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A review by rlaurene
The Mysterious Flame Of Queen Loana: An Illustrated Novel by Geoffrey Brock, Umberto Eco
3.0
It was the wonderfully lurid and pulpy cover that drove me to this model, promising some mysterious tales.
I made the mistake of getting the wrong end of the stick, expecting a very different book to the one presented, one which could have had an awful lot of fun with the premise of the elderly Yambo losing his memory in an unspecified accident, and trying to recover it through the books of his youth.
Ultimately, the switch between the two halves of the book is a jarring one, and the recovery of his memories feels unearned (despite the 250+ pages it takes to get to that point.)
Nevertheless, the characters are all engaging and well-rounded (with the obvious exception of Lila, atop her pedestal), and the big incident that defined young Yambo's life is worthy, and itself makes good story.
I made the mistake of getting the wrong end of the stick, expecting a very different book to the one presented, one which could have had an awful lot of fun with the premise of the elderly Yambo losing his memory in an unspecified accident, and trying to recover it through the books of his youth.
Ultimately, the switch between the two halves of the book is a jarring one, and the recovery of his memories feels unearned (despite the 250+ pages it takes to get to that point.)
Nevertheless, the characters are all engaging and well-rounded (with the obvious exception of Lila, atop her pedestal), and the big incident that defined young Yambo's life is worthy, and itself makes good story.