Hood: Library Edition
by Stephen R. Lawhead
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
discuss this book
| topics | replies | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Next Best Boo...: What are you reading? | 5772 | 2061 | 1 hour, 2 min ago | |
| The Next Best Boo...: Reading a series? | 135 | 288 | 2 days ago, 01:02PM |
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
Where's the love? Add this book to your favorite list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 878)
This version of the Robin Hood story is taken from the stand point that puts most of it happening on the welsh side not the English like the story is usually set in. Just one of the reasons I liked the book. The part of Hood is played by a man named Bran and how he started becoming the "Robin Hood" figure starts in this book as well the introduction of some of the characters we know. Bran, "the Robin Hood" character, is not the good guy at first but a womanizing, duty shirkin...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
I'm not any sadder for reading this book, but I'm certainly not any more enriched or anything. His historical spin on the Robin Hood legend is well-conceived but poorly executed. It's got plenty of action and the dialogue isn't awful, but there was just something missing for me. I didn't care about the protagonist and I didn't love or hate anyone else in the story. It was just one of those books that I had no problem finishing, but when I was done just sort of shrugged, scratched my nose and...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
This was the first book by Stephen Lawhead that I read after the Song of Alboin series and I had high hopes. Saddly thse hopes were not fulfilled.
This was supposed to be a re-telling of the Robin Hoob legend, and from Lawhead I was expecting good things. The story however drags on, doesnt have good paceing nor does it draw you in like The Paradise War did. Some of the c...more
This was supposed to be a re-telling of the Robin Hoob legend, and from Lawhead I was expecting good things. The story however drags on, doesnt have good paceing nor does it draw you in like The Paradise War did. Some of the c...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in November, 2008
In my opinoin the story really dragged. The last 50 pages started to get exciting...and then it was over.To me, it was overly descriptive. Everything from the scenery to the weather seemed to be explained in painstaking detail. Normally, I would think that was a good thing, but I found myself skimming over huge chunks of the book just to get to some action. It seemed like he was determined to tell the reader the color of every blade of grass on the ground. I thought the story itself was original...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2008
If, and I say If, you can tolerate one of our beloved tales being completely revamped,except of course for some major plot lines this is a great book. Robin Hood from Wales?? Not Nottingham Forest?? It was a wonderful read though, years ago I read his version of Arthur Pendragon. I loved this one just as much,if not more than,that series. Lawhead argues his points well at the end of the book(some folk said it should have been at the beginning of the novel, but I think that would not have worked ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in July, 2008
Stephen R.Lawhead explains in his seven-page author’s note at the end of this novel that the character we have come to know as Robin Hood is far more likely to have originated in Wales than in The Sherwood Forest. He accounts an interesting history of this character, dating his appearances in folklore all the way back to the 1200’s. It’s an apology of sorts, a plea to fans of the legend to understand that he did not just slaughter their hero. The author is merely positing one possible expl...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
People interested in Medieval Europe?
<b>A Slow-paced Earthy Legend</a>
I wasn't sure what to expect from Stephen Lawhead's "Hood". It's my first book of his, and at first, I was put off by his wordy, ornate writing style, his tendency to get fixated on describing certain scenes or states of mind in great depth. As the story has progressed, the rhythm and pace has began to feel like home, amidst the primitive, rural Welsh people the story is set. As a retelling of Robin Hood, I was expecting (and often ...more
I wasn't sure what to expect from Stephen Lawhead's "Hood". It's my first book of his, and at first, I was put off by his wordy, ornate writing style, his tendency to get fixated on describing certain scenes or states of mind in great depth. As the story has progressed, the rhythm and pace has began to feel like home, amidst the primitive, rural Welsh people the story is set. As a retelling of Robin Hood, I was expecting (and often ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
"Hood" is an interesting twist on the familiar tale of Robin Hood and his merry men. We still have our wronged nobleman turned heroic outlaw but the setting and it appears some of the characters will be quite different. Wales, not England, is the setting (the author has specific reasons for this choice). Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little John and Will Scarlet are definitely included—but although there will be no shortage of villains, the locale makes it unlikely that we will meet the S...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
I have been a fan of Stephen Lawheads books ever since reading The Dragon King Trilogy as a kid, and his novels keep getting better and better with time. When you read a Lawhead book you can expect an imaginative tale steeped deep in history, his personal study of the history surrounding the time in which he places the book. In the Pendragon Cycle, for example, Lawhead paints a very realistic portrait of King Arthur.
With that in mind, Hood does not disappoint. Hood is Lawhead’s reimaging o...more
With that in mind, Hood does not disappoint. Hood is Lawhead’s reimaging o...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
we all know the familiar legend of robin hood who hangs out in sherwood forest and steals from the rich to give to the poor. but what if the legends of robin hood were really based on a welsh king who was deposed from his throne by the norman conquest in the early 1100's? that's the premise behind hood, and the author's ability to capture the time period and its myth and lore make this adaptation outstanding. [return:]our hero doesn't start out as such--bran ap brychan is a son of royalty who...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
people who like fairy tales and historical fiction
This book was really enjoyable. It was my first Lawhead book and I think I will look for the sequels and possible other series of his as well. Every once in a while there was a monologue of a character's thoughts on their past and I hated it and love it at the same time. Part of me would just want to get past it so I could get back to the action and events in the story, while at the same time it was interesting and fairly important to understanding the character, the events, and to find empathy....more
Like this review?
yes
1 comments
Read in July, 2008
As he did previously with the legend of King Arthur, Lawhead in this book takes an English legend and tries to trace it to its roots, which he finds in ancient Wales. In the case of the Arthurian legends, there is a fair amount of evidence suggesting that they may indeed be based on a Welsh king, and Lawhead makes his case in a brief afterword for Robin Hood as well, pointing out the Welsh skill with the longbow, wild forests capable of hiding dozens of "merry men" and so forth.
Whe...more
Whe...more
Like this review?
yes
2 comments
Read in October, 2006
recommends it for:
Robin Hood, historical fiction readers
Just as Lawhead recreated the world of Arthur and Camelot in his "The Pendragon" collection, he is recreating the world of "Robin Hood" here in this series.
You will say "ah, yeah" when you recognize familiar aspects of the legend, and "oh, my" when you see how he puts his own twist on things.
I first heard of this new series while at Cornerstone Music Festival in Bushnell, Il., last summer. Stephen gave live readings, while accompanied by ethereal i...more
You will say "ah, yeah" when you recognize familiar aspects of the legend, and "oh, my" when you see how he puts his own twist on things.
I first heard of this new series while at Cornerstone Music Festival in Bushnell, Il., last summer. Stephen gave live readings, while accompanied by ethereal i...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
I think that the concept of the story works well (putting Robin Hood in Wales), but there are some little things that really stuck out and bothered me. And I'm not feeling very connected to any of the characters, which is what makes a book good to me. So I feel a little bleh about this book. Although I'm wondering if that didn't have a lot to do with the narrator as the accent was completely fake and so many words were mispronounced that it was occassionally actually painful to listen to.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
This is the first Stephen Lawhead book I've read, and I was surprised to hear that many don't consider it one of his better ones. I almost couldn't put it down. I was delighted to recognize characters from the legend of Robin Hood--to read Lawhead's imaginary take on how Hood, Little John and Friar Tuck got their nicknames. Tuck is hilarious: a great balance between irreverant and absolutely dedicated to God's call on his life. The action sequences (fights, etc.) are not, IMHO, Lawhead's strong ...more
Like this review?
yes
1 comments
Read in August, 2008
I enjoyed it but I am not someone that gets caught up and enjoys period speak. Lawhead likes to tell the story using as much period speak as he can get away with but doesn't give enough context to really understand what the characters are refering to. Even searching the internet for some of the terms he uses return no results. So it is easy to get confused. There is quite a bit of political intrigue which means more focus on the rich than on the everyday life of someone living in these times...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
recommended to Debbie by:
Telarry Andersen
I really liked this story. This author is in the fantasy, science fiction section and that made me nervous. I never read either....and I ordered from an idiot on Amazon who never sent it so I almost gave up. But I was encouraged by Lindsay to continue. Finally, I had to borrow it and it was an engaging story. I am not used to the trilogy style and so the book was slow for me. The real action started towards the end. But it is the first book so the story continues. I had just watched the ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Lawhead is probably one of my favorite Authors as he wrote my favorite series The Paradise War, which actually has quite a bit more depth than it seems.
This is his retelling of Robin Hood. Not quite as good as the above mentioned series of books, and in fact some of the parts I enjoyed the most were times when he referenced themes from that series. I also appreciate this novel because it straddles two genres rather ably: Historical Fiction and Fantasy. All in all, it's not t...more
This is his retelling of Robin Hood. Not quite as good as the above mentioned series of books, and in fact some of the parts I enjoyed the most were times when he referenced themes from that series. I also appreciate this novel because it straddles two genres rather ably: Historical Fiction and Fantasy. All in all, it's not t...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2007
This is the first book in the King Raven trilogy; a re-telling of the Robin Hood legend set in Wales around 1093. This book covers the early life of Bran ap Brychan and the events that lead him to become Robin Hood.
The story is well-paced, enjoyable, and a lot more interesting than most that I've read or seen for this legend. It was good enough to put a crimp in my knitting time.
I'm already itching to read the next in the series - Scarlet. Told, of course, from the viewpoint of Will Scar...more
The story is well-paced, enjoyable, and a lot more interesting than most that I've read or seen for this legend. It was good enough to put a crimp in my knitting time.
I'm already itching to read the next in the series - Scarlet. Told, of course, from the viewpoint of Will Scar...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
