Richard Adams and Animals in SFF Novels

[Tom Hering]

Watership Down (1972) and The Plague Dogs (1978) lead my list of top 10 favorite novels - of any kind. Adams brought back the animal fantasy story, made it compelling for both young people and adults, and inspired a short revival of the type: Walter Wangerin, Jr.'s The Book of the Dun Cow (1978) and Allen Andrews' The Pig Plantagenet (1980) would be two examples.

Animal characters aren't unknown in genre SF&F. Right off hand, I can think of Fritz Lieber's cat tales, including the Gummitch stories and the novel The Green Millennium (1953). Then there's Clifford D. Simak's advanced dogs and ants in City (1952). And T.J. Bass' cyborg whale in The Godwhale (1974). Can you think of any others? Does anyone else love Richard Adams' books?

 

[The Judge]

We've an obit for Adams in the Obituaries section, but as this is not so much about him as about other animal fantasy stories, I'll leave this thread here but give it a new title to reflect the content of your post.

 

[svalbard]

William Horwood's Duncton Chronicles are good especially the first two books which are brilliant. The series features the trials and tribulations of moles. It is quite ingenious and you even have a Christ like mole figure.

Loved Watership Down, the book more so than the cartoon and I also read Shardik many years ago. The darkness of that story quite shook me at the time.

 

[rai]

'Book of the Dun Cow" was certainly in this vein.

The Book of the Dun Cow: Walter, Jr. Wangerin: 9780060574604: Amazon.com: Books

recalls elements of 'The Stand' in some ways (strangely enough they both were published in 1978)

The Book of the Dun Cow (novel) - Wikipedia

The novel begins with the introduction of the hero, Chauntecleer, a rooster in command of a company of hens, and the land surrounding his coop. The story takes place at a time when humans have not yet made an appearance upon the Earth (a time before the Book of Genesis). Animals have been put on earth before man in order to protect the world from an ancient evil Wyrm, which is trapped at the center of the Earth. Chauntecleer, while not a bad ruler, is a flawed character, somewhat quick to anger, and self-important. The novel's initial chapters define several important characters as well as the origins of the main antagonists in the book, Wyrm and Cockatrice.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time

 

[Tom Hering]

The mutant otters in The Demon Breed (1968) by James H. Schmitz.

 

[yngvi]

I thought "Sirius" by Olaf Stapleton was a very good novel when I read it in the 1970's. The eponymous protagonist is a super intelligent dog.

 

[Pyan]

I'm rather fond of Gaspode, one of Pterry's most inspired characters...

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I thought "Sirius" by Olaf Stapleton was a very good novel when I read it in the 1970's. The eponymous protagonist is a super intelligent dog.

Brilliant novel.

 

[BAYLOR]

The super intelligent Dogs in Clifford Simak's novel City .

 

[AE35Unit]

A book I enjoyed years ago was Hunter's Moon by Garry Kilworth. It's a story about foxes and tho it's not sf it's author does wrote in that genre

Hunter's Moon: Amazon.co.uk: Garry Kilworth: 9780044406150: Books