INTRODUCTION

 

 

AS MUCH AS The Afterblight Chronicles are a series of action-packed novels set in the aftermath of the apocalypse, as much as they are about cultists with guns, heroes with attitude and epic journeys across the wastelands of a world gone to hell, they are also about legends.

For in the ashes of Earth, new legends will be born, as those who have survived seek to put back together the broken pieces.

But what we have here is not only a legend, he is a legend reborn.

I’m from Robin Hood country myself, having been born and raised in Nottingham, so I’m somewhat familiar with the stories of the Hooded Man and his coterie of rogues. So when Paul Kane, a writer whose work I was familiar with from horror fandom, came to me with the idea of a post-apocalyptic Robin Hood, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Paul has steeped himself in the myths and legends of Sherwood, but what he gives us here is a fresh take on a familiar figure. He reminds us why certain legends endure and his novels in the series speak about the need for heroes, and what heroes are, in a way that raises this trilogy above your run-of-the-mill action adventure.

That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of thrilling escapes, frantic gun-play and brilliantly-executed set pieces within these pages, there’s lots and lots of that. But Robert is far more than a hero that tackles violence with violence – at the heart of his crusade is a desire for justice and fairness to return to a wrecked society.

So these then are the new legends of the Hooded Man, a hero for the end-times.

 

Jonathan Oliver

Oxford, March 2013