The Legend of Podkin One-Ear by Kieran Larwood is a high fantasy featuring rabbits. In that way, it follows a path long trodden by the likes of Redwall or The Wind in the Willows, although it has slightly more in the way of fantasy elements than either of those.
One Midwinter, an old bard arrives at the Thornwood Warren and, in exchange for food and shelter, begins to tell the story of the great hero, Podkin One-Ear, who, along with his sister, Paz, and their companions, defeated the evil Gorm. This first book in what appears to be at least a trilogy tells the story of Podkin as a young rabbit when the Gorm come to his home of Munberry Warren and Podkin, Paz, and their baby brother are forced to flee for their lives. It’s a story of survival, the gathering of a small band, and the first strike back against the Gorm, and it’s also a story about growing up, as Podkin goes from being a spoilt, lazy son of a chief to a determined young rabbit.
Initially, the bookending story of the bard seemed slightly unnecessary, but as the story progressed, it became obvious that there was more to that story too, and that it might become more important in future books.
I read this book with my nine-year-old son as his bedtime story, and we both enjoyed it enormously. You can always tell how greatly a kid is engrossed in a story from the amount of pleading for more pages when it’s time to stop, and there was plenty of pleading here.
Podkin One-Ear has a style and tone that immediately mark it out as a classic. There’s warmth – even a cosiness -, adventure, plenty of colour in the depth of detail and description, and appealing, iconic characters. It’s got terrible baddies in the Gorm, rabbits twisted by a kind of living iron and whose bodies are pierced through with metal, and heroes, such as Crom, the blind warrior, as well as a good host of supporting characters. At times, it’s gruesome and there are deaths of Podkin’s family and friends, although nothing my son couldn’t handle.
There were a couple of minor issues with the book, which both my son and I picked up on as we read it. For instance, the rabbits don’t use iron, as the Goddess hates it and it’s the metal of the evil Gorm. But at one point, one of the characters is carrying an iron key. We both expected that to have some significance, but none of the characters seemed to notice and it never came up again (at least in the first book). We also thought that the big bad, the leader of the Gorm, Scramashank, was rather too easily defeated by Podkin through what should have been a rather obvious vulnerability, which we were surprised that none of the warrior rabbits previously beaten by the Gorm had picked up on.
In fact, if I have one criticism of the book it’s that Podkin and co found it just a little too easy to escape from or beat the Gorm at various points of the book, bearing in mind just how terrible the Gorm were supposed to be.
But these are minor points that didn’t get in the way of ou8r enjoyment of the story. I always like to use as a test of how good a book is how quickly I start reading the sequel, and we jumped straight into book 2 the moment we finished this one.
The Legend of Podkin One-Ear is destined to become a classic children’s book, at least in this household. Thoroughly recommended for any child aged about eight to twelve, and for adults who enjoy traditional adventure fantasy.
4 1/2 stars