Author: Carrie Vaughn
Series: The Robin Hood Stories #1
Publisher: Tor.com
Released: June 9^th, 2020
Received: NetGalley
Rating:

I received a copy of The Ghosts of Sherwood in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Carrie Vaughn is at it again, with a brand new series! The Robin Hood Stories kicks off with The Ghosts of Sherwood, and it is everything that fans of the classic tales would love. Especially if they wanted to know where the story continued, that is.

Twenty years after the events in Robin Hood, the infamous Robin, and Maid Marian have run off and married one another. This is not their story, not quite. It’s the story of their children, and the rest of the Locksley Children. As one might imagine, they have an inherited talent for getting into all sorts of trouble.

“The ghost of the forest had spoken to her before, always like this, creeping out of nowhere as if he’d been spying on her.”

The Ghosts of Sherwood is a brilliant fantasy novella worth diving into. As a fan of Carrie Vaughn’s writing style, I pretty much knew that before I started. But I was still blown away by what I found within these pages.

Before I really dig into my review, I do want to preface this. Lately, I’ve been getting a bit tired of all the retellings out there (I blame the twenty retellings that have appeared in the last year focused on King Arthur). So part of me was hesitant to give this a go. Having read this novella, I don’t regret giving it the time. Still, I know I’m probably not the only one that felt that hesitation, so I thought it worth bringing up.

There’s a lot to love in this relatively short story. Actually, the fact that it was a fun and quick read is something I’m considering a positive. It was perfect for a nice break, and I easily devoured it in one sitting.

I love the idea of following Robin and Marian’s children, it isn’t something that I’ve personally seen, and was overall a lot of fun. Especially when the rest of the elements are thrown into the mix – elements that made it feel a bit more like a fantasy.

On that note, I freaken love the title of this novella, The Ghosts of Sherwood. It’s beautiful and eerie all in one, and could easily imply several different sorts of stories. I might be biased here, but I enjoyed the particular path that was chosen here.

Bonus: Robin and Marian are still a part of this story, just not the focal point. As such, we get a chance to see what their later lives looked like. At least, how they look in the mind of Carrie Vaughn.

All things considered, I enjoyed this quick and fun read. It was surprisingly full of details and depth, and that made the journey all the more interesting. Best of all, there’s a sequel (The Heirs of Locksley), which I’m going to sit down and read next.