Tailchaser's Song is the novel written/published by Tad Williams. The quote on the back cover compares this novel to Watership Down. I've never read Watership Down (though it is on my list), so I can't verify how comparable it really is. I felt it had a The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings feel to it.
The characters are one of my favourite things about this book. I feel that all the characters are really well developed. I can easily imagine an entire novel devoted to their own stories. There is also a strong female character that exists without having a romantic connection to the main character. Being female myself, something that irks me about action/adventure stories is that female characters are frequently reduced to some kind of love interest. The fact that the book saves the readers from that experience, is something I appreciate.
Tad Williams was able to create an entire world with its own lore and terminology even. There is a glossary in the back of the book (which I didn't discover until I was finished reading it). I can see how some people might actually be put-off by the terminology or the ways some of the other animal species speak. I know people that couldn't stand to read Flower's for Algernon. For myself, I found the terminology further immersed me in the book.
A thing that I feel is important to mention is that parts of the book are really disturbing. At those parts, I wanted to stop reading because they were really so awful, but at the same time I wanted those awful things to be over so I kept reading. A sign of a good story, to me, is the ability to make such a connection with the book that things happening affect me on an emotional level.
If it hasn't been obvious from what I've written above, I love this book. (I might make a blog post in the future with some further thoughts I've had on the book.) If you like fantasy books and stories about anthropomorphized animals, I suggest reading it for sure.
