Robin Hood is a teenage hacker and he’s on the run.
The near future. Sherwood Forest, rife with bandits, now extends from Lincolnshire to Liverpool, Nottingham to practically Leeds. Great rivers, the product of a climate disaster, run through the UK. Most jobs have gone from Nottingham. What remains is Captain Cash, a company that thrives on two things: buying things at a low price from people in debt, and crime. First Partner, Guy Gisborne, controls everything.
He arrests Robin’s dad, and after fighting back Robin and his brother Little John escape into the forest. They are split up just as they become the most wanted pair for miles around.
Not only is this a strong reimagining of Robin Hood, it also serves as a horribly accurate dystopia. Jobs gone, people starving, one rich man in control. Every chapter challenges the reader to think – even subconsciously – about what the the present looks like and where we want future society to go.
Sherwood Forest is delightfully imagined. Abanadoned retail parks and zipwire course huts shelter those who have escaped Guy Gisborne and his thugs – migrants and charity campaigners and people who refuse to suppress their political views. The forest is also home to true criminals, but they are the minority. Mainly it homes the people left in a ruined country who strive to hold on to better values and rebuild society.
Familiar characters, too, have been reimagined. Marion Maid, who has grown up in the forest, finds Robin and guides him to the retail park shelter. Marion has a good mix of nurturing instincts and cockiness. She’s not a fully hardened dystopian heroine but she doesn’t take much rubbish. She and Robin compliment one another as lead characters and their skills and knowledge combine with interesting results.
With snappy action scenes and a strong sense of bad guys vs good guys, this would be a great recommendation for readers from eleven or so who want something more teenage than middle grade but aren’t totally ready for YA fiction. Topical themes and fights galore combine to make a strong adventure.
- Robin Hood – Hacking, Heists & Flaming Arrows by Robert Muchamore is available now from Hot Key Books. RRP. £6.99 (Provided for review)
This sounds like an interesting book, my sons loved Robert Muchamore’s Cherub series when they were early teens. Do you think this one would be suitable for the Year 6 collection in a primary school?
It is very much in line with Cherub age wise. Action, dangerous (but unlikely) stunts and fight scenes. I’d say it’s OK for Y6 but maybe scan over to be sure. x
Thank you Louise