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Other
Critics
"Another
problem (now significantly so unwelcome as to be all but forgotten) is
that while the earliest literary versions we have may be weak on
narrative, they are remarkably clear about their social positioning. The
figure of the man in the greenwood, Robin Hood, or Robin 'Ood, or (T.H.
White's idea) Robin Wood, may go back centuries into the time of myth, but
Robin as we have him in the Robin Hood ballads of the late Middle Ages is
a representative of the yeomanry. His weapons are the cheap ones of the
rural peasantry, bow and quarterstaff. Sometimes he has a sword, but he
never wears armor and does not ride to battle. His social prejudices are
those of the rural peasantry as well—and this is where the embarrassment
starts for the modern rewriter. Medieval Robin has nothing against the
aristocracy at all, indeed he likes them, and is ready to assist them, as
long as they are real aristocrats (i.e., men who have inherited their rank
from old time), and as long as they are prepared to be "good
fellows." His enemies and victims are tax-collectors, officers of the
central government, the upper ranks of the clergy, especially abbots of
well-endowed monasteries, and in particular lawyers: the literate classes,
in other words. Modern writers, perhaps uneasily aware that they
themselves would get very short shrift from a modern Robin, find this hard
to sympathize with, while Marxist and sub-Marxist academics feel that
Robin is much too like the surly, independent, white male Republican or
Conservative citizens who voted in Presidents Bush, Bush, and Reagan, and
Mrs. Thatcher too."
--Thomas
Shippey, Christinatoday.com
It's always a great pleasure to read the pros
at work. The World Wide Web is filled well pas the saturation point with people venturing to opine on
books. Most of them summarize the plot, announce "I liked it" or
equally "this sucks" and go on with their day regarding
themselves as reviewers. Good reviews teach us something about the book;
they illuminate something about it we may not have otherwise thought or
known. Shippey is a scholar of this kind of work (and noted author J.R.R.
Tolkien: Author of the Century and merely having the brass set
necessary to publish a book with that title in the academic community means he reigns tall in our
system of respect). He is able to provide us some historical background
and pick quarrels with Lawhead's accuracy that we might not otherwise be
able to appreciate. In this section, he is able to provide us some
background on the behavior of what an historical Robin Hood might more
realistically represent and re-frame the entire setting for us in ways
that allow us to better critically assess it ourselves. Nice work.
Perhaps
most intriguing about this tale is the way in which both sides believe
themselves firmly in the right... with God on their side. The Normans
believe that King William has been chosen by God for the throne, and
therefore what he decrees must be God's will. The Britons believe their
land was given to them by God, and it is their God-given right to defend
it. Both receive encouragement from their own priests and other religious
leaders.
If you're already a fan of Lawhead, you'll find Hood to be exactly
what you would expect, and extremely enjoyable for it. If you've never
experienced Lawhead before, this is a perfect place to start. Lawhead's
writing is epic and glorious, filled with warmth, delight in the world
that exists around us, and gritty realism.
Alas, the only downside is that the next two books in the King Raven
trilogy will be released over the course of the next two years (Why
"King Raven"? Read the book and you'll see!). Fortunately,
there's no cliffhanger ending... this time. Highly Recommended.
--Christian
Fiction Review (Best of 2006)
Here we have an example of the Fan Review.
Brought to you by the same people who don't "believe" in
evolution and think God will save us from global warming and will
certainly punish the wicked in the next lifetime (because they're
surely not being punished now), we get this little piece of fandom.
This quote is from their write-up of the 100 bet books of 2006 from their
Christian perspective. The funniest thing about this is the first
paragraph where they mention one of the interesting things about the story
is the religious tension embodied by the characters. They're right... but being the
authority on Christian books you'd think they'd bother to mention how to
untangle the rather thorny knot of whose side God was on, anyway! But
no... just hey, this was kind of intriguing. So, we suppose, were the
evils inflicted upon Job by God over a wager with Satan. The true reason
we wanted to point this out, though, was how harmful this actually is to
writers like Lawhead. He is working with some themes of fantasy and has
agreed to work with a Christian publisher. A certain warm reception from
the Christian community is to be expected. But to laud it to this
degree--with warmth and delight--and announce it as one of the 100 best
books of the year. Well, it's not! Lawhead's a great writer but this
simply isn't his best work. To heap false praise on a book like this is to
cheapen the work of many, many others and pull the whole sub-genre of
Christian fantasy into disrepute.
What
We Say
Lawhead has established something of a
following for writing fantasy based in Christian themes. If there was
an analogue to Christian Rock music to speculative fiction, then Lawhead
would be it. But this unfairly limits his audience, which can and should
be much broader. Lawhead is an author we’ve praised for fearlessness in
his writing. He attacks the fantasy areas that interest him and he
unabashedly writes of heroism. To borrow Northrop Frye, he’s in the high
mimetic mode (and perhaps a true "romance" in the Frye sense to the extent that we eventually
see divine influence and Welsh magic permeating the setting). Moreover,
while he's well known for his excellent Pendragon Cycle, it is his
historical fiction novel Byzantium chronicling the life of Saint
Aidan that is truly one of the finest and most accomplished novels we've
ever read in the genre. So here we have Lawhead--despite his publisher (a
noted publisher of Christian books)--coming to us with a pedigree and
background that we greatly enjoy. Why not Robin Hood?
This book isn't exactly the king of
disappointments but "we're not a 100% in love with it" either
(thank you GEICO caveman). After Taliesin, after Byzantium,
even after the bit weaker The Iron Lance, we expected a bit more
than we got. A man goes to the refrigerator and grabs the milk
carton--he drinks right out of it because his wife's not around to see
it--and he takes a big slug of icy coolness. Except, it turns out it's
just a tiny bit spoiled and it's only after that confusing moment of expectation and
reality that you realize what happened. Hood's kind of like
that.
The prologue of the book is actually one of
the best moments. It is a scene of the young Bran ap Brychan coming home
from a personal triumph only to meet with personal tragedy. It resonates
with a moment in Arthur when Arthur leads his cymbrogi up a
mountain and nearly carries Cai on his back to get there. And there are
other moments. Lawhead is a master at these sorts of events: of mixing
half myth with youthful vigor. In a way, it is the essence of the genre
where the passions run hot and high in youth and the world wrenches back
and forth in idealistic black and white. In a way, just like Christianity
itself. It sets up an important thing because the Robin Hood of this
adventurous retelling in the Welsh forests--this Bran ap Brychan--is going
to prove to have several unsavory aspects. In fact, of the deadly sins he
has lust, wrath, pride, and perhaps sloth all completely handled--high
marks all around. Presumably, he will
reveal some virtues later on... which is set up in important ways by this
youthful prologue where we get to see the seeds of diligence and kindness
(of the virtues, it's hard to imagine this particular guy exhibiting
chastity, temperance, forgiveness, or humility but perhaps these traits
will be manifested in the merry men and that will count with God and the
reader). The second chapter--our first meeting with the protagonist--shows
a grown up Bran attempting to seduce Maid Mérian in her bedroom. He's
not seducing her in a good way either like Romeo was seducing Juliet...
he's trying to add her to conquests like Don Juan himself. Not quite as
idealistic as the prologue needless to say.
In fact, these first two chapters is where
one can most clearly see how far off course Lawhead is careering. In the
first chapter, we have the obligatory slaughter of innocents when
outnumbered and betrayed by a larger force. Then we have the equally
obligatory chapters of Bran--the scion and aggrieved party of the
loss--coming to realization and then taking flight. It is here that we
feel the most disappointed. Welsh mythology aside, all we have here is a
very standard opening to any number of fantasy novels. The fact that this
is Robin Hood retold does not help... it's tired and it puts us to sleep
as well.
The story improves a bit as the embryo of the
merry men begin to be revealed. Both Little John and Friar Tuck become
reified in Iwan--the champion of Elfael--and as the monk Brother Ffreol.
Ffreol is a nice invention who invites comparisons to some of the more
memorable Lawhead characters such as Bedwyr of Arthur and several
extraordinary vikings in Byzantium. Yet these meetings run afoul
of the plot, which drags the reader through a ponderous and seemingly
purposeless episode in Lundein (London?) where they attempt to ransom their
cantref. This ends up being motivation for money that is so pervasive in
the legend of Robin Hood but the payoff comes to late and pays too little.
We're forced to crawl over a ton of text--not exactly crawl through broken
glass but crawl nonetheless--to reach this point and we find
we would have rather stipulated all this right at the outset and run
instead.
Things do not improve as we follow Bran into
exile and into the Mr. Miagi equivalent of this book. Bran is rescued by a
wise woman of the forest who manifests druid-like powers, heals Bran, and
instills a wonted level of loyalty and zeal to match his pride and
self-centeredness. Once again, we are forced through a lot of text to get to a
point where we know that every fantasy book of this type must
reach: the pupil reaching an understanding with the master. We can almost
see Bran on the pier piling practicing his crane kick getting ready for the
karate tournament at the end of the section.
Three strikes now and the book only half
over.
But the latter half of the book is more
interesting. Should any readers make it this far, they will find that Bran
aptly fills the role of Robin Hood in ways that we can find fulfilling.
The legend itself begins to take root in this part where we see them
plying longbows, camping in the woods, stealing from the Normans (Ffreincs),
and otherwise doing Robin Hoodish things. Can this overcome the poor
beginnings? Perhaps. And perhaps it augurs well for later installments of
this trilogy. For now, this book with a weak beginning and a strong
second-half becomes unwieldy, unbalanced, and unfulfilling.
One interesting point is this notion of the
deadly sin of wrath that Bran exhibits at times. He literally becomes
confused and blinded by rage. The Robin Hood of contemporary myth is a
rake and a rogue. He is the James Bond with the quip and the Hannibal
Smith of the A-Team with his regard for personal profit. There is no Wrath
in these characters just as there is seldom Wrath in Robin Hood. But what causes
Robin Hood to be Robin Hood? A man who is willing to "rage against the
machine" even if it just taxes and he does it with a wink of the eye as he does in these legends certainly bespeaks a kind of
fury that is buried deep beneath the surface and never dies. While our
Bran in this book is certainly justified in being angry over the loss of
his birthright--a tired plot device--how that wrath infects and
reinterprets the legend is a fine achievement.
Another interesting effect is how
Christianity is used. As some of the critics mentioned above, each
"side" uses it to justify their actions. But it's more than
that. Particularly courageous for this author who publishes on Christian
themes and using a Christian publisher, he shows how religion--at least
organized religion--becomes merely another political tool to be used for
oppression, for gain, and for dim justification for raiding, for taking,
and for the general acquisition of more power. Just like the conquistadors
of Spain ravaging the new world for Glory, God, and Gold so we see the
Normans invading for very similar reasons under the guise of God. Opposing
this corruption of the Holy Church is only the heathenish magic of the Welsh (though doubtless will ultimately be
revealed as the same source). Can Christians cheer for the
pagans?
Place
in the Genre
It's a shame the book turned out like it did
because one can find the book in the bookstores. In the
brick-and-mortar attachments to coffee shops across the nation, you can
find Hood in hardcover and usually in the featured sections. We
finally had a good writer featured with the stores carrying the hardback!
Let the bells ring! It would have been great for the respectability of the
genre if this book had worked out a little better. In some ways, while the
Christian publisher limits the readership it also expands it in certain
ways; there's an audience that might not have otherwise picked up this
book except that they subscribe or log onto some Christian source or another
and see the author featured. It had a chance to reach beyond itself. As it
stands, it's hard to to believe that Hood will reach anyone in any
meaningful way outside of a narrow audience that really craves adolescent
literature.
There's another facet: Lawhead had a chance
to make the definitive story about the Robin Hood Legend. Malory
has been the source for the Aurthurian legend for centuries--what
can be done with that legend is merely to reinterpret the old. Lawhead had
done something with the Pendgragon Cycle--he had reinvented it in the
Welsh mythology and exposed an audience to new ideas. This same format
just isn't going to work with the Robin Hood legend because there's no
definitive source to react against and reinvent. Yes, there are customs:
the sheriff, the arrows, etc... but there's no definitive source. Lawhead
doesn't have the luxury of being to make shorthand references to the Robin
Hood legend like he did the Arthurian and make it work. The general
readership just isn't as ready to reinvent something they didn't
understand to begin with. It requires a great deal more exposition. Taliesin
would have been a far weaker work if written in a vacuum... that
borrowed power from a great work is simply missing from Hood.
As it stands, if the Robin Hood legend is to
be made real for the modern era it is going to come from another author.
This one was born stunted.
Who
Should Read
We gave meager buy recommendations for the
Lawhead fan and the historical fantasy enthusiast. The former will forgive
him his lapses into the more tired and customary aspects of plot
fulfillment while the latter will be entranced enough in connecting the
Welsh with the "conventional" Robin Hood legends that both can
be propelled to the end of the novel. They will have some sort of
lingering desire to read the next book and will keep it in their library.
It is not yet clear if we could recommend this for the Christian fantasy
enthusiast (a difficult market segment to reconcile, surely).
Who
Should Pass
We just don't think there is any significant
number of people anywhere who are going to do backflips over this book.
High on this list are people who are looking for something unusual and new
in fantasy books--people who tend to gravitate towards Miéville,
VanderMeer, or Wolfe (like us) or similarly people who don't necessarily
mind the formulaic but want it gritty and new in the telling with some
starkly real violence like George RR Martin or Stephen R Donaldson. For
historical fantasy, you should start and stop with Stephen Pressfield. At
the least, you should begin your readings with Lawhead with Byzantium or
Taliesin, which are extraordinary books and well worth your
time.
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