Review - Hood - 9/10

Steven R. Lawhead starts his new trilogy based on the legendary stories of Robin Hood.  There is twist thrown in this trilogy and that is that this Robin hood is not based on the old and tired Robin Hood of the Sherwood Forest. No, this Robin Hood story takes place a few hundred years earlier during the time of the conquest of Normans.

Bran ap Brychanis is the son of a king of a small province in Whales and he and his kingly father do not get along at all.  As a matter of fact the story starts out with the father berating his son for his usual lack of promptness.

When Bran's father is brutally murdered by the Normans while he was on his way to pay tribute to them, Bran is forced to flee his land and escape the Normans who are pursuing him.  He narrowly escapes with his life and ends up collapsing from is severe flesh wounds and starvation in a mysterious forest.

A strange elderly woman stumbles across Bran's body and she decides to nurse him back to health.  It is the introduction of this odd relationship between Bran and this elderly lady in which Bran transforms himself into Hood.  This woman is some sort of wise sage who councils and at times argues with Bran and convinces him to defend his kingdom.  She sort of reminds me of Yoda.

This book is great read and is up to level of Lawhead's other books.  My only complaint is at the end the story just stops leaving a lot of questions unanswered.  But that is small potatoes.