Scarlet (The King Raven, Book 2) | Stephen R. Lawhead

Scarlet (The King Raven, Book 2) | Stephen R. Lawhead | a classic of modern literature

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Scarlet (The King ...

	Scarlet (The King Raven, Book 2) Stephen R. Lawhead Thomas Nelson, 2008 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Better than Book One

I gave Hood a five star rating because I truly enjoyed it. But I liked Scarlet even better. Lawhead does an excellent job creating a character that the reader truly roots for. I think this is because he presented Will Scarlet's point of view in first person. Only a writer as skilled as Lawhead could switch from first person in the main character's voice and third person for the other characters and pull it off.

This book also goes beyond Hood because it effectively showed the oppression the Normans enacted on the Welsh and how they were caught between them and the Britons. But then if I hadn't understood that, I would not have cared for the characters as much as I did. Even the monk recording Will's story becomes a likeable character caught between the outlaws (who are really the outcasts) and the church that aligned itself with whatever power prevailed. (Which makes me eager to read about a religious man who is a rebel in the next book, Tuck!)

I really think Lawhead keeps getting better and better.

Cindy Thomson
Author of Brigid of Ireland

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a classic of modern literature

Lawhead continues his extraordinary retelling of the Robin Hood myth in this latest novel. For this chapter in the trilogy, the story is told from the point of view of Will Scarlet, one of Hood's most notorious of his "merry men." Sitting in a cell awaiting execution, Scarlet orates the story of how he came to be in the service of the infamous outlaw.

Continuing to write from more of a historical perspective instead of solely relying on myth, Lawhead creates a realistic view of the Robin Hood legend that is sure to capture the reader's imagination. Incorporating adventure, romance, fantasy, and even military themes into the story, the author has succeeded in delivering what is sure to be a classic of modern literature.

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Great Sequel

I purchased this book because I liked the first one so much. This one takes awhile to get into, but then also is just as exciting. I would recommend it to anyone.

3.5 stars - thank goodness for the ending

I was excited to start reading the sequel to Hood, until I actually began. For some reason, I really could not get into the story as told by Will Scarlet. I kept thinking that either Bran died or Will is a traitor - neither turned out to be true. The best thing about this book is the ending because it leaves you hanging and waiting till the next installment. I can only hope that it does not disappoint.

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Competent Vehicle, but opportunities missed

After Hood, I had a difficult time getting used to the narrative voice of William Scatlocke. This alone may be what had me torn between rating this with three stars or four. Though I had to admit to myself that by the end of the book I had come to like our character Will quite well, if I don't give this tome a three-star rating, I will have no room in the future to identify the stories I truly, truly enjoyed. (Hood was a four, for me.)

Compared to Hood, which was a fine book, I thought the plot of Scarlet slow-paced. The book begins with Will in prison, scheduled to hang. It is this crisis and it's resolution that, I believe, the author intended to keep the reader on the edge of their seat while the 'main' storyline around Bran's effort to free Elfael from the Ffreinc unfolded. However, if like me, you don't buy the threat of Will's imminent demise, you'll depend on the tale he tells to keep you excited and, as I said, that story takes a long time to warm up. In fact, it's not until some 300 pages into the book until a new plan (the first plan being that which unfolded in Hood) is hatched to free Elfael - freeing Elfael being the primary motivation for all of Bran's band to begin with.

One thing Scarlet does better than Hood is portray for us the true villainy of the Ffreinc. In Hood, yes, they were the bad-guys, but more or less not really more ruthless than the Britons, just on the opposing side. A scene where the Marshall Guy and his men cruelly slaughter a farmer's livelihood, and later where the Sherriff of the March hangs that very same farmer with no mercy (and still later tries to hang three more innocent victims) goes a long way to giving the readers someone to really root _against_. Hoping to see their final comeuppance is a genuine motivator to keep reading.

The story, mainly being told from Will's perspective, gives the author a good chance to show the character of Bran and his band from the outside, but Will as a story-teller is more interested in relating the events that lead up to his situation than in truly delving into the emotional weight of what the folk living in the wood are going through. He addresses their hardship, but never gives you the feeling you're experience the true depths of what it means to be opposing the Ffreinc. Clearly, the lives of people scrabbling to subsist in the middle of an untamed wood should be more perilous than we are allowed to see. And clearly, the stories that must be behind these people who have chosen to live in exile within their own lands must be deeply compelling - we just don't get to learn any of it. I think we as readers lose something here. We get to invest in our hatred for the Ffreinc, but we can only build in sympathy for the Britons indirectly. The final difference is between a story that is a fairly exciting adventure centered on a small group of heroes, and what might have been a deeply emotional, tragic and yet inspiring tale of a people's refusal to be conquered.

Mr. Lawhead's writing is adept. Clearly he knows his craft. He made a strategic choice in how he approached the telling of this tale and my guess is that some will be won by his choice and some lost. I think few will find tremendous fault with it.

Further, this is the middle of a trilogy, and like all middles it has a hard time competing in drama with beginnings and endings. Hood was great, this is good enough to sustain the adventure. How his next book, "Tuck" fares will be the true judge of the success of the series.

At the end of the day, I am comfortable recommending the entirety of Mr. Lawhead's innovative take on the legend of Robin Hood, or, as he would put it, Rhi Bran a Hud

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7

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