Hood (King Raven, #1) in Clean Reads

Feb 06, 2012 Denae Christine rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy-historical

Well.
There are a lot of historical fiction elements in this book. The Welsh language (and French and Latin) is a neat element, but other pieces are more than I expected. For one, I'm not sure I understand how the church worked in the 11th century. I also didn't get a very good grasp of the politics, or the situation of Britain. There were kings paying taxes to barons? Who was really in charge, the Freinc or the English or the Britons? I'd never heard of Cymry or the Marshes before, but it was be Well.
There are a lot of historical fiction elements in this book. The Welsh language (and French and Latin) is a neat element, but other pieces are more than I expected. For one, I'm not sure I understand how the church worked in the 11th century. I also didn't get a very good grasp of the politics, or the situation of Britain. There were kings paying taxes to barons? Who was really in charge, the Freinc or the English or the Britons? I'd never heard of Cymry or the Marshes before, but it was better once I found the map at the back of the book.
That would have been fine, except there were so many pov characters to keep track of. Several barons, several kings and some of their children, some soldiers, some bishops, an abbot, and a friar. I had a difficult time keeping track of who was on which side, since there weren't clear sides. More like, a bunch of individuals all fighting each other with subtlety and lies. It's a little cleaer by the end, but not much.
The plot was decent. I realize there were a lot of introductory elements and starting the whole Robin Hood campaign takes a while, but Bran didn't seem to have a lot of direction for a lot of the book. I like him better when I'm not in his pov, actually. All the side povs really added to the tension and stakes.
The characters themselves were well developed and multi-dimensional. Quite a bit was explained through separate povs, which was well done, but I, personally, find less interesting than fewer pov characters.
The magic was mysterious, legend-like, and practically non-existent.
So, as a historical fiction book, it was good. As a fantasy adventure book, it was lacking. The retelling aspects come across as unique and interesting, but not overly exciting, since a lot of things seem drawn out. Whenever people have to travel, it takes them several days or a couple weeks to get somewhere (if they're going to Lundein), which slows down the pace. I'd rather have smaller scale and shorter adventures, which heightens the excitement. It took me a couple months to get through this book because the drawn out conflict and pov switches didn't pique my interest.
The historical note at the end was good. ...more

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Mar 18, 2009 Trina rated it liked it

I am not a fan of Robin Hood as a character but I like what this book has done with it. An interesting historical fiction that was worth the read.

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Oct 27, 2009 benebean rated it really liked it

Shelves: medium, historical-fiction, cleaness-granny-approves, light, could-recommend, sci-fi-fantasy, christian-fiction

I went in with pretty low expectations for this book since several people who are usually more generous in liking books than myself, were disappointed by it. To my great surprise I really liked it. In fact I liked it a lot more than Lawhead's Song of Albion series which the aforesaid persons, who didn't like hood, had praised. ...more

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Jan 11, 2009 joy *the clean-reader extraordinaire* rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, pg, medieval-fiction

this is a version of the robin hood myth set in wales. if you like medieval fiction, this one's fun. and clean. it's part of a trilogy that changes narrators with each book. robin hood, will scarlet, and friar tuck all get a turn to tell the tale. kevin costner, on the other hand, is nowhere to be found. thank goodness... ...more

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