All is well in the Greenwood until the outlaws open their mouths: their speech and thoughts are a stiff, uneasy mix of ye-olde high seriousness and flip vernacular. McKinley's novelistic treatment expands the outlines of characters and episodes familiar to readers of Pyle.
It just didn’t “strike fancy” so to speak.Grade 9-12 Robin Hood is immortal, but in The Outlaws of Sherwood he doesn't quite come alive. The plot, characters, setting are all well developed. Not the whimsical, fun theme of the Disney version (which I love haha). Sure there are a couple of lighthearted jokes thrown in here and there, but for the most part the tone is very serious. It’s just a little unsettling.Įveryone takes themselves so seriously in this book. There seemed to be more of an age gap between them, and I just keep noticing this more and more with Robin McKinley’s books. The second half of the book tells a love story between Little John and Will Scarlet’s sister. At first I thought it was just a coincidence, now I don’t think it is.
I have noticed a definite theme with Robin McKinley’s stories…there’s always a significant age gap between her heroine and their love interest. The conflict between the Normans and Saxons was well done, and helped me understand the conflict and animosity between Robin Hood and Prince John and the Sheriff. She has a unique spin on old favorites, and adds some new characters to the fix. The characters have depth and develop as the story progresses. I love a good Robin Hood story, and this one does a good job giving a lot of historical realism and authenticity to the legend. It is well written and kept me interested enough to finish it. I never really got to see any lighthearted banter between them, everything was always so tense. His relationship with Marian consisted mainly of them fighting and looking longly at the other. Much of this story focuses on the conflict Robin Hood faces with allowing people to follow him into “outlawry” and him wrestling with the guilt and sense of responsibility he feels for his followers. The story focuses on Robin Hood & Marian and the second half is told from the perspective of Will Scarlet’s sister and Little John. However that’s not why I read Robin Hood, we read Robin Hood to be swept away into a different time an place, with adventures that aren’t realistic but nonetheless entertaining. Yet it’s also more lighthearted than some of the darker versions making it seem very realistic. It’s much more down-to-earth than the typical Robin Hood retellings. I found this Robin Hood retelling to be well done, but not necessarily….enchanting. Long, well-written but not particularly fascinating. One keeps searching for ease, she did not say, and not finding it, till the memories of no-pain seem only like daydreams.
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