Interesting New Robin Hood Novel Puts The Legend and Its Traditional Chracters On Unfamiliar Ground

As its bold title suggests, “King Robin”, the new novel by R.A. Moss, presents a surprisingly fresh approach to the traditional Robin Hood story.  The author has really “shaken-up-the-bag” by taking familiar elements and characters from the popular tale and weaving them into a fast-moving, contemporary narrative that quickly captures the reader’s attention.

Using comparatively short chapters, the tale unfolds like a film story-board, making it a real page-turner. It’s a style that could easily adapt into a script for an historical drama in the vein of the popular “Game of Thrones” saga, which probably explains why the book has already generated interest in its cinematic rights potential.

The timeless Robin Hood legend is well known for its appealing mix of action, adventure, social justice and romance and this hard-hitting interpretation has all this and more. Often violent, brutal and sometimes racy and explicit; the thrilling twists and turns in the tale sustain the story telling momentum and carry the narrative along at a crisp pace. But it soon becomes apparent that the plot has evolved into being more about the burdens of monarchy and the power of treachery and corruption - together with the harsh responsibilities of trying to juggle well-meaning principles with the difficulties of reality. Taking Robin Hood down such a controversial road, may, for some academic purists and folk hero fans, be a step too far!

 The Robin Hood legend is a strange phenomenon - as there is no undisputed historical evidence to prove the iconic outlaw actually ever existed, let alone who he really might have been. Consequently, over the centuries, the globally-loved folk hero has turned fiction into fact and the 800 year-old traditional tale and the expected roles of its key characters are indelibly stamped into the Robin Hood legend like its DNA!  Messing with its genes can be catastrophic and history is littered with the corpses of movies, books, poetry and endless academic theories speculating on just who might have been the “real” Robin Hood?

 “King Robin” is a bold venture indeed but also one that, despite its controversial direction, still stands up as an entertaining and well-written novel. So readers should also be brave and be prepared to give R.A. Moss a chance to show his fictional Robin Hood in a fascinating and thought-provoking new light.

Bob White – Chairman of the internet-based World Wide Robin Hood Society (2021)

“King Robin”:  a novel  by R.A. Moss,  (ISBN 978-0-9972644-8-7), is published by Beck and Branch Publishers, Putney.