Bridget O. (sixteendays) - reviewed on 6/2/2022 + 130 more book reviews

I have never felt like such a fence-sitter as I do now, having completed this book.

The story of Dr. Spencer Black is fascinating, if light. The reader gets a brief 65-page write-up of the life of Dr. Black, every moment of it an amazing story. It leaves you REALLY wanting more. More depth, more details, more everything. This story could in itself fill a 400-page novel. Instead we get what we get, with so many of our questions unanswered.

The remaining 140-odd-pages are Dr. Black's Codex Extinct Animalia. Essentially we get a few entries of mythological creatures that Dr Black claimed were once real, and his anatomical drawings of them. At first glance, the drawings are interesting, but after about 3 creatures you realize that there isn't much substance in these entries. Readers that are well-versed in anatomy would find the diagrams lacking, and those without any anatomical knowledge wouldn't be able to make heads-or-tails of it (excuse the pun).

Personally I think this would have been a great sidepiece to an amazing novel of a mad scientist and his decent into the creation of these creatures. But it's not, so I just kind of don't know how to feel about it.

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