In the Greenwood by Mari Ness
My rating: 3/5 cats
this one is a little riff on the robin hood legend, and has a more complicated ending than what some of you might be expecting.
disney is not known for its risk-taking. but this one does take that risk, and it is a really moving spin on tradition. it is about sacrifice and the greater good and seeing past personal feelings and recognizing that even seemingly good deeds can have unexpectedly bad consequences.
it’s actually a little reminiscent of
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i definitely enjoyed the perspective—the reminder that when we see a hero, we tend to forget about all the unsung lives in the folds of the story. like when you watch a summer blockbuster and all the alien spacecrafts are crashing into the buildings of manhattan and the hero saves the day and the monsters are defeated, but, shit—there were probably a lot of people in those buildings that had no idea they were part of this hero narrative and were just faceless sacrifices BUT NEVER MIND BECAUSE HERO!
so it’s good that someone has acknowledged the darker side of these traditionally uplifting heroic legends.
and here’s another helpful hint if you are going to be indulging in “free tor short fever”:
i never know how long these things are going to be, and so i always scroll down to check, in case i am reading this on a work-break, and need to know if i will have time to finish before it’s back to the (enjoyable) grind. but my eyes are too fast, and with this one, i read the last sentence without meaning to, so i knew what was coming, and it took away the gutpunch of it. this is like my father’s introduction to game of thrones—the very first episode he watched was the penultimate episode of the first season. yeah, that one. which really takes the emotional shock away, when you go back and watch it from the beginning.
and that’s what happened here.
so don’t scroll down, people!
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/12/in…
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