Read it for what it is: a wickedly entertaining potboiler adventure story. It's not philosophically enlightening, nor does it revolutionize the art of the novel; it's just straight-up great storytelling from an author who perhaps knew quite well that half his readers were at the age when they would be going outside to reenact those adventures with friends. I sure wish I still had friends I could do that with...but most of us are quicker to think of the bar or a cinema as a good time than running around the woods brandishing sticks. And then there's work, artwork, and all those other obligations that take up my time...if nothing else, this book is incredibly great at transporting readers to the nostalgia of a place that fades away after age twelve.

Anyways, it's a great outlaw tale. Some of the characters could have been given more time in the limelight, but overall Stevenson does a great job of incorporating history into the plot; Richard is constantly swept up in the War of Roses, drawing us away from the main plot arc but giving us a rich illustration of England's brutal turmoil at that point. Stevenson's use of Lancastrian English may seem a little imperfect or forced at times, but unless you're an English language scholar or historian, this shouldn't bother most readers.