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The Wode series - J Tullos Hennig
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Been hearing such great things about these books. I have a few in the queue ahead of it but I'm anxious to get to Greenwode soon!
I agree! I am going to have to get to these soon.
"Greenwode" has won an award in Elisa Rolle's Rainbow Awards. http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/25...#
I haven't read it yet, but maybe I should give it a go, seeing that you liked it so much, PaperMoon.
Ken Follett's amazing "Pillars of the Earth" taught us about life in a cathedral town in the middle ages. In "Greenwode," J. Tullos Henning (another coy name for a female writer of gay male romance) gives us a remarkably deft and literate window into that same medieval world - this time focusing on the social, cultural and religious context of the English middle ages in which Robin Hood was born. But here, Robin of Loxley is a teenage druidic forest king and Maid Marion is his big sister - and he falls in love with Gamelyn Boundys, youngest son of the local Frankish nobleman. The old, pre-Christian ways have not died out in this part of England, but the increasingly shrill and paranoid Christian hierarchy has got them in their sights. Pagan and Christian, peasant and noble, bowman and swordsman. A strange fate seems to hover over Rob and Gamelyn, although whether love or death will win is in shadow.
Henning is great with language, and the various little linguistic anachronisms that find their way into this complex, gripping text are easily shrugged off (did they have rubbish tips in the 1100s?). What's better, all of the secondary characters are ably drawn and come to life on the page, offering the reader a rich character study from a time as alien as another world.
The reason I did not give this five stars is that no book this long and this involving should end in a cliff-hanger. The highly emotional finale seemed rushed, and, in my opinion, should not have ended where it did. The events were foreshadowed, but there was no need to trick us into reading a sequel by leaving us gasping on the last page. Really, we would have bought the second book, "Shirewode," anyway.
Update: as I'm 20% into "Shirewode," I have softened my stance a wee bit - entranced by Henning's gifted story telling. These two books should have been sold as a pair - a two volume set. Not as if they were stand alones... - but that would of course deter the sometimes cheapskate (or budget minded) readers of m/m fiction, and deny the author her due. Seen as a pair, the abrupt ending of "Greenwode" is simply "Intermission" (a term used in French, entre'acte, throughout the book, by the way). If it was bad as an ending to a lone volume, it was fine as the ending of a first volume. Does any of this literary nitpicking make sense?
Plus (spoilers here for those who haven't read "Greenwode") I am knotted up with anxiety over the radical transformation of the lives of our triad of brother/sister/lover in "Shirewode." The novice, the knight and the outlaw - I know bringing them together is the whole point of the book, but it is torture. Torture.
Yes, I thought of these as two parts to a whole, like the White Hell books. Although there were 8 months between these (if you read the first when published) whereas Ginn Hale only made us wait one month.The changes to our beloved trio are quite shocking in book 2. I still think about a bone-chilling moment involving Guy and a child. Never been so tense while reading a book in my life.
The first book is a voyage from peace and innocence to violence and darkness...I hope the second book is the way back. Somehow. But the history is fascinating...I stood on Mount Carmel in Jaifa back in October, and looked out across the sea to Acre, where the Templars were stationed during the crusades - and not allowed into Jerusalem.
You really have to read this book in tandem with its precursor, "Greenwode." Hennig has created a remarkable, vivid and believable recasting of the Robin Hood legend, focusing on the emotional, spiritual and cultural underpinnings of the legend as much as on the complex and sometimes gory action of the tale. Having scanned the other reviews - this is not a "gay romance" in that it is not all about Rob and Gamelyn's star-crossed romance. It is not sweetness and light, nor is it adolescent angst that is cured by heartfelt conversation and passionate lovemaking. But the entire two-volume narrative is entirely focused on the nature of these two young men's relationship, and on building that relationship so that it seems to be not just plausible but entirely necessary to the creation of the Robin Hood mythology. Possibly Hennig's most important and interesting contribution to the Robin Hood literature is the carefully crafted and beautifully written analysis of the religious context in which this 12th-century story unfolds. Ultimately Rob and Gamelyn's story is one of class and ethnicity and religious belief.
For me, the fact that the core story is about two men struggling to love each other was the reason I bothered to buy the book. But the fact that Hennig has taken that core premise and woven a magical literary tapestry around it is what made it worth reading.
Gah! Just recommended these books to someone which prompted me to check up on the author & saw this blog post about a book 3!! http://musings.jtulloshennig.net/2014...
Also, for anyone who bought the kindle books, the audio books are only $1.99 each.
Jax wrote: "Gah! Just recommended these books to someone which prompted me to check up on the author & saw this blog post about a book 3!! "Eeeeeek! I cannot wait Jax - thanks for spotting the upcoming release in 2015.
Wow. Good to know. Where will the story go now?!
Here's an updated link regarding book 3, Winterwode.http://www.jtulloshennig.net/Winterwo...
Provided the narrator is good, I plan to revisit the first two books beforehand by listening to the Audible editions. They have a combined length of 38 hrs!
Jax wrote: "Here's an updated link regarding book 3, Winterwode.http://www.jtulloshennig.net/Winterwo...
Provided the narrator is good, I plan to revisit the first two books beforehand by listening t..."
I just had a listen to the sample for "Shirewode" on the author's web-site ... not sure. Gamelyn and Rob are still pretty young, and the narrator's voice is old and gruff. What do you think of that sample?
http://www.jtulloshennig.net/Shirewod...
I see what you mean, but it's hard to tell if it will bother me from such a short sample. And that is the gruffer Guy as opposed to the gentler Gamelyn. I listened to the Greenwode sample and that seemed a little younger, though not as young as they actually are. But then, I don't think I pictured them as young as they actually are while I was reading either.
Anyway, I was willing to take a chance on them since I got them when they were only $1.99. We'll see how it goes. Probably won't start 'til mid summer though, so the story will be fresh in my mind for book 3.
Jax wrote: "I see what you mean, but it's hard to tell if it will bother me from such a short sample. And that is the gruffer Guy as opposed to the gentler Gamelyn. I listened to the Greenwode sample and tha..."
Yes, I don't imagine them being as young as they're supposed to be either.
You were lucky to get them at $1.99 each! Sounds like a lot of listening ahead. :)
Aussie54: Just to update, I'm now almost halfway through the audiobook of Greenwode (just listening in dribs and drabs when I do housework) and I'm really loving the narrator. I haven't listened to a lot of audiobooks but he's one of the best I've heard. They are showing as $1.99 at Audible right now. Is it different for you because you're in Australia?
I can't wait for Winterwode!
Jax wrote: "Aussie54: Just to update, I'm now almost halfway through the audiobook of Greenwode (just listening in dribs and drabs when I do housework) and I'm really loving the narrator. I haven't listened to..."Yes, it is different, Greenwode's showing up as $AU26.94. That's on Audible.com.au. But it's still showing as $24.95 on the US site. :(
Jax, did you buy the books too? That might be the reason it shows for $1.99 to you.
Yes, I wondered about that too. I do have the kindle books. That's a really big discount, if that's the reason. It would be almost a third of the price to buy the kindle + discounted audio book. Worth it, even if you already have the books.
I cannot wait for Winterwode does anyone know what month the book comes out?
Abi wrote: "I cannot wait for Winterwode does anyone know what month the book comes out?"Her website states 'autumn 2015" so I'm anticipating sometime in the next four months.
brilliant Thank you I need more Robyn and Gamelyn in my life ;)
WinterwodeBy J. Tullos Hennig
Five stars
I bought this book because I assumed it was the terminal volume of a trilogy; but apparently it is the beginning of a trilogy. I gave the first two books of this series..Shirewode and Greenwode…four stars, possibly because of the turmoil they put me through. As a pair of books, they created a remarkable world, a fantasy based in historical fact and legend, that was captivating and compelling. These are not romances, any more than Ken Follett’s celebrated “Pillars of the Earth” is a romance; but at their center is a love storey of an epic, visceral kind. They are also fascinating studies of life in 12th-century England, a country torn apart by politics and religion. It is Hennig’s attention to detail that give the books an authenticity that is riveting.
“Winterwode” is the third of the “Wode” series, but the first of a new trilogy by J. Tullos Hennig. If “Greenwode” offered some needed closure, to make up for the appalling cliff-hanger of “Shirewode,” this book walks us back up another cliff—but doesn’t really make us jump off. Some of us might have liked to leave well enough alone—but then again, England in the 1100s was hardly a place of peaceful life and uninterrupted happy endings. I raised my rating for book three to five stars, because I cannot get over what a tour-de-force Henning has created.
It all begins with our little family of thieves settling into something like routine life. But there is Marian, the avatar of the Lady, goddess of the Wode. She has no man and chafes at the role of caregiver to this band of men that she’s taken on. She eyes the golden-red hair of Gamelyn, and can’t help but feel a bit envious of his relationship with her brother. For his part, Gamelyn is still haunted by his training as a Knight Templar, and by the vows he took for his order. Only his Templar servant, Much, ties him to a past he doesn’t really want to forget. Both Robin and Marian are frustrated that Gamelyn can’t quite give himself up to the Wode, to embrace the magic within and become fully part of their world.
And then an elegantly dressed troubadour appears in the woods. What a first seems to be another easy mark for the Thieves of Sherwood to relieve of his coin, soon turns into something far more politically fraught and dangerous.
Most interesting of all is the guest star of this story, an extended cameo by Eleanor of Aquitaine, mother of the imprisoned Richard Lionheart and his nasty brother John. Both Eleanor and Hubert, master of the fortress-monastery where Gamelyn was trained, play crucial, if circumscribed roles in “Winterwode.”
Representatives of the greatest geopolitical power of the day, these two nonetheless act as bridges between the world of the Wode and the world at large. They are the enemy, and yet not. They are reminders that Good and Evil are rarely simply defined. Eleanor, in particular, is a counterpoint to Marian, and their shared womanhood forms an important thread in the book’s plot.
Hennig’s Wode series takes some care in the reading. Her language is studied and complex, mostly to deliver a palpable sense of the medieval world in which it is set. Equally studied is the contemporary feel that much of the dialogue between the main family of characters has; we understand Marian, Robyn, Gamelyn, and their cohort as young people, divided by class and training, but united in their ties to the Wode and its magic. For all the carefully crafted archaism of the language, we can identify with these three.
The absence of any kind of cliffhanger at the end of “Winterwode” is misleading, because we end with an anxious sense of unfinished business. In “Winterwode” Robyn, Marian and Gamelyn begin to understand themselves and each other as they will be together. At the same time, they also gain clarity about what inevitably lies ahead. Hennig manages to leave us calm and satisfied, while not letting us forget that, in the wild magic world of Shire Wode, there is no such thing as calm for long.
I think this incarnation of the Alan a Dale character is much more complex (and slightly more sinister) than what I remember from my reading of the Robin Hood stories ... 
PaperMoon wrote: "I think this incarnation of the Alan a Dale character is much more complex (and slightly more sinister) than what I remember from my reading of the Robin Hood stories ... Alandel! Why of course.
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Greenwode (other topics)Shirewode (other topics)
Coming from a M/M angle, Rob's intended love interest is not the maid Marian (Marion plays a different role/purpose in this re-visioned tale though) but rather a characters taken from one of Chaucer's tales - Gamelyn Boundys. Consequently, a few characters and storylines are adapted from "The Tale of Gamelyn" by Tullos Hennig in this series.
The world creating is amazing, the olde celtic rites, divine entities and their interventions into the thoughts, dreams and lives of those who believe in them, the conflict between the old and new political and pagan religious belief systems in 12th century England ... fabulously done. My attention was captured from the first chapters and I could not stop at the end of book one, immediately purchasing the sequel Shirewode and reading through it all in less than a day.
All through the two books, I kept having little "aha" moments when yet another Robin-character clicked into place ... e.g. oh so that is Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck, Little John etc... the author makes no false move with the character development nor the plot progression. Descriptions of violence, killing, gore and death are not avoided, but thankfully, not graphically over-indulgent to my sometimes squeamish sensibilities. The M-M romance, the dance of attraction, the sex (when it finally does happen) ... were nicely paced and satisfying.
Book two in the series concludes well but definitely leaves the way open for the next title in the series ... I soooo want to know what happens next to our MCs Rob and Gamelyn as well as several of the secondary characters (Marion, Will, John, Much, the Sheriff of Nottingham, King John the usurper etc). Note to author: please don't keep us fans waiting too long for book three.
I highly recommend this 5-star rated series.