How well do you know the story of Robin Hood? To be honest, I really didn’t know the story well before reading Nottingham by Nathan Makaryk. Of course, this is just one interpretation of the tale (and I’m pretty sure the legend’s traditional ending is a little different) but after reading the story, I feel like I know Robin Hood a little better.
I recently read this book after receiving an Advanced Reader Copy (thank you Bookish first and Tor Books). Overall, I enjoyed the book, although the ending wasn’t really my thing.
In Nottingham, Robin is the son of a nobleman who went off to fight the crusades. They’re having difficulty arming the soldiers, and when a shipment of weapons doesn’t show up, King Richard sends them back to England to investigate. They find out what happened to the weapons, but in the process, are drawn into the really ugly (and bloody) feud between the nobility and peasants, both of whom are suffering from the burdensome taxes.
The Rent is Too Damn High!
It seems that Jimmy McMillan (the guy pictured above and founder of the Rent is Too Damn High party) brought up a timeless truth: the rent is too damn high! People feel that today (I recently saw an article about people paying $1200 a month to rent a bunk bed), and they felt that way in the 12th century. The legend of Robin Hood came from a time when historically, the ordinary people were having a really difficult time making ends meet. Nottingham captures that feeling quite well, and really doesn’t put the blame on anyone. Everybody is the hero of their own story, and this book gives even the “villains” reasons for their actions.
That doesn’t mean I liked all the characters. I despised some of them (as people, they weren’t supposed to be likeable). Even the unlikeable characters here had good motivations for doing what they did.
This story has a lot of parallels to our own time (beyond the rent being too damn high). As someone who has friends whose political opinions range from very conservative to very liberal, I know that most people want to do the right thing. Most people aren’t the bad people the other side makes them out to be. They just have fundamental differences in worldviews that make it hard to agree on the solution. This happens all throughout this story as well. There are good people and villains on both the Robin Hood side of the story, as well as the Sheriff’s side of the story.
Writing
The descriptions in Nottingham were well-done. Sometimes authors have difficulty with fight scenes, but I think Mr. Makaryk did a good job with those. I ended up writing a page and a half of quotes from this book into my book journal.
While I enjoyed the writing, this book may or may not be a little on the long side, depending on your mood. There are a lot of different points of view in this book. Each character had their own unique voice, but with so many different characters, there’s a lot of story here. Don’t let the fact that this book is only shortly over 490 pages fool you: the type is fairly small, so the word count is a lot higher than most books of this length. Read this book when you’re looking more for a Game of Thrones style read than something you can quickly devour during a day or two at the beach.
The End and Last Thoughts
The end was really the one thing I can say I didn’t like about this book. I don’t really want to give away spoilers, but this not a book that ends well (that is, happily). There were good guys and bad guys on both sides of the struggle here, and there could have been multiple ways for Nottingham to come to a satisfying conclusion, but it didn’t really do that. Throughout the book, it seemed like some of the problems were insurmountable, and evidently, they were (at least for the immediate future).
Although I wouldn’t recommend this story if you’re in the mood for a happily-ever-after, if you’re looking for a story with complex characters, a lot of struggle, and an intricate world, you might want to check out Nottingham. It doesn’t go on sale until August 6th, but you can pre-order it now.