A review by susanlmarkloff
Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead

4.0

I think this book had a lot more potential than I actually give it credit for. Problem was, I kept getting caught up in a million tiny things. While I really liked that Lawhead gave us a very feasible explanation for the beginning of the Robin Hood legend, I couldn't help but trip on a multitude of things. It wasn't his descriptions or characters or development or anything like that. I thought all of that was done wonderfully well. My problem was that he introduced characters with very old names ("Iwan" for example) and then would have them renamed "Tuck" or "John" (to 'hint' at where they fall in the legend). Fine and dandy. The problem was that literally on one page, it would be Athelfrith, and the next page it would be Tuck. Now, I kept up. But I know some readers who would stumble and fall over and over again at that. I know others still who would give up on the book just by seeing that. It doesn't mean it was bad to give the characters time-period names. Merely that he should have chosen one name and stuck with it. The only other thing that bothered me was some of the names and having no clue how to pronounce them. It's like what Orsen Scott Card said in his book "Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy" - if the reader can't sound out the name, it just becomes this image in our head and no longer is it a name for a character. You get to that word and you go, "Oh, it's the I guy. Got it." This doesn't have to be a problem - just give me a pronunciation guide please. Otherwise, a really good read. Looking forward to when I have time to read the rest.