 The " enchanting " world Prescott admired was not as well received upon its 1974 American publication . Although again the object of general approval , reception in the United States was more mixed , unlike the predominantly positive reviews of 1972 . D. Keith Mano , a science fiction writer and conservative social commentator writing in the National Review , declared that the novel was " pleasant enough , but it has about the same intellectual firepower as Dumbo . " He pilloried it further : " Watership Down is an adventure story , no more than that : rather a swashbuckling crude one to boot . There are virtuous rabbits and bad rabbits : if that ’ s allegory , Bonanza is an allegory . " 
