I'll give the sequel a chance.
To be very honest, I was not completely won over by this book until the author's notes at the very end. Up until that point there were several little details that irked me mildly and made me unsure of whether to continue the series. These details included the overzealous "branding" complete with logo and tagline for this first book of the King Raven trilogy, the passivity of Merian despite all the descriptions of her as "feisty," (if you don't actually DO anything feisty, then it isn't very descriptive, is it?), and the constant use of the words "disgusted," "repulsed," and others of that ilk that the male protagonists use to describe some old female characters. This last bit really did rub me the wrong way, no matter if the characters later realized the error of their judgment.
However annoying those factors may be, I was still feeling open minded enough by the end to be swayed by the author's excited explanation of his reasons for setting the Robin Hood story in Wales at the time of Norman expansion.
As a writer, Lawhead is very capable with a plain-spoken style. While "Hood" does sometimes feel like mere exposition for the later books, it is full of action and passion and injustice, as any good retelling of the Robin Hood legend should be. I will give the sequels a chance.
