Tales from Watership Down

by Richard Adams

I had no idea there was a companion novel to Watership Down until one day I saw this book in someone’s storage closet. I was surprised and thrilled at first. I thought it was a sequel to Watership Down, but what I found rather disappointed me. Tales from Watership Down is mostly stories about El-ahrairah, the fabled rabbit hero that characters of the first novel talk about. About two-thirds of the book is short stories that make up the rabbits’ mythology, the hero’s deeds and exploits to foil his enemies and obtain advantages for his fellow rabbits. They are clever and amusing, but some are hard to make sense of and inconsistent with the style of the first book. There are also a handful of chapters that follow the original characters from Watership Down, extending the storyline a bit- but it doesn’t even begin to approach the quality of the first book. It’s a lot more lighthearted, not nearly as complex and detailed or plot-driven. If you’ve read and enjoyed Watership Down, you might like this one, but don’t expect much.

Rating: 2/5 …….. 352 pages, 1996

More opinions at:
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anyone else?