Customer Reviews

Lady of the Forest

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

All right, I admit it- I grew up loving the conventional stories everyone hears about Robin Hood. I even rank the Disney animated movie among my favorites. I had no idea which direction this book would take with the legend when I bought it, but I am glad I took the chance on this book. What I liked about this book is that it made the story of Robin Hood and Marian more *real* than the stories I remember from childhood. Robin is scarred emotionally as well as physically by his involvement in the Crusades- he has seen more than a person deserves, and he pays the price for that in this book. Marian struggles with running her deceased father's estate while trying to maintain the sense of decorum and propriety of the day and to fend off the warped affections of Nottingham's weasely sheriff. The story is engrossing and intriguing and thoroughly enjoyable. This is the first book I've read by Ms. Roberson and I look forward to reading the sequel to this story.

How to explain my feelings about _Lady of the Forest_? A romantic historical novel about Maid Marian and Robin Hood, it was an enjoyable escape and post-work-stress-reliever for a couple of weeks. I did enjoy it. Unfortunately, when I shut the back cover, I realized I had just read a six-hundred page book containing almost no surprises.

Marion Zimmer Bradley, author of the stellar _Mists of Avalon_, gushes about this book in the cover blurb, and so I was hoping for a novel that would make me rethink the Robin Hood legends, just as Mists made me look at the Arthurian corpus differently. Part of what made Mists fascinating was that it took an old tale and reexamined it, humanizing the "bad guys" and telling another side of the story. Mists questioned all of our assumptions about Arthur and Morgan. _Lady of Sherwood_ questions nothing, challenges nothing. The characters are just what we expect them to be... It doesn't rethink the legend any more than does Disney's kids' movie on the same theme. It may be a nice romance, but it's not in the same league as the best historical fiction. If you want a romance, you might like this, but for a haunting tale of mysterious forests and renegade Crusaders, go read _The Black Chalice_ by Marie Jakober.

_Lady of the Forest_ is a lovely retelling of the Robin Hood legend, mostly from Marian FitzWalter's point of view. I don't normally enjoy the endless retellings of the Arthurian and Robin Hood legends, but I will definitely make an exception for this book. Robin is haunted and wounded from his service in the Crusades, and Marian is a very believable and likeable heroine. The love story is beautiful, the supporting characters are wonderful, and I didn't want this book to end.

I liked both this book and the sequel, "Lady of Sherwood". I read both when they first came out and have recently re-read them and still enjoyed them. Marian is believable as the docile woman of the times growing into something more, and realizing that if she can stand to pay the consequences, she can be who she wishes to be rather than who she is expected to be. What more could one ask for? Robin is convincing as a sensitive man traumatized by war. I do wish some of his history could have been more fully realized. We are only allowed disjointed glances that don't really convey the depth or development of his friendship with King Richard, or the alien-ness of being a captive of the Saracens. They are experiences that have apparently changed him profoundly in some respects, but we are unfortunately not allowed to share them with him. One thing Ms Robinson does - more in the first book than the second - that drives me nuts is that she doesn't write in "scenes". She will, for example, have Robin confronting the Earl at the same time Marian is confronting the Sheriff and skips back and forth between the two confrontations as if trying to convey "real time" actions, instead of letting first one confrontation occur and build to a conclusion, and then switching to the other and letting that one do the same. This makes for very disjointed writing, and if you have to put the book down, you lose the tension of the situation and it's hard to keep track of who is doing what. It makes me want to grab the scissors and "cut and paste" the book into the proper order! Also, in every major fight in the first book, Robin loses. Little John beats him at the log bridge, Marian has to step in against the Sheriff...how did this guy ever survive the Crusade if he's that inept of a fighter? Thank goodness he won at archery! The book is also decribed as taking place in early spring (Richard finally came back to England in March of 1194), but she describes Sherwood Forest as dark, green, and leafy. I don't think a hardwood forest in England in March is any of those things, even if it is the primeval Sherwood. Those things aside, it's a good retelling, and far more believable than the obviously heroic, always clean portrayal of the 1938 movie (although I adore that movie), the sterilized belligerance and brutality of the original tales, or the more often lame than not "Prince of Thieves".

This is a really captivating novel based upon the Robin Hood legend. While I anticipated the usual blend of intrigue, chivalry, adventure, and courtly romance, I wasn't prepared for the emotional force of this book. Roberson draws out the complex psychological conflicts experienced by people in vastly different circumstances. Her compassion for their trials and tribulations enables us to see some good in just about everyone, from the murderer, William Scarlet, to the Sheriff of Nottingham. Prince John is the only one who appears to have no redeeming quality, but that allows us the satisfaction of disliking him thoroughly.

For someone like me who has always loved the Robin Hood stories, this one told from the point of view of Marian was a no-brainer. I had never read a Robin Hood tale told from the female perspective before and I really enjoyed it. I think the author's writing is fluid, enjoyable and engrossing. Some other reviewers have complained about the lack of surprises but, when a story has been retold this many times, what surprises could there be? I especially liked that the heroine in this book is gutsy and proactive but not in a too anachronistic way.
One sour note: what is with the cover? It makes it look like a cheap (trashy?) trade romance, which it isn't. This story is much meatier than that.

I was not a fan of Jennifer Roberson before this book came out.
Her Tiger and Del series started well and then became to much of a men vs. women bicker-fest and I never finished the series.
The Chesulyi books drove me crazy with their sloppy characterization and unsympathetic protagonists.
This book however is a rare gem of history, fantsy and strong characters.
Marion is a wonderfully crafted heroine her strength and intelligence is inspiring. Robin and the other male charaters are not the negative stereotypes she has written before. The descriptions of Sherwood are excellent you can truly see the places and people of this story. And this book is missing the negative men vs. women debate that turned me off of the Tiger and Del series.
I enjoyed it from begining to end. This book also has a sequal which I have yet to read but it is on my list of must reads. I hope it is as enjoyable for me as this one was.

Finally, a Robin Hood tale truly written for adults! This book was thoroughly enjoyable in my humble opinion. Jennifer Roberson outdid herself in developing her characters and staying true to their natures throughout the entire tumultuous ride of this book. Every action, nuance, and suggestion is imperative to better understanding the psychology of the main players; the depth of Robin and Marian's need for one another, the political contest between the Locksley house and Nottingham, and the jovial (yet sad) background of the famous Merry Men is beautifully portrayed.

I loved this, will read it again, and hope others will find it as interesting and full of depth as I did.

Happy reading!

This was a very good book. The only reason that I didn't give it five stars was because I didn't really "fall in love" with the characters. I love books that give a new perspective on a story, especially if it is from a woman's point of view, and in this case Roberson does an excellent job. Very well researched and pieced together.

First off, WTH is the publisher thinking re-releasing this book with a Fabio type of cover? Any sex that happens in this book is left wholly to the reader's imagination - this is not a bodice ripping romance. That said, in retelling the standard Robin Hood story, the author took an interesting tact and cast him as tortured from his experiences in the violence of the Crusades, sort of a medieval post traumatic stress disorder. Of course, sparks fly when he meets Marian, who the most evil Sheriff of Nottingham also desires.

No big surprises, and the usual suspects and characters as we're used to in the Robin Hood legends. I have to agree with a couple of other reviewers who found the author's constantly changing viewpoints in every chapter distracting, as it did affect the flow of the story line. I also agree with another reviewer who found Marian having to constantly pick up her kirtle when they were walking through the forest and Robin's always raising his loquacious eyebrows got to be a bit old after a while. Where was the editor? And what was with a knight who served alongside Richard The Lionheart doing having to have Marion jump in and save him again and again? Also, the darker tone the author took with Robin's experiences in the Crusades affected his way with the "merry men" who weren't quite as merry as you see in other versions of this legend.

All in all with those minor quibbles aside an entertaining, interesting read. I had a hard time putting it down until the end, but not one I'll keep on my bookshelf to read again and again, nor is it a book that will stick with me long after I've returned it to the library. Side note, a very entertaining trilogy loosely based on the Robin Hood legends by Marsha Canham is worth looking into. Although much more romance oriented, the author's tongue is firmly planted in her cheek throughout the series and is great fun. Through a Dark Mist, In the Shadow of Midnight and The Last Arrow.