Editorial Content for Shadow of the Wolf

I'm sure you've heard the legend of Robin Hood, the dashing archer who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, who pines after Maid Marian and prowls through Sherwood Forest with his band of merry outlaws. SHADOW OF THE WOLF, however, humanizes this inhumanly heroic figure of legend; author Tim Hall's novel introduces Robin Loxley not as a ferocious, high-minded crusader of the woods, but rather as a young boy. After his father abandons him in the treacherous Winter Forest, Robin returns to his village an orphan and an outcast. Thus begins Robin’s lifelong search for answers --- what secrets lurk in the Winter Forest and what really happened to his family?

THE SHADOW OF THE WOLF may draw inspiration from the legend of Robin Hood, but this sweeping, 471-page epic expands the familiar legend into an intricate web of interlocking subplots, mythical lore and a complex, profoundly human protagonist. Though the legend doesn't develop Robin Hood's character beyond "good with arrows" and "going out with Maid Marian," Hall's vast, almost biographic novel chronicles Robin's maturation from an abandoned boy to a promising squire to a brooding wolf-beast, and (finally!) to a savage adversary of the power-crazed, genocidal Sheriff.

This sweeping, 471-page epic expands the familiar legend into an intricate web of interlocking subplots, mythical lore and a complex, profoundly human protagonist. 

While Robin's physical strength, not to mention strength of character, never failed to evoke my admiration, his indecision evoked my sympathy; throughout the novel, Robin struggles to reconcile his lust for vengeance with his hatred of death, his hunger for connection with his fear of abandonment and his hopes for the future with the miseries --- and secrets --- of his past. His conflicting motives keep Robin (and the novel) unpredictable, even as some of the supporting characters degenerate into stereotyped caricatures. Though Sheriff himself proves surprisingly complex, even sympathetic, his seemingly endless supply of soldiers all conform to the same pattern of destructive, bumbling, arrogant sadism.

Though the book's climax resolves one of the novel's many subplots, THE SHADOW OF THE WOLF leaves many of these conflicts glaringly unconcluded. I know you need to sell the sequel somehow, but the book's abrupt, unsatisfying conclusion feels out-of-place after 400 pages of expansive backstory and lush world-building. Perhaps Hall didn't need 471 pages to weave this complex tale of love and revenge, but the novel's intricate plotlines and expert shifts in point-of-view make you forgive him an extra 50 or so pages. If you enjoy rich character development or even just good ol’ fashioned gore (spoiler alert, someone’s eyeballs melt off), THE SHADOW OF THE WOLF won’t disappoint.