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The Heirs of Locksleyby Carrie Vaughn Kindle Edition, 128 pg. Read: August 4, 2020 |
“Well,” Marian said calmly. “Perhaps they found an adventure.”
“Marian, they were supposed to be nothing like me. They were supposed to be sensible and quiet and not at all prone to adventures.”
“Hmm,” she said, refusing to state any opinion about what Robin’s children were meant to be like. If they were wild, she’d blame Sherwood Forest before she blamed Robin. Something about that place got into one’s bones and made one rash.
What’s The Heirs of Locksley About?
It’s about four years after the events of The Ghosts of Sherwood, King John is dead and the Locksley’s are at the coronation of his son, King Henry III.
Robin pushes his son John into taking care of some of the courtly duties as his heir (also, he’s the Locksley without any political baggage). His sisters accompany him to meet the new king, one thing leads to another, and Henry calls for an archery competition to see them at work.
The Locksleys being the Locksleys, trouble follows them—some comes at the competition, some comes later. Basically (like their father), the children go looking for fun, and adventure ensues—maybe it is Sherwood’s fault.
“So what did you think would happen, coming here? Knowing who their father is?”
[Redacted] was trapped. He had the look of a hound who had cornered a boar all by himself and then didn’t know what to do with it. “Those . . . They’re just stories. You aren’t him, not really.”
“No, of course not. That man lived a long time ago,” Robin murmured. “I am much angrier right now than he ever was.”
You can just see the glint in his eye as he said that…(and the way he laughed about that line when recounting this over the fire).
So, what did I think about The Heirs of Locksley?
Like its predecessor, this is a quick read. A fun read—it feels like one more entry in a long-running series, not just the second. We’ve only got to spend roughly 250 pages with these three and they already feel like old friends.
Vaughn tapped into something here and I’m so glad she did. In the afterword, she writes:
What makes a good Robin Hood story?
Adventure. Charm. Good people we like looking out for each other— it’s not enough to have a story about Robin Hood. He needs all his friends around him, and they need to be witty and skilled and admirable. Archery, of course we need archery. Clint Barton and Katniss Everdeen insist that we still need archery even in this modern day. And Robin needs to help people. He needs to denounce corruption and tyranny. He rebels and resists.
From where I sit, that’s exactly what Vaughn delivered. Most modern retellings (on-screen or in print) seem to miss the charm and witty parts in the gritty reboots—but Vaughn kept them.
I know it’s a duology, but I’d buy more—either the further adventures of the heirs or if she wanted to go back and tell some of Robin’s adventures.
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