A Baroque Fable

By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

This novel takes readers on a romp through a fantasyland of star-crossed lovers, bumbling heroes, wicked witches, and dragons (one of whom, our heroine, Esmeralda, started out as a human but got caught up in a witch’s curse.) Lighthearted adventure with a seemingly never-ending cast of strange and whimsical characters working at cross-purposes and together creates a world of little consequence and frothy entertainment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Release date: May 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9781497650664

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Chelsea Q. Yarbro is the first woman to be named a Living Legend by the International Horror Guild and is one of only two women ever to be named as Grand Master of the World Horror Convention (2003). In 1995, Yarbro was the only novelist guest of the Romanian government for the First World Dracula Congress, sponsored by the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, the Romanian Bureau of Tourism, and the Romanian Ministry of Culture. Yarbro is best known as the creator of the heroic vampire the Count Saint-Germain. With her creation of Saint-Germain, she delved into history and vampiric literature and subverted the standard myth to invent the first vampire who was more honorable, humane, and heroic than most of the humans around him. She fully meshed the vampire with romance and accurately detailed historical fiction, and filtered it through a feminist perspective that made both the giving of sustenance and its taking of equal erotic potency. A professional writer since 1968, Yarbro has worked in a wide variety of genres, from science fiction to Westerns, from young adult adventure to historical horror. A skeptical occultist for forty years, Yarbro has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.

Reviews for A Baroque Fable

[empress8411 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a strange little story - part fairy tale, part satire, part fantasy spoof. The beginning was excellent, and the villain scary. But it quickly downgraded into odd yet boring story. The scary villain was dispatched with little ceremony or climax, the characters exhibited unrealistic changes and the ending was a bit meh. While Yarbro went on to write award-winning vampire books (pre-Twilight) this work is a stand-alone and one of her early works. Although I haven't read her other works, I would assume this isn't her best. But if you enjoy strange spoofish works, this one is for you.

[navelos · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I didn't read all of this, I just couldn't get into it. It's attempts at humor didn't work for me.

[caitlinefa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Far-off places, (somewhat) daring sword fights and a prince (and a bored princess) in disguise?! I'm a fan of Yarbro's Saint-Germain works and was excited to pick up this vampire-less novel of hers. It was a delight to read and, I think, would be great for anyone who loves fairytales and has a sense of humor about it. Yarbro's prose is dexterous yet whimsical and the curious cast of characters is wonderfully entertaining.