I didn’t mean to do a trend this week, it just happened…and then I couldn’t resist the title.  Actually, it’s not much of a trend, because Watership Down by Richard Adams has nearly nothing in common with The Great Good Thing.  No princesses–rabbits instead.

I have a feeling the story is fairly well-known, but here’s a quick recap anyhow.  Watership Down is the story of a group of rabbits who flee their warren, led by Hazel and guided by Fiver’s premonitions.  Through a series of adventures, they establish a new warren on Watership Down.  Along the way, they tell stories about El-ahrairah, a mythical figure who resembles Brer Rabbit and is the father of all rabbits.

I enjoyed this book on almost every level.  I liked the characters, especially Hazel, Fiver and their friend Bigwig (so named for the shock of fur on his head), although many of the more minor characters were well-developed too.  The adventures, especially in the later parts of the book, were exciting ones.  And I loved reading about how the rabbits lived their lives, a mix of science and anthropomorphising.  I’m fascinated by world building and by survival in foreign circumstances, and there was a bit of both in this.

One part that did bother me (and it turns out to be the same issue as in The Great Good Thing, randomly enough) was a total lack of romance–or of much in the way of female characters, for that matter.  I’ve read few books that were this male-dominated, outside of stories set on a British Navy ship.  I love strong female characters, but I can be okay with a mostly-male world, if it feels natural.  The trouble here is, the entire second half of the book is driven by the male rabbits’ realization that they’ve started a new warren without a single female (doe), and had better do something about that if they want to survive.  It would be so easy to have a romance.  There were even a couple of nice does who had a glimmer of character, and who could have been so much more.

Now, before the objection is raised–I know, I know, they’re rabbits.  So what if they only think about does in the context of breeding?  I know–rabbits.  However, they’ve been anthropomorphised in every other way.  They have an organized society, they tell stories, they play games, they clearly have meaningful relationships between brothers or between friends, and it’s even mentioned that sometimes mating pairs are devoted to each other.  But any romance is left completely undeveloped, and we don’t even know how most of them end up pairing off.  Nor does it help that the bucks have names like Dandelion and Holly, easy to say, while the does are mostly named things like Hyzenthlay and Thethuthinnang.  It’s kind of surprising, when apparently the book started as stories Adams was telling his daughters.

Well, now that I’ve gone on about what bothered me, let me backtrack and repeat that it really is an excellent book.  I feel like it might have been more, where the female characters are concerned, but it’s not really a fatal flaw.  It’s still a good read, and well-worth exploring.