A gripping tale of war, adventure, horror and romance, Shardik, on a deeper level, is a remarkable exploration of mankind's universal desire for divine incarnation, and the corrosive influence of power. His reappearance among the half-barbaric Ortelgan people sets off a violent chain of events as faith in his divinity sweeps the land.

This brilliantly inventive fantasy epic by the award-winning author of Watership Down centres on the long-awaited reincarnation of the giant bear, Shardik. A gripping tale of war, adventure, horror and romance, Shardik, on a deeper level, is a remarkable exploration of mankind's universal desire for divine incarnation, and the corrosive influe. Genshed kills Shardik by firing a flaming arrow at him, before he is killed by Shardik in turn by basically tearing off his face, ending his reign of terror.This brilliantly inventive fantasy epic by the award-winning author of Watership Down centres on the long-awaited reincarnation of the giant bear, Shardik. After Kelderek loses both Shardik and his faith, he is captured by Genshed, who uses extremely cruel methods to keep the slaves under his control. As he treats the children with kindness, Kelderek finds himself being tormented and threatened by him, and he is on the point of being killed by Genshed, when Shardik suddenly appears from the woods.

Afterwards, they become friends and scare off their captors by pretending to have supernatural powers before heading to Bekla.īefore capturing Kelderek, Genshed has Elleroth's son, Radu as one of his slaves. Genshed, one of Lalloc's employees, attempts to rape Maia, but a black slave girl named Occula saves her. And the only sign of remorse he actually shows is that he has lost out on profits.Īfter Maia is betrayed by her parents, they sell her to a slave dealer named Lalloc. Upon learning one boy would be useful for begging, he cuts off said boy's hands - so he will be more valuable to him. He even castrates the children under his 'care', and it is heavily implied that he has sold them (particularly those who are under fourteen years old) as sex slaves. Whilst he does pride himself on driving the children under his control mad, without even touching them, he isn't above physically abusing them himself. Genshed takes particular pleasure in using overseers who are the cruelest of boys under his control, having them replaced for one of two reasons: when they either damage or even kill too many of the slaves or when these cruel boys learn a little too much.