Book Review: Tales From Watership Down by Richard Adams (Watership Down #2)

 

It's been ages since I reviewed book one, and I have to say that in the years since reviewing it my opinion on Watership Down has changed quite a bit. I really like it now. So my review of book one can be disregarded and no longer reflects my current opinion. Maybe I'll redo it one day, who knows. 

But now, let's look at the sequel. Spoilers ahead.

This sequel book consists of several tales, most revolving around El-ahrairah but also a few about the main Watership Down crew and some other characters. It also is a bit of a continuation to the main storyline of book one.

Overall I liked this sequel fine, quite a bit in fact. I don't think it's anywhere near my favorite xenofiction (similar to my current opinion of book one), but I think it's neat.

I particularly liked seeing the many El-ahrairah stories. In book one I never quite vibed with them because they always felt like they were bringing the main plot to a standstill to drop some lore on the reader. But since this book is mainly a short story compilation, it feels appropriate to read the many stories here, and it didn't feel like it was bringing the plot to a halt or dragging out the book. And I just liked these tails. El-ahraihrah is an interesting guy to read about. I think my favorite of his short stories is the one where he befriends a calf named Whitethorn. Just nice stuff.

The other stories were of varying quality, but I liked most of them. Getting a little bit of a continuation to book one is also nice. I also was pleasantly surprised to find that this book has a few prominent female characters, as one of the things I criticized book one for is its sexism and lack of important does (aside from one or two). This book has more female characters and a few stories get a female POV or are about a female character, so that's cool. It's maybe a little too late, but I appreciate the effort nonetheless.

Overall this was a neat short story compilation. I think people who go into this expecting a flat-out straightforward continuation of the main story might be disappointed, but for what it is I enjoyed it as a mix of short stories plus some small bits of continuing the main story Watership Down set up. 

Rating: 3.5/5