Katherine Arden (The Warm Hands of Ghosts) offers readers an alternate history shaped by the fortitude of an iconic heroine in the epic, ethereal standalone fantasy The Unicorn Hunters.
Anne, duchess of Brittany, promised her late father that she would not let France annex their tiny nation. Her upcoming forced wedding to the French king would guarantee the loss of Brittany's independence, so she hatches a desperate scheme: she arranges her own betrothal to the Austrian monarch, who has no interest in annexing Brittany. Anne coordinates a hasty wedding by proxy at an abbey in Brocéliande and starts a rumor of a unicorn sighting in the forest, stalling the French emissary with the promise of a unicorn hunt and giving herself an excuse to go to Brocéliande as the maiden bait. The unicorn hunt goes awry when an actual unicorn appears, followed by a man who claims to have been lost in the world of the korriganed, Brittany's fair folk, for centuries. Anne must continue to hold off the French while she waits for her true bridegroom, but strange outpourings of magic and a shadowy nemesis threaten her plans and all she holds dear.
This rewriting of the history of Anne of Brittany is a yearning and inspiring tale of an underdog ruler who decides to shape her own fate for the love of her nation. Arden again demonstrates her skill at creating feisty, full-hearted female characters. Her other gifts, including graceful turns of phrase and wry dialogue, also lend depth to this verdant, magic-laced world. Readers seeking a unicorn need look no further than this gorgeous fantasy. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads