The Explorer's Guild by Jon Baird, Kevin Costner, & Rick Ross

 Yes, that Kevin Costner.

I still can't actually decide if I liked this book.

So first off, the good stuff: The format is hard to pin down, almost 50/50 written text and comic book style panels. Like some panels inserted here and there like spot illustrations, then sometimes pages and pages or even most of a chapter in comic book format. Then chapters of almost entirely text. It seems to switch back and forth however the authors felt would best convey the section at hand with no other pattern to it, and honestly I really liked that format of storytelling. The media serves the story, and some stuff really does work better visually where other parts are better told in text. The fluid switching back and forth did take a little bit of getting used to but I liked it so much that if I were ever to write something like a novel I can easily see using this method myself.

The whole thing very well captures the feel of the 1920s/30s pulp adventures, an era I'm pretty fond of. It's set around World War I, a very Indiana Jones-esque escapade that ranges across multiple countries where it's not always quite clear who are the good guys and who might be villains in disguise. Unfortunately it also carries the offhanded hints of racism one expects from pulps of the era. As somebody who reads older works, I'm willing to allow it in those books even in reprintings. As a newer book, there is ample opportunity to handle racism differently, to either include it as a sign of the times while also making clear that it is objectively bad, or just not include it all. There are plenty of modern approaches that could happen to acknowledge casual slurs while they may be period-appropriate are also not condoned by the modern authors. I did not see any signs of that approach. They're just... there.

The plot itself is wild and complicated and I'm not sure I can go into much detail here without giving things away, but suffice it to say this group is looking for the fabled land of Shambhala but the passageway to get there is not at all what you would expect.

A significant feature of the plot is something I would consider body horror. It actually bothered me, quite a lot. That is probably the nail in the coffin for me, on this particular book. I did read it all the way through to the end, but I would not read any further installments in the series, if there were any. That in itself is probably worth noting, because the book is title as #1 in a series, but there is no #2. The series never got any further than this singly, admittedly very thick book. Maybe there just isn't much of a modern audience for thick pulp novels, or maybe this whole story is just too complicated and weird for the average reader. I'm not saying you shouldn't read it, I'm just saying that it will only interest a certain set of readers. I'm not sorry I read it, and I truly did like certain aspects of this book, but I am unlikely to ever read it again.

It was weird.

In Calabria by Peter S. Beagle

 Like any fantasy-driven 80's kid, I grew up with the movie The Last Unicorn, and then because I am a lover of books I also own and have read the book a few times (there are quite a few meaningful details left out of the movie). All of that said, I didn't know quite what to expect from this one. 

The setting is modern-day, for an undefined value of. An old man living alone on his isolated farm (which is in Calabria, Italy) finds a unicorn- which turns out to be pregnant, on his property. He understands the need to keep it a secret, because the media would go crazy if they found a real live unicorn. 

Which they eventually do.

Honestly I don't feel like that's giving too much away because that's what happens, but that's not really what this book is about.

What the story is about is people, and relationships, and second chances. The unicorn is in some ways merely the catalyst that sets off a chain reaction of change for a man long set in his ways. It's an interesting contrast to the Last Unicorn, with the story almost entirely taking place on a secluded countryside farm, while the journey is very much one of the self. 

In some ways it's a quiet story, introspective, and told mostly through the eyes of a man used to days of silence and solitude. His life is reflected in the feel of the narrative. 

If you're looking for a story with magical realms and talking animals, you're going to be disappointed, but if you want a sweet story about self discovery, this is a beautiful book.