Title A la recherche de la licorne Series --- Author Emilio Ruiz Illustrator Ana Mirallès Publisher Dargaud Bénélux - 2008 First Printing Dargaud Bénélux - 2008 Category Graphic Novel Warnings Graphic violence and sex Main Characters Juan de Olid Main Elements Unicorns

1471

A la tete d'une poignee de fideles arbaletriers, Juan de Olid quitte en secret la Castille.

En route pour l'aventure et les terres inconnue de l'Afrique noire! L'expedition ne poursuit qu'un seul but: rapporter aux plus vite une corne de Licorne. L'avenir du royaume en depend. Pour cela, Juan de Olid et ses compagnons ont emmene avec eux, sur les conseils des plus grands specialistes de l'epoque, le meilleur dompteur possible: une...pucelle. Le pafrum qui emane d'une telle jeune fille a le pouvoir de dompter la plus redoutable des licornes. Les apothicaires de roi Enrique IV de Castille attendent impatiemment cette fabuleuse corne. Grace a ell, ils pourront guerir le roi, que tous surnomment "l'impuissant", et assurer ainsi la perennite de sa lignee.

I debated whether I should leave this up amongst other fantasies since this is really a historical graphical novel, but that's really key to the unicorn legend, people really believed it existed once, and even now people wonder if there was a creature that perhaps went extinct in some remote region (like the re'em in the Bible which got translated to unicorn might actually have been the now extinct auroch).

Now a warning, there is explicity racism in this book, because, well, it tries it's best to be historically accurate and the white Christians of the 1300's thought themselve superior to...well, pretty much everyone else. But they also proved to be utterly clueless as to how to survive in Africa and could be taken advantage of, so it kind of proved them wrong.

That said, I thought the artwork was amazing, but I didn't much care for the violence and sex that drove a lot of the plot. I can't confirm the historical accuracy of all the details but I feel that the author/artist put a lot of effort into ensuring all the details were correct, whether it be the clothing, the weapons or the beliefs of the characters involved. So while I found it an interesting experience to read, it wasn't something I particularly loved and was happy that it was a library book.

If you are looking for a book with a one-horned horse, this isn't for you, but if you want to go back to see how the legend started, what people believed, and to what lengths they went to to get its healing horn, you might want to give it a try.