The Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle
5 April 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Howard Pyle, Once Upon a Time, Stainless Steel Droppings, The Adventures of Robin Hood
Just finished reading the Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle. I read this as my folklore entry for Stainless Steel Droppings Once Upon a Time event.
I don’t imagine Robin Hood needs much introduction. Most people will be familiar with him through film. Living in Sherwood Forest and robbing from the rich to give to the poor. A much loved folklore figure with his band of merry men. Apparently Robin Hood became a popular folk figure during mediaeval times and may have actually sprung up from ballads and tales of real outlaws.
Anyway I went into this with much nostalgia as my gran used to tell us stories of Robin Hood when we were children. She never used a book she just told us the stories from memory and she was an excellent story teller so I had fairly high expectations! I also visited Nottingham Forest as a child with my family and we have a picture of us all with the Major Oak.
I don’t imagine I need to elaborate on the plot. The story brings to us the usual characters that Robin encountered or recruited along the way. Will Scarlet and Little John in particular – although if you’re expecting any of the Maid Marion love story you may be disappointed as she plays a very minor role (more a thought really) I suppose this probably started out more as a tale for boys – although don’t take my word for that as it’s just pure supposition. I did find it quite novel to read of how Robin Hood became an outlaw as I don’t think I’d understood that aspect before. According to this particular story Robin killed a man during an argument and a wager gone wrong. In fairness to Robin the other man shot an arrow at him first so you could argue this was self defence but after that (and also after having killed the King’s deer) he was an outlaw with a bounty upon his head. According to the stories he deeply regretted killing that man and had no taste for bloodshed. His death is also written about here and the legend of how he shot his bow and arrow one last time to mark his final resting place – a sad ending and betrayed by somebody who you would least expect.
I enjoyed reading this, it brought back childhood memories and also I confess that throughout I was thinking of the Disney film and the songs in particular! I wouldn’t say I loved it, although it’s an entertaining read without doubt, but I thought that the writing style, particularly the dialogue in places, is a little difficult to unpick. For example:
‘This same Robin Hood, of whom, I wot, I never heard before, is a right merry blade, but gin he be strong, am not I stronger? And gin he be sly, am not I slyer? Now by the bright eyes of Nan ‘o the Mill, and by mine own name and that’s Wat ‘o the Crabstaff, meet this same sturdy rogue, and gin he mind not the seal of our glorious Sovereign, King Harry, and the warrant of the good Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, I will so bruise, beat and bamaul his pate that he shall never move finger or toe again! Hear ye that, bully boys?”
I certainly didn’t dislike it however and it’s made me think about trying to find a more modern retelling of the stories. If anyone has any suggestions then let me know.
On the whole this was a lovely reading experience although I recognise this particular classical version may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
‘April hath put a spirit of youth in everything’ – William Shakespeare
21 March 2014
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Once Upon a Time, Stainless Steel Droppings
How very appropriate. Okay, maybe it’s not quite April but Spring is upon us and the sentiment remains. Once Upon A Time is here again! Dust off your fairy wings, throw open your hobbit holes and sprinkle a little magic into your reading.
Every year at this time Stainless Steel Droppings hosts his Once Upon a Time challenge. Now, don’t be put off by the word challenge, this event is all about the fun and the word really remains in there purely on a historical basis (yes, historical because this event is well old – 8 years – and is enormously popular!). What makes this event so very excellent – well, it focuses on my main book loves: Fairy Tale, Folklore, Fantasy and Mythology! How could you resist such sweet charms? More to the point – how can you resist coming up with any number of twisted explanations as to how you snuck that Grimdark in amongst your reads (hey, it’s fantasy, right?)?
I’ve been saving my precioussss books just for this. I has plenty stashed to one side – but, you don’t have to read plenty – one only! One book – come on – I challenge you to read that one book and enter this event. I double dare you. Last one to enter is a rotten egg!
‘The time has come, my little friends, to talk of other things / Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings / And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings / Calloo, Callay, come run away / With the cabbages and kings.’ (Lewis Carroll – you’ve got to love him – have you read his Cheshire Cat song – okay, maybe he wasn’t on drugs when he wrote it but methinks he must have eaten a few mushroom pies!)
Come join the fun.
Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
6 April 2013
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Kate Atkinson, Life After Life, Once Upon a Time
Just finished reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and absolutely loved it. It’s such an unusual story and set during a period of history that was very eventful. The story is based on a middle class family and starts in 1910 moving primarily through both World Wars. I’m not sure how you would describe the premise. Is it one of reincarnation. I’m not sure. For example Ursula is born on a snowy winter’s night and dies before her life begins. That would have been a very short novel. But, no, in the next chapter a different set of circumstances mean that the doctor arrives on time and the baby survives. In fact we have more than one birth and death set in 1910. It is an unusual concept and one that continues through the rest of the novel where we are given a scenario that then changes in the next chapter or next.
This may sound like a confusing way to read a story and I will admit it certainly isn’t a linear novel so if you don’t like jumping back and forth in time this may not be for you. Personally I thought it was brilliant. It was written in KA’s usual fluent style, her characterisation and world building is second to none and her depiction of family life is as usual excellent. I can perfectly picture all the key players and I think she does an amazing job of portraying the events that take place.
As mentioned, the main character is Ursula. Ursula grows up with a strange foreboding or an ability to see into the future – of course this is based on the fact that she has sometimes lived these moments already and usually leads to a very strong feeling within her of deja vu – or in some instances a very pressing need to be in a certain place at a certain time. Unfortunately this strange ability of Ursula leads others and her mother in particular to think of her as slightly odd and as a consequence in need of therapy! It’s difficult to quite pin down whether you love Sylvia or not because you do come to read a number of life stories for her (some quite a bit shorter than others!) and so at first it’s difficult to pin down what exactly is her true character. Having read this though there is a definite ‘true’ story for her – one which won’t become fully evident until the story concludes and one that I found ultimately satisfying.
The other key characters are Izzy, Ursula’s aunt and rather decadent member of the family who dances to her own tune and doesn’t fit in with anyone’s expectations. Sylvie – the rather disenchanted mother born into a family with greater expectations but whose circumstances changed dramatically upon the death of her own father. Hugh, Ursula’s father – who is a lovely warm character that you can’t help loving. Pamela – Sylvie’s sister and down to earth, honest to goodness salt of the earth type. Maurice, older brother, ambitious and brash. Teddy – Sylvie’s favourite and in fact family favourite and Jimmy – who only plays a small role. There are of course plenty of other characters ranging from neighbours to colleagues and not to mention two different husbands for Ursula depending on which life story you’ve read up to!
It certainly is an ambitious novel and includes so many poignant events that it’s something of a feat that the author manages to pull it all together. As I mentioned above we go through WWI and II, the blitz, VE day not to mention travelling through Europe with Ursuala – a tour that culminates with her mixing with the Third Reicht!
Now, even though I did really enjoy this I do have a number of criticisms. Firstly, I think the whole element where Ursula is involved in company with Eva Braun was probably a bit too much of a stretch and I didn’t particularly enjoy that aspect of the story. Also, the other thing that may be a turnoff is the fact that you are constantly becoming attached to a character who may suddenly be taken from you – which can become a bit depressing to say the least! But having said that you do then get to read the alternative storyline or lines which does redress the balance somewhat. The other thing was there were definitely a couple of unanswered strands. I don’t want to say too much about them other than ‘who was the mysterious man who Ursula saw with Sylvie’, and the murderer???? Can’t say more but I wanted answers. I’m sure I’ve just maybe overlooked some clue to both of these though as I raced to the end!
Criticisms over – a great read which I would recommend.
Not sure how to classify this – I’m putting it in to my Once Upon a Time reading event and perhaps somebody else will have a better idea than I have. Maybe falls into myth with the whole idea of rebirth, premonition.
The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson
28 March 2013
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Brandon Sanderson, Once Upon a Time, Stainless Steel Droppings, The Emperor's Soul
Last night I finished reading The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson and I have to say before I write one more word that I loved it. This is only a short novella but wow, such a great story and the character building is excellent. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book and I will without a doubt be reading it again.
Firstly, a brief outline of the story. At the start of the story, Shai is being held prisoner with the threat of imminent execution hanging over her head. She’s a forger- similar to how we understand the concept except using magic Shai carves seals which when stamped onto an object change it’s appearance. It’s based on the concept of everything, every day objects, having a memory and being able to manipulate this to change the appearance of the object. Shai’s captors however have other plans. They offer Shai the opportunity to stay alive. In return however she needs to forge something that seems impossible. The Emperor lies unmoving in his rooms following an attempted assassination and his advisors have an unusual proposition for Shai. They want her to forge a soul. Never attempted before Shai has no idea if this will work and so as to add a little more stress the task must be completed in three months.
Why did I love this story. To be frank I can’t really pin it down. It’s not like there’s an epic story taking place here after all. But I just really enjoyed it and do we always need an epic story? Apparently not. Shai is wonderful to read about. Seeing her take on this task, watching her inner turmoil about whether to attempt to escape or see the task through to eventually becoming overtaken with the overwhelming desire to succeed. The other characters are also easy to imagine, Gaotang particularly was easy to get along with and Zu was absolutely awful, just as he was supposed to be. What I liked about the way Sanderson wrote Zu was the way he stayed true to his character. At the start I had that ‘hello’ feeling – I was assuming that Zu would eventually turn his feelings around from hate to love but he didn’t and I love that Sanderson didn’t fall into that particular cliche.
I think for a short story, clocking in at under two hundred pages, this is so beautifully self contained. It doesn’t feel as though anything is missing. Sometimes when you read a novella like this you feel unsatisfied but that definitely isn’t the case here. Obviously I could have continued to read about Shai because I was enjoying her story so much but as it is this doesn’t feel incomplete, it also doesn’t feel as though it’s been pared down. It’s a perfectly sized package. It’s well written, the world building is simple but effective and the ending is awesome.
In case it’s not obvious already, I did really love this. I’ve probably not given a very articulate review of exactly why but I hope that if you read this, in spite of my incoherent babble, you’ll go ahead and pick it up too.
I’m adding this to my Once Upon a Time event being hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings under the auspices of fantasy. Go and check out the event details here and I hope you can join in with the fun. Happy reading.
Books and travelling with Lynn 
‘Mmmm, the force is strong with this one’
Filed under Book Reviews, General Comments
Tags: Emperor of Thorns, Mark Lawrence, Once Upon a Time, Stainless Steel Droppings
Okay, thought I’d have a quick Sunday Summary.
Firstly, the Once Upon a Time event hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings has come to an end. How quickly did that go and how much fun did we have (personally I really enjoyed myself although my TBR pile looks more unhealthy than ever – *thanks everyone for that * – imminent divorce as husband storms round house looking at huge stacks of books, in other breaking news, dog goes missing for two hours as books topple)! Thanks again to Carl for hosting this – if you missed out on OUaT there’s another event in the Autumn called RIP (Reader’s Imbibing Peril) where we read all sorts of dark and creepy novels, thrillers and ghost stories and worry about things going bump in the night. This year I completed 13 books as part of this event and I think the biggest challenge for me personally was classifying them! I loved visiting others blogs and checking out what they were reading (books listed under challenges).
Now if you’re pining and drumming your fingers now this event is over Carl is about to host a read along of The Dragon’s Path – details here – and a whole load of people have signed up already to take part – it’s not too late though so get your name onto that list! (Looking at a potential start date of 5th July)
I’ve acquired a few more books (any therapists out there at all who enjoy a challenge??): looking forward to The City’s Son by Tom Pollock (Thank you Jenny). And for some strange reason I’ve managed to line myself up with about six library books all at the same time! Why can’t I be more organised.
Lastly, I submitted a rather silly entry for a competition by the author of Prince of Thorns and King of Thorns, Mark Lawrence. These books brought to us the anti-hero that we all love – Jorg. So, lots of people are eagerly anticipating the final novel Emperor of Thrones and are simply gagging to get their little paws on a copy. Allegedly all sorts of bribery, corruption and blackmail is taking place in order to get a copy (actually sounds like part of the plot for the new novel!) but in order not to sink to the aforementioned levels I came up with a cunning plan. Enter the competition and win first prize! It’s so simple it’s practically genius. Okay, my entry is pretty naff but it made me laugh, it’s a bit of a play on words, a shout out to a certain style of fashion and I get to use a pretty well known line from everyone’s favourite sci-fi film – thus creating my very own little sci-fi fantasy fusion film. I’ve entitled this ‘massive spoiler alert for new Emperor of Thorns‘ – of course I’m only kidding – there is no spoiler (or is there…..) Anyway, go easy on me, this is the first time I’ve ever put this sort of thing together and I don’t think Lucas has anything to worry about at this point in my film making career. So keeping in mind it’s just a bit of fun… don’t laugh – or actually do laugh!