Review - Tuck

[wilderthan]

The conclusion to the King Raven trilogy is really no different to the other books of the trilogy. The strong point, for me, the thing I found most interesting, was the new interpretation of how the Robin Hood story came about -- although I felt that the epilogue hammered that in maybe a little too much -- and not much else really grabbed me. Again, the writing is pretty good and once I settled down to read it I sped through Tuck in a couple of hours. If you want something easy to read and you like Robin Hood and you're not terribly threatened by a Welsh Robin, then this is definitely worth picking up. Lawhead's writing doesn't really come alive for me here, but nor is it terribly written. Beyond a couple of lines that made me cringe, anyway.

The story is pretty much the traditional Robin Hood, just a bit embroidered with details about Welsh conflicts, Welsh lords, Welsh places. If Lawhead intended this to be an entirely realistic story he should have departed further from the legends, because the things Robin gets away with are unbelievable. Which is, I suppose, some of the attraction about Robin.

The characters still fall relatively flat for me. I didn't feel any particular grief for the deaths, or gladness for the triumphs -- which is odd, considering that these are my people triumphing! For once. There was something very appealing about seeing the Welsh win the day, but... I much prefer it when books make my heart twinge a little, and I didn't get any of that here.

Still, it's a good conclusion to the trilogy, and I'm glad I read it.