by Robin McKinley
It's the age-old tale of Robin Hood and the Maid Marian, retold by Robin McKinley. We are taken through the familiar scenes of Robin fleeing into Sherwood forest and inadvertently gathering up outlaws to call his own, even as he battles his own emotions to keep his band safe and his love for Marian....
As with most other re-tellings, the story hardly needs a synopsis, but I would like to mention that in this version we actually start shortly before Robin becomes an outlaw…The slightly earlier starting point was, in my opinion, an opportunity the author took to re-write Robin as a much more likable...
The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinleyTales of the Sherwood Forrest, the women and men who rob of the rich and give to the poor. They train to shoot their arrows straight and true.They try to keep on the good side of the sheriff as they want no duel with him.They take on plans to rob from Roger a...
I admit, I struggled with finishing this one. I kept having to say to my mom 'it's not bad, but, I don't know...' To be honest, I do know that a part of my dissatisfaction with this book was that I'd just finished the King Raven trilogy and comparatively this one does fall a little flat as a Robin H...
I had some problems at the beginning that colored my enjoyment of the rest of it. McKinley never does tell us how old Robin and his friends are. At the very beginning I thought they must be twelve or so, but it turns out they're full grown, late teens or early twenties. Of course their actual ages d...
Re-reading, Oct. 2011:I probably read this in the late '80s/early '90s, shortly after it came out, and all I can remember is being not terribly blown away by it: not much else stuck with me. On re-read, it isn't impressing me any more than the first time. Robin Hood's is a story that you can figur...
The Outlaws of Sherwood was the first retelling of Robin Hood that I've read. The backstory and personalities of many of the characters is different to what I have seen in Robin Hood movies before, but I liked them. Robin is quiet, unassuming. Much and Marian have to talk him into living in the fo...
McKinley explores the circumstances that might have led to the formation of an outlaw community in Sherwood and the growth of the Robin Hood legend. She contrasts Robin's practical concerns (not being arrested and executed, taking care of his followers when the decide to live in the woods) with the ...
Abandoned ship exactly 50 pages in, which may have been premature but how long am I going to live, anyway?It would have been the first Robin Hood book I've ever read, so maybe it's just too late for me to start that particular myth.
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