Just because it's fun, it doesn't mean it doesn't have a bit of dark thrown in for added weight.
Readers who are familiar with Robin Hood in his many multimedia incarnations will probably be quite surprised to learn both Robin's "origin story" and some of the other tidbits here and there. This means that while it's essentially a group of short stories, there is a continuity for those who appreciate such things. Each chapter is a self-contained event, often with the next chapter building making a callback to the previous ones as a reminder. I've grown up reading this book, and to hear it via Audible is a treat. But as a kid's book, this puts aside the grim and gritty of today's fare and gives the reader something fun and truly wonderful. This is considered a "kid's book." But much like with The Hobbit, it's written so much better than a lot of adult novels today. He infuses his reading with such meaning, humor, and life that listening to this audiobook was a pure pleasure that made me smile and laugh and finally moved me to tears. Cazenove even remains in each character's voice as he sings the occasional catchy or lovely folk ballads.
Christopher Cazenove reads with a clear voice and a charming manner and an effective range of accents and moods for the various characters, among them the good-hearted and stout Robin, the brawny and faithful Little John, the refined Will Scarlet, the querulous Sheriff of Nottingham, and the bestial bandit Guy of Gisbourne. Howard Pyle's book has many impressive and pleasing points, among them: exciting story-telling, rollicking lust for life, savory conversations, compelling songs, apt aphorisms, beautiful descriptions of nature, irreverent chastising of corrupt authority figures, interesting figures of speech (comparing, for example, the swift passing of Robin's anger to a breath on a window pane or the slow brain of a cobbler to a ball of unbaked bread dough), great humor (ranging from comical slapstick to witty banter and funny irony), and thoughtful movement from the light-hearted merriment of youth to the joy and grief of nostalgic maturity.
This was a wonderful listen! The chapters (linked short stories) recount how Robin Hood comes to be an outlaw in Sherwood Forest, meets the key members of his band, and merrily adventures with them in and around Sherwood Forest in twelfth-century England.
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