So, I'm in a little bit of an awkward position here. A friend loaned me this book, and the two others in the series, about 4 months ago. She said, "I just know you'll love these! Here, you can borrow them." And I was excited, because two years ago when I was doing My Year with Robin Hood, lots of people recommended these books to me. So as soon as I'd finished my mountain of books from the library, I started in.
But... I didn't love Hood. I liked parts of it, but not all of it.
If a book doesn't grab me right off the bat, I usually give it 10 chapters or 100 pages, whichever comes first. If it hasn't hooked me by then, I feel justified in quitting it. Because this was loaned to me by a friend and I wanted to give it a very fair shake indeed, I decided to give it 150 pages. And right around page 130, I started to get interested. At least, interested enough to be willing to finish the book.
However, having finished this volume, I'm not at all sure that I care enough about these characters to spend another thousand pages or so with them. I don't even like most of them much, aside from Tuck and Iwan.
But that's not the main problem. I mean taking 130 pages to get interesting, and only having two characters I like -- those are huge problems. However, the main problem for me was the fact that, as I mentioned on my other blog a few days ago, I have come to realize that I need Robin Hood to be merry. You can be dark and gritty, and I'm fine with that. But Robin Hood himself, or whatever you're calling him (Rhi Bran Hud, for instance) -- he needs to be a cheerful, plucky fellow. Don't get me wrong, I still love Byronic heroes. Always will, I'm sure. But I don't want Robin Hood to be Byronic. Not at all.
So yeah... I didn't have a problem with this being set in Wales (I like Wales! Ioan Gruffudd and Luke Evans and Richard Burton are Welsh.) I didn't have a problem with it being set a long time earlier than most Robin Hood legends. I didn't have a problem with all the not-quite-usual names. I just Did Not Like the Robin Character. And I kept getting bored.
I'm kinda bummed that I didn't like this book, because I really was expecting to dig this series. Sigh.
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a smattering of bad language, quite a bit of violence, some creepy moments, and a very mild bit of innuendo.
This is my last contribution to Robin Hood Week hosted by Meanwhile, in Rivendell...
And this is my fifth book read and reviewed for the Adventure of Reading Challenge. Yippee!
I picked this up at the library because, hey, who wouldn't want to read a story about Robin Hood having a daughter? The back told me that it was a story of a girl named Rosemary whose mother dies, so she cuts off her hair, dresses as a boy, calls herself Rowan, and sets off to find her famous father, whom she's never met. That sounded really fun, and I couldn't wait for her to have adventures with all the Robin Hood characters I love so well.
And that's sorta what I got, except only Robin Hood is in the story much, and the rest of his merry men only show up in a couple of scenes. Rowan/Rosemary is smart and courageous, but her mother was a "woodwife," basically a witch, and so is Rowan. Although there wasn't much "love your mother earth" sort of stuff, it had much more of a fantasy feel than I was expecting. So while this is an okay book, it wasn't what I was expecting, which left me a little disappointed. However, it was fast-paced and fun. And I believe this is the beginning of a series.
But I think I'll stick with the movie Princess of Thieves (2001) when I want stories about Robin Hood and his daughter.
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for mentioning menstruation, developing breasts, and a girl being uncomfortable when a man urinates nearby (he thinks she's a boy).
Oh, how I wish I'd read this book when I was younger! Not that I didn't love and appreciate it now, because I did, but because I could have enjoyed it so many times by now.
It took me rather a long time to read this because it was so delightful, I didn't want it to end. And, to be truthful, I did not read the epilogue. When I was young, maybe under ten, I made a vow never to read the end of a Robin Hood story that ended with him dying. That way I can always think of him still merrily having bold adventures somewhere in the wide world. And so, I never have. I only know he dies at the end of many retellings because the one I was reading when I made that vow had a chapter called "The Death of Robin Hood," and I couldn't bear to read it.
So imagine my joy when the epilogue of this book began with these words: "And now, dear friend -- you who have journeyed with me in all these merry doings, -- I will not bid you follow me further, but will drop your hand here with a "good den," if you wish it" (p 319). Pyle himself acknowledged that people like me won't want to read this part, and he readily excuses us from doing so. What an obliging person!
Okay, but anyway, I loved this book. Dearly. It is, at the moment, my favorite retelling -- even surpassing the Henry Gilbert, which I read so often in my youth. I might even have to rearrange my list of favorite books so this can be probably in the top ten.
This of course is a pretty basic retelling of Robin Hood's adventures, though I was surprised that Maid Marian is really not in it at all. Robin mentions her once or twice in a vague way, but she never appears at all. However, Little John and Friar Tuck and Will Scarlet and Will Stutely and Alan a Dale are all here. And the Sheriff of Nottingham is the main antagonist. Guy of Gisborne only shows up at the tail end in one chapter, and is swiftly dispatched. And Prince John isn't around at all -- for most of the book, King Henry and Queen Eleanor are on the throne, and then at the very end, King Henry dies and King Richard arrives. It isn't until after the main book ends that Robin goes crusading, unlike many versions that have him coming home from the wars and becoming an outlaw then.
I especially love the characterization of Robin Hood. As King Henry said toward the beginning, "He is a saucy, rebellious varlet, yet, I am fain to own, a right merry soul withal" (p. 32). He is a cheerful, happy man, not given to brooding even when he accidentally kills a man and has to go into hiding at the very beginning of the book. He is repentant of that killing, and mentions several times how it gives him sorrow, but overall, he's happy-go-lucky. As it says elsewhere, "it took but little to tickle Robin's heart into merriment" (p. 222-23). Doesn't he sound fun to hang out with?
I have lots of favorite lines, so I'm going to share many of them here to show you the book's delightful, joyous flavor, which is much of what makes me love it.
Particularly Good Bits:
As for mine host, he knew how to keep a still tongue in his head, and to swallow his words before they passed his teeth, for he knew very well which side of his bread was spread with butter, for Robin and his band were the best of customers, and paid their scores without having them chalked up behind the door (p. 26).
"Hold, friend!" cried Robin to the Miller; whereupon he turned slowly, with the weight of the bag upon his shoulder, and looked at each in turn all bewildered, for though a good stout man his wits did not skip like roasting chestnuts (p. 119).
Now happenings so come upon us in this world that the serious things of this world become so mixed up with the merry things that our life is all of a jumble of black and white, as it were, like the boards of checkered black and white upon which country folk play draughts at the inn beside the blazing fire of a winter's night (p. 123).
So passed the seasons then, so pass they now, and so they will pass in time to come, whilst we come and go like leaves of the tree that fall and are soon forgotten (p. 174).
"Gaffer Swanthold speaks truly when he saith, 'Better a crust with content than honey with a sour heart" (p. 208).
If This Was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for mild violence.
This is my 23rd book read and reviewed for The Classics Club. I'm almost halfway done with my challenge!
Because I'm spending a year reading about Robin Hood, I treated myself to something special back in May: a handmade Robin Hood-themed bookmark! I got it from the Etsy shop BookNiche and I like it a whole lot. Do check out their shop if you like thong bookmarks! There are nearly a hundred of them in stock right now, all different and all nifty.
Well, nuts. I'm really disappointed by this book. It started out promisingly, with interesting characters, great historical detail, and some original takes on various characters from the Robin Hood legend. It begins with Alan Dale joining Robin Hood's band as a young teen, and at first I thought it was going to be a YA book. But things got adult pretty quickly. And the truth is, I will read a book with bad language in it, and I'll read a book with violence in it. I will even read books where characters have sex, as long as the sex isn't described in explicit, salacious detail. Sadly, this was too explicit for me to read in good conscience. I skimmed through the first objectionable scene and kept reading, hoping that would be the end of such stuff, but eventually I realized it wasn't, so I had to stop.
And I'm so disappointed that the author chose to include all that smut, because I was very invested in the characters and intrigued by the plot, and now I'll never get to find out how Donald resolved everything. Boo.
The good news is, I don't have this taking up space on my shelves anymore!
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: R. Explicit sex, very bad language, torture, violence, and pagan rituals. I absolutely do not recommend this book.
I read 46 books in 2014, which rather astounds me. That's almost four a month! Wow. I've decided to do a quick post about what my top ten favorites were this year, and I'm breaking it up into two sections, new-to-me books and re-reads.
My favorite new-to-me books were:
Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster -- so adorable! Funny and sweet and quirky, an instant favorite.
Sixteen Brides by Stephanie Grace Whitson -- another for my list of absolute favorites! Which I need to revise one of these days. I loved how this wasn't focused on romance so much as friendships.
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger -- I never knew what to expect next from this book. And I could only read it a chapter or so at a time because I had to digest every new twist and turn before I could move on.
The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley -- I love the Zorro story, and I was delighted to find that the original story was crammed with the happy-go-lucky bravery I was hoping for.
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool -- I found this book so useful for understanding 19th-century life that I asked for (and got) a copy for Christmas.
Spiderweb for Two by Elizabeth Enright -- sweet and heart-warming, with some of the most believable sibling characters I've read in a long time.
My favorite re-reads were:
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien -- yeah, yeah, I read The Fellowship of the Ring last year, but I read the other two this year, so I'm counting it as a whole for this year. This was my sixth read-through, and it continued to astonish me with new nuances and depths I hadn't found before.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle -- my favorite canonical Sherlock Holmes story. It's unparalleled in its use of atmosphere and location to build suspense.
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King -- my favorite non-canonical Sherlock Holmes story. It has several mysteries and great character development, and the series that follows is very dear to my heart.
A Family Affair by Rex Stout -- my favorite Nero Wolfe mystery, with a shocking solution that makes me think of Joss Whedon.
And I've decided that 2015 will be My Year with Robin Hood. You may recall that I spent 2013 (and into 2014 because I didn't start until March of 2013) in the company of Sherlock Holmes, and I focused on Jane Austen in 2012. I really missed having an overall theme to my reading this year, so that's my challenge to myself for 2015: read at least 6 books that involve Robin Hood. You can see in my sidebar that I've already begun -- I started Angus Donald's Outlaw yesterday and immediately knew I'd found my theme for 2015. I've loved Robin Hood stories since I was a little kid, but it's been a while since I read anything about him. Time to remedy that! I kind of collect Robin Hood books and movies, so I have several retellings I've never read, and I bet my enthusiasm will once again bleed over into my movie watching, like it did for Austen and Holmes. So don't be surprised if I start reviewing Robin Hood movies on my other blog!
Happy New Year!
