Indiana Jones and the Unicorn’s Legacy

Indiana Jones and the Unicorn’s Legacy is an interesting tale from the point of view that it deals with an ‘alicorn’ (or a unicorn’s horn), and for some reason feels like it should be happening in Europe, yet a large chunk of the book is set in the USA and dips into Indian myth and legend more than anything else.

Only the book’s opening scenes and rushed ending happen in Europe; the latter of which is a big part of this book’s problem. After running around the desert in the USA for most of the book in a not-so-exciting way, we get to Rome, and an enemy for Indy who wants to end Mussolini (which you think would be a good thing but apparently not; the story only briefly touches on the irony of Indy trying to stop a man who wants to end a fascist), and Indy wanting to carry out a heist in disguise, and an old flame complicating matters… and this is brushed over in a tiny section of the novel, right at the end.

This Rome storyline is far more interesting that the USA-based content and I think if we’d spent less time running around the desert and just got to the point, we could have spent more time dealing with those characters fleshing them out, and basically opening up the interesting part of the adventure.

I also noticed that while this story didn’t have a certain mythical character show up and chat with Indy – as so many of the earlier novels featured – it still has Indy drinking a special ‘tea’ at one stage and basically tripping out of his head and thinking he’s a bird flying around with another bird and basically having visions. And while the novel is careful to present Indy, on the whole, as a guy who believes in science and has no time for the supernatural, to still have passages like this, where unexplained supernatural stuff happens to him… feels off. And I know some will say, “But supernatural stuff happens to him in the original trilogy of movies…” but I would argue that, aside from his possession in Temple of Doom, it’s usually not so direct; it’s usually happening to other people. In this novel it’s direct.

Reading through online reviews – which I typically don’t do, but I had so little to say about this novel, I felt compelled to see how other people felt – there were the usual, “It’s Indiana Jones, I love Indiana Jones, I give it five-stars!” type of people, but also a decent number of people who felt similarly to me. It’s a novel… stuff happens… some of it’s interesting… but you won’t be recommending this one to anyone in a hurry. Even someone who specifically asks for an Indiana Jones novel recommendation.

All up, I feel this is on-par with the other Rob MacGregor books… mostly… but it’s the one that’s failed to hold my attention the whole time. I’d pick it up and be like, “Oh yeah, we’re still running around in the desert… okay…” and burn thorough another chapter, only to find we’re doing more of the same. So I’m going to toss 6.5/10 at it to reflect that it’s basically in the same ballpark as the other books, but I just couldn’t get into it completely and, when I look back on it, I don’t feel it was a great story overall.