Robin Hood is reinvented in Stephen R. Lawhead's Hood
Written: Mar 12 '07 (Updated Jul 04 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A great first story
Cons: Too long in the middle
The Bottom Line: What a wonderful new series!
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| phungus's Full Review: Steve Lawhead - Hood |
Stephen R. Lawhead’s Hood is the first book in a new trilogy that reinvents the Robin Hood character for a brand new story. This new series is called The King Raven Trilogy, and this book was published in September of 2006. It is currently available in Hardback and Audio form, and a paperback version is to be released in June of this year.
The jacket design of this book was so good that it caught my attention on the shelf and intrigued me enough to want to read it. Very few books do that, but I couldn’t get this one out of my mind as soon as I saw the cover. It shows what looks like an arrow producing out of the front, and the back cover shows the feathered end of the arrow, as if the book had been shot through. Nothing says ‘Robin Hood’ like an arrow drilled through the middle of something.
There’s no doubt that sometime many centuries ago, there was a real-life Robin Hood type character, though he probably wasn’t as dashing as Errol Flynn, or so noble to steal from the rich and give to the poor. He was more likely a Jesse James type of guy, but somehow his legend remained strong for many years. In effect, Robin Hood represents the renegade who fights for justice when the ruling class is oppressing. In some form or another, history has been full of real-life Robin Hoods, and that’s why people have embraced him for so long.
For this book, the author did a lot of research into the origins of the Robin Hood story, and he best determined that it originated in Wales sometime after the first millennium. He chose to set this book Wales due to the well-documented ferocity of the Welsh people, plus it makes a proper setting given the political climate of the time. It is based around the Norman invasions of the 11th century.
The story begins with an attack on a king and some of his men, and very soon the people realize that they are in the middle of a hostile takeover. The king’s son, Bran, makes a run to spread the word of the attack and try to help people, but instead his effort is thwarted and he faces the disgrace of being labeled a coward who ran away during the invasion. When the invading soldiers catch up to him, they attack and leave him for dead. Bran then spends several months living with some people in the deep forest while he recuperates from his wounds and devises a plan to go back and claim his rightful title as King. The problem is that he stays gone for so long that he’s going to be up against many obstacles on the road to rebuilding things as they were.
If you are familiar with the Robin Hood stories, then you already know to expect characters like Friar Tuck, Little John, Maid Marian, and so on. In this book, these characters are all here, but their more famous names are not revealed until later in the story. I think the author was very clever in how he tied this novel into the previous Robin Hood stories in order to let the reader know how this book is being shaped. I especially loved how he explained the ‘Hood’ part of the name.
Although I did enjoy reading this book, I found the middle part to be rather tedious. It delves a little into magic and gets too weird for a bit, but I pushed through to get to the good parts. This book stands pretty well on its own, though it is obvious that this is the first part of a trilogy. This first book had the duty of establishing the characters and basically reinventing an already familiar tale. The story ends with a lot of things set in motion that should make for a much tighter and more focused second novel. In other words, there’s a lot of conflict, but very little resolution.
If you love to read a good adventure, I highly recommend Hood. It’s got the right amount of action, romance, and adventure to please Robin Hood fans. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series, and I plan to check out some of the authors other works, including the Song of Albion series.
King Raven Trilogy:
1. Hood
2. Scarlet
3. Tuck
Recommended:
Yes
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