Title Le chevalier à la licorne Series --- Author Stéphane Piatzszek Cover Art Guillermo G. Escalada Publisher Editions Soleil - 2015 First Printing Editions Soleil - 2015 Category Graphic Novel Warnings --- Main Characters Juan de la Heredia Main Elements Unicorns

1346, la bataille de Crécy. Juan de la Heredia, chevalier Hospitalier, offre son cheval au roi de France en mauvaise posture. Cerné d'Anglais, il ôte son armure dans un sursaut de fougue, libérant ses mouvements et sa rage. La folie meurtrière qui l'envahit le garde en vie, mais Juan est désormais son captif. Le voilà qui se lance à la poursuite d'une licorne, comme on poursuit une chimère...

This was a rather bizarre book. So we start with a battle and the king is unhorsed. A knight hands over his mount, and then on foot, goes beserk, killing the enemy left, right and center. Then suddenly he is gored by a unicorn but doesn't die. He then spends years chasing the unicorn across the land. He's treated as a madman, living in rags, trying to figure out why he lived, what the unicorn wants of him. Though the unicorn is a figment of his imagination, no one else can see it, it's also very real and leads him to his ultimate destiny.

The artwork was pretty dark and gritty and very often gory, but the unicorn was beautifully drawn and the choice of making it with the build of a warhorse rather than a delicate deer-like creature was a good one, made it all the more impressive when it showed up. I can't say I enjoyed it, and was rather too bloody to really say I loved the artwork (though it was very skilled) but it was an interesting addition to my year of unicorn-themed reading.