The Wolf and the Raven
The Wolf and the Raven is the second instalment of Steven A. McKay’s series about Robin Hood. It is set in Barnsdale Forest in Yorkshire, rather than Sherwood, and a century later than the usual stories, so although there is no Bad King John, Edward II provides a suitably malevolent alternative.
Robin is a young man and leads a group of outlaws who have all fallen on hard times and see outlawry as the only option, rather than making it a life choice. They struggle to survive and are haunted by demons of the past. They have fought for the Earl of Lancaster in his rebellion against his cousin the king, and are now not just fleeing from the Sheriff of Nottingham, but the king himself.
It is a well-constructed story. We follow Robin’s activities and those of another character, a Hospitaller knight and his sergeant-at-arms, Stephen, whose story intertwines with that of Robin’s. It keeps you guessing as McKay likes to give his characters big holes to climb out of, sometimes literally, and the ending is never quite sure as he is not afraid to dispose of some of his well known and well loved personalities.
Criticisms of McKay’s style are that he does mix his language; contemporary fights with ‘old-fashioned’ and it grates at times (the Sheriff of Nottingham holding a ‘party’ and everyone having ‘mates’ being two major examples), and the author needs to vary his adjectives more, the word ‘young’ is rather over-used. An extra thorough and professional edit would not go amiss. The formatting slips every now and then, the font size changing for no good reason, which should have been corrected at proof stage (and very nearly resulted in a reject by HNS as we take presentation into consideration). There is also heavy ‘cover-curl’: a different weight of paper would be advisable.
This is an exciting story and it adds another dimension to the legend of Robin Hood. It is a page-turner, even being book two of the adventure it is an adequate ‘stand alone’ and sets up the next instalment very well. Just a great pity about that poor formatting and lack of editing.
