Title The Particolored Unicorn Author Jon DeCles Cover Art Darrell Sweet Publisher Ace Books - 1987 First Printing Ace Books - 1987
	Title Storm Wars! Author Jon DeCles Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Category Humour Warnings None Main Characters Piswyck, Miranda, Lifesaver Main Elements Unicorns, wizards Website ---

The Particolored Unicorn

This books wasn't what I expected, it was the setting more than anything else. I thought we'd have a humourous tale set in a fantasy land. And there was humour, but a lot of very serious things covered too, especially for a book written in the eighties, but what I didn't expect was to find a tale that is set in a future Earth. It's a bit like Vance's Dying Earth actually, where for some reason science stops working and magic takes over, only this one is not so far in the future, the character can still reference places and events that we are familiar with. The book got bonus points for magically transporting King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle (which I've visited) to the Carribean. It was fun to remember what the castle looked like when I saw it in person as Piswyck runs about it trying to rescue his princess. Though he spent too much time describing the history and the fact that King Ludwig, the mad king of Bavaria, was considered to be homosexual too.

The characters aren't as silly as I expected them to be. This is not an outright silly book, nor is it a parody. Piswyck may not have your standard princely skills (he's ok with a sword but he's better as a gymnast) he's not a fool. The particolored unicorn wasn't just colourful but also a philosopher poet. So in the end I wasn't sure if I really should label this book under the humour category. It still does make fun of things so I guess it depends on your own reactions.

It also tackles from surprisingly serious issues, like Piswyck's initial homophobia that he got over while spending time aboard a male-only elven ship. It didn't make him homosexual, it just opened up his mind a bit to be more accepting. He was also offered a position as a, err, boy toy, of a much older woman but with the idea that he'd then inherit her underworld empire. After his initial revulsion he started to really look at her and realized that maybe he could come to like her, even if she wasn't his young and beautiful Miranda. So for a book written nearly 40 years ago, I was quite surprised.

However I found I never really got into it, nor got attached to the characters. I'm not a big fan of humour books in the first place (maybe why I didn't find it outright funny) It was an ok read, and I'll think I'll hang onto my copy since it would be near impossible to replace it later. But...it ended complete unresolved, yes he achieved one of his goals but his kingdom was still under the control of the Countess and his father a prioner. He was in a balloon being chased by a hurricane. So I did a little research and found that 12 years after the book was published a sequel in 2009, Storm Wars! was published. I was tempted to get it till I saw the reviews saying that it also ends on a cliffhanger!! And nearly 12 years on from the sequel, there is no sign of the conclusion so not sure I want to invest in the second book to get no closer to the end. Which is unfortunate, it seems to be a pattern for unicorn based series to be unfinished, I've come across 5 so far!