Book review: Holy Warrior by Angus Donald

Holy Warrior (The Outlaw Chronicles, #2)Holy Warrior by Angus Donald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Outlaw Chronicles series (starring Robin Hood and narrated by Alan Dale) is gritty historical fiction at its best. At the end of the first book, Robin Hood makes a vow to go on crusade and help retake Jerusalem. In this book (the second of the series), Alan Dale accompanies Robin and discovers that a holy crusade is not all that it’s cracked up to be. War is war, no matter how pure the goal is, and it is violent and bloody and miserable. Not to mention that petty jealousies and feuds are exacerbated by too many monarchs and nobles in too close of quarters. To add to the complexities, there is Robin in all of his moral ambivalence. And to further layer on an already complicated situation, there is Nur, the beautiful slave girl, who loves Alan and is loved by him.
Alan is defined by his loyalty to Robin, but even his loyalty is tested through the political calculations and shifting alliances of the Crusade. There are no unflawed heroes in this book–each character has his or her own idiosyncrasies and secrets that define that character’s choices. There may not be a character in this book that you can like without reservation, but they are all memorable, and you will find yourself thinking about each and every one of them long after you finish the last page.

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Book review: Outlaw by Angus Donald

Outlaw (The Outlaw Chronicles, #1)Outlaw by Angus Donald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A good friend recommended this book to me, since I am also a huge fan of Sharon Kay Penman’s and Bernard Cornwell’s books. I won’t admit this to my friend, but he was spot on with his recommendation. 🙂 “Outlaw” is the story of Robin Hood told from the viewpoint of Alan a Dale. The story is told very much in the Cornwell style–gritty, violent, and occasionally very gory. But Angus Donald’s writing is more well-rounded than Cornwell’s. The characters are better fleshed out, and the pacing is even stronger. Robin is a flawed but heroic character, with strengths and weaknesses that are well developed. The historical setting is full of accurate period details and are effortlessly incorporated into the story. You never feel like you’re in the middle of a history lecture. The violence is realistic but never gratuitous or sensationally gory.
The biggest weakness of the book is the character development of the secondary figures–a skill that I think male writers of historical fiction often lack. But the story is so compelling and the details so vivid that I happily forgive the author for this one fault and eagerly look forward to the next volume of Robin Hood’s adventures!

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