The Innkeeper's Song
by Peter S. Beagle
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Book Summary Information
Author: Peter S. BeagleEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994-10-01
ISBN: 0451454146
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Roc Trade
Book Reviews of The Innkeeper's Song
Book Review: Beagle's Flagship Book
Summary: 5 Stars
When ever I come upon a thought of Peter S. Beagle I will always think of this book foremost.
My first knowledge of Peter S. Beagle, unlike most, didn't come from his other book "The Last Unicorn". I first read him when I read the forward of "The Charwoman's Shadow" by Lord Dunsany. I read a witty and charming intro and started to wonder who this man, who had to be a "someone" to write a forward for one of fantasy writing's pioneers, was. So, I bought and read "The Innkeeper's Song" based on the reviews I read that talk of it as being mature, and it is just that.
I am not going to tell about the plot itself, so many reviewers have done a better job then I could, so I'm going to talk of it's other merits.
This is not a book where the world is hanging in the balance and that makes all the difference. It is a story that only effects the prime characters and few others. That makes it a quaint story so much more personal to the characters involved while itself telling a great deal about the characters as well. It also makes the characters seem more heroic, it is much easier to pick up a sword to defeat an evil force that is bent on world domination where the cost of failure is your death and the prize the world, but much harder to pick up a sword and risk your life to give aid to a friend when the prize is one or two lives.
In many books characters revolve around events, in this book events move about the characters. Why is that? It is more about the characters and their choices then the quest at hand.
The story is all told in first person narration through all the main, and some secondary characters. This gives a character development and knowledge of the characters' pasts that a reader rarely gets to experience. That said however, Beagle never tells you too much, he always leaves you hanging just enough to drive you through the story with a slight burning hunger in your belly to discover more. And with all of the first person narrations you get the true unbiased story that you get with the all knowing narrator's viewpoint.
You can tell Mr. Beagle was influenced by the likes of Lord Dunsany. Beagle has the same lyrical style and the same ability to paint a complete picture with a few well chosen words or phrases rather then a sprawling passage that takes up a page or two.
Peter S. Beagle is a master, plain and simple. He, unlike most modern authors, leaves magic unexplained, so it remains to the reader a mysterious and dangerous force. He tells you about the right things in the right places, while keeping you in the dark about the right things in the right places.
Even though this book is only about three hundred pages or so it is a story of fantasy as epic and more powerful then most other multi book series' that you will find. I will never forget the first time I picked up "The Innkeeper's Song" and started reading. With the depth of characters and events in this book you come away with a feeling that it is a living breathing world that is being bent around the characters. When after reading the book it seems to sit there on the shelf breathing, beckoning to you to pick it back up and discover new things about it in the rereading.
"The Innkeeper's Song" has a honored place on my book shelf and I plan to enjoy rereading this book till it falls apart in my hands,and when that happens I'll weep like a baby for the loss.
In the end if you are looking for a "world in the balance" fantasy that pushes the characters through the story this book is not for you, but if you are looking for a fantasy story about characters and their pasts on a quest that is deeply relevant to them, then this is a book for you.
Summary of The Innkeeper's Song
Searching for his lover in a shadowy, magic world, young Tikat meets three mysterious cloaked women, whose quest involves saving their mentor, a once-powerful wizard, from losing his magic to a treacherous enemy. Reprint.In this Locus Award-winning novel, young Tikat enters a shadow world of magic and mystery as he searches for the lover whose death and resurrection he witnessed. It's a wild ride that sets him on the trail of three cloaked women who are on a mission of their own.
"A beautifully written tale of love and loss, set in a world of hard-edged magic." --The New York Times Book Review
" A wonderfully astonishing novel... a tour de force." --Washington Post Book World
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