, well-conditioned and welcoming, but Fiver refuses their food and cozy burrows, preferring to sleep out in the open and eat only grass, while pleading with Hazel and his friends not to join the eerie group.

Fiver's visions, Hazel's unexpected leadership ability and the unusual makeup of the group of runaway bucks make for intriguing problems and solutions. Simply reaching their destination, Watership Down, is not sufficient. The bucks have to overcome primal conditioning, the absence of females in their band of adventurers, and more enemies and adversities before they see the fulfillment of Fiver's prophecy.

It has become popular in recent years to apply the quest theme to myriad species, leading to series of books that seem never to end (Erin Hunter uses cats and bears in the Warriors and Seekers series, there are multiple volumes in the Guardians of Ga'hoole series with wolves and owls, for example). Adams manages to start strong, keep the stories interesting and compelling, and wrap the story up in satisfactory fashion. He did write some short stories drawing on his rabbit mythology and in some cases using familiar characters from his novel. These stand alone as pleasant diversions and are very entertaining.Richard Adams knew he had a good thing, and he let it be. Later novels cover all manner of topics, with varying success. Watership Down is his best work in my opinion, but his other novels may appeal differently to others.