A Forest of Vanity and Valor: Ruining Robin Hood

The bow that breaks

The Overview:

A Forest of Vanity and Valor by A.P. Beswick is a dark fantasy with twists that honestly left me squealing and screaming in the car. The advertisements were so right. This book is a dark version of the classic Robin Hood tale with a dabble of King Arthur gone terribly wrong. 

The story is set in Levanthria, a fantasy world where everything is going very, very, very wrong. King Athos of the Kingdom of Zorubia is in a war against everyone? I couldn’t get much information about the ‘Great War’... or the series in general. Fun part of diving into a brand-new fan base… most of the research isn’t there. SO! I’m literally going off the ‘book.’ (I listened to the audiobook on YouTube. I’m hoping to get the entire series in paperbook soon.) But I have troopered on! I will link to the different resources I used below. Anywho. Levanthira is a pretty torn-up world. In Vanity and Valor, you get the smallest of pieces. The towns and cities are turning into husks of society. Magic has been banned, and anyone found wielding it is branded and sold for pocket money.  The poor are being hustled out of every single coin possible by none other than the wealthy. In exchange for keeping their properties and their wealth, they have become tax collectors and enforcers. And all seem to enjoy it for the most part. 

The worst part. The magic. 

The magic system is something that feels familiar but is taken to a whole new level. Magic feeds off the energy from within, making mages tired and having even a physical reaction. Mages can become senile and age faster with the use of their magic. So the easiest answer would be to not use it. You would be right if it weren’t so addictive. To soothe the pain, casting magic causes, one must cast more magic. You enter a vicious pattern of not casting magic to keep your mind intact, but casting magic to keep you from being in constant pain. 

This brings us to our main Kingdom, Eltara, where our two main characters, Vireo and Jareb, are our fantastic Robin Hood and Prince John duo, with a horrible twist. 

Vireo, our dashing Robin Hood character, was one of the wealthy who willingly robbed the poor so he wouldn’t lose his comfort. This is mentioned constantly in the book. Vireo’s main fear is losing the comfort and wealth his family has curated over the generations. And brother, his moral code confused me for most of the book. He wants to keep his comforts no matter what… yet he constantly threatens that and his two companions, Lek and Gillam, when he decides to sleep with Lady Allana. Yes, Lady Allan is Lord Jareb’s wife. He also has a strict moral code of not hurting people unless he is taking their coin. Very morally gray. And I love it. 

Lord Jareb is, in my opinion, more like Prince John than the Sheriff of Nottingham. And hear me out. In the beginning, Jareb is a big softie. I kid you not, in my notes I have #husbandgoals, it’s now viciously scribbled out. I relate this to the child-like behavior we see in the Disney Robin Hood animation. Then the start of the twist. [Spoilers Ahead] Keeping with the Disney animation, Lord Jareb begins to hear a voice. A hissing voice, to be exact.

Let's just say, this voice woke up and chose blood. 

Vireo gets caught trying to run away with Allana. Let’s just say this chapter (5) is the reason violence is so high. I won’t go into detail, but I did have to pause the book a couple of times to let my brain catch up. This was not a slow shift in tone. This was the sharpest turn I have ever read. Lord Jareb's psyche snapped into a thousand pieces, and he took it out on the cheating couple. But Vireo escapes with only Allona’s emerald green hood. 

Vireo and his two companions escape to the Forest of Opiya. Now…. this Forest is the definition of not fun. Think of the Forbidden Forest from Harry Potter meets the Black Forest in Germany. It would be a beautiful fantasy land of glowing mushrooms and towering trees, if it weren’t for everything trying to eat you.

Vireo and his companions not only need to survive the horrors of the forest, but also the horrors residing in Eltara. Lord Jareb will do just about anything to have Vireo’s head on a pike. This includes allowing the darkest of Sorceresses to start practicing her powers on his own people.  

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My Thoughts:

I loved this book. And I am so excited to read the rest of the series and see what happens with this character. I do know through A.P. Beswick socials (links below). The moral twists and point-of-view swaps make this story gritty and force me to sit on the edge of my seat the entire time. My favorite part of the series is the little journal entries or stories from the world. You learn a lot not only about what’s going on in the book, but the series as a whole. I will be honest, I am reading ‘A Stone of Destiny and Despair,’ and I can confirm. Pay attention to the chapter intros. They are important. 

I do love this book. I grew up watching Disney's Robin Hood, and a fun fact is, I’m actually related to the guy. Distantly. But it’s always fun seeing the different retellings, especially when they make it feel more real by going darker. I love the new take on Robin Hood initially being the villian who needs a hero arc. This new arc makes Robin seem more human and well rounded. Instead having this always good too shoe type of bandit who is fighting for the other people, but as possibly one of the worst person possible. And you still end up liking him in the end. And it's infuriating in the best way possible.

It's good to see fantasy that has realistic characters. And I hope that more people hope on to this train, because it is fantastic.

I would only recommend this to those who do enjoy the gritty and are unafraid to read on the darker side of the literary world. 

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The Graph:

Language- 15%, There is some language, that is to be expected with Dark Fantasy. It does it crass, but it's not over the top Explicit Material- 10%, Explicit material was there, but it wasn’t described in detail, and it fades to black. Comments and thoughts brought that scene back, but again not in great detail. Violence- 35%, Violence is high, especially with the inciting incident. There is showing of torture, intense fighting sequences, and yeah. The inciting incident. Drug/Alcohol Use- 15%, There are heavy sequences of drinking and hangovers, but nothing really excessive.

Non-Problematic- 25%, Yes, this looks really low. But these parts are worth it. They are funny, heartfelt or dive you head first into this amazing and dark world.

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Name Meanings:

Vireo - (Latin) To be Green/Green Bird

Jareb - (Hebrew) "he will contend," "contender," or "he will struggle."

Allana - (Gaelic and Irish) "Dear child," "My child," "Beautiful" or "Fair."

Lek - (Thai) Little, (Albanian) Defender of Man, (Gaeleic) Flagstone Place

Gilliaum - (Old French and German) "Resolute protector" or "will, desire, and helmet."

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Links for you:

A.P. Beswick Publication

Northern_writer (Instagram)A.p_beswick_author (TikTok)

Apbeswick (Facebook)

A.p_beswick_author (YouTube)

Books on Amazon

Reddit Community

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The Spoilers:

The Prohibition of Magic: Magic was outlawed because the higher-ups didn’t want to lose their power… That’s it. They didn’t want to be overthrown. So now, when they are fighting a war and need magic after hundreds of years of magic being suppressed, sold, and beaten. Let’s just say the mages, witches, and wizards have little to no interest in joining their cruel king’s war mission. 

The Inciting Incident: So this was the wildest inciting incident I have read so far, and it had me screaming in my car. Verio and Allana decide to run away and ultimately get caught due to a weird hissing voice in Jareb’s head. Odd, I know. But it gets so much worse. So much. Verio is sentenced to death, and Allana is sentenced to the dungeon, for Jareb to deal with later. Then! Then, Allana pulls the ‘I’m pregnant card, and it’s yours’ to Jareb. Who then pulls the ‘I can’t have kids card’ and goes berserk. He ties Allana to an archery target, gives Verio three arrows, and tells him not to shoot the mother of his unborn child. (Low-key.... I think she's faking the pregnancy.) But Verio is based on Robin Hood! He can’t miss. WRONG! Jareb takes Verio’s custom-made bow and gives him a pathetic guard one…. Yeah, this is where I started screaming incoherently. He misses the target twice. 

Morgana: Morgana does play a large role in this series as one of the villains…. Or one of the not-so-hero-like characters. Morgana has one thing on her mind: to rule over Levanthria, and she is willing to do anything to get it. She practices necromancy, the forbidden arts. And it is a painful art, for others. The art of necromancy does not draw on the wielder's life force, but the life of others. She has the gift of visions and prophecy in her pocket, giving her access to possibilities she can choose to escape. She also uses her glamor to look like Jareb’s dead wife and sleep with him… Yeah. Kinda weird. Still don’t know how I feel about that. The hardest thing I have is how Morgana looks. I keep picturing her as Morgana from the show Merlin… but she looks like Merida from Brave. It confused me for the longest time. 

The Prophecy: The wizard, Jordell, contends with Morgana near the end of the book, and in doing so, they share a vision. The details are a little fuzzy on this one, but in essence, there is a sword in the stone. That could stop the Great War. And he also needs the boy (insert name). This story doesn’t sound familiar at all!

Shadow: We’ll end off on a happy note. So at the beginning of the story, Verio saves a monster puppy. This is one of the few moments of pure kindness we see from Verio. This puppy could give Verio nothing in return. The puppy lives in the Forest of Opiya, and Verio, at this time, was more than likely never going to be in there. Until he was. Shadow (insert what book we figure out his name) takes it upon himself to defeat the current Alpha, just so the pack can protect Verio and his friends. It was a terrifying yet tender moment, teaching Verio the importance of kindness. 

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Thank you so much! For reading my rantings and my random links. I'm giving this book four stars (I'm not the biggest fan of language). I do love the dark fantasy and the addiction of magic. Having a villainous take on hero also sparks up some ideas. What hero you would write as a villain? Would the go good or would they continue down thier dark path. Let me know in the comments! Keep turning page. Bard out!