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.