The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
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Book Reviews of The Last Unicorn
Book Review: I can't think of a book more perfect than this.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book has haunted me ever since I first finished it years, and years ago. I'll be driving down the freeway and the slant of sunlight off of a trucks rear window will suddenly remind me of a line in one of these chapters and a fever will grab hold of me all of a sudden and it won't be quelled until I get home and reread that passage, which turns into rereading that chapter which turns into rereading this book. I'm not safe anywhere, I was sick to death recently and the first thing I reached for was this. How do I immunize myself against it? I don't know. I find myself at even a greater loss when I ask myself if I really want to be free.
There comes a time in everyone's life, if they are so lucky, where they happen across a book that just turns their life inside out and upside down. This is one such book. To the uninterested observer it appears as a silly book about unicorns that seems like it has no interest in obtaining a demographic beyond that of tween girls and basement nerds. But to these people I express my sorrow that they will live their lives with the incredible loss that is never having read this book.
The Last Unicorn is about remembering the past and foreseeing the future and about accepting our losses and defeats when they are handed to us, and it is about learning to treasure the bright spots within them. It is about what it means to posses and to be possessed. Two characters passing through a wood early in the novel debate the existence of unicorns at first jokingly, then heatedly and then at last with a bit of trepidation, sorrow and fear at the passing of the unknown while they were not watching. "I wonder if any man before us would have thought his time a good time for unicorns?" one of the woodsmen asks and soon we see quite clearly that the answer is, and always will be, a resounding and cold hearted no as our unicorn is put in damp, dark cages both literal and figurative.
Not much happens in this book in the traditional story telling sense. The unicorns quest ends rather abruptly by the time we reach the castle and that happens less than half way through the book. After that the characters mill around in a stagnant environment and the battle of wits that any other author might have substituted here as the main course of action is instead replaced by a battle of reflection and remembrance, of memory and time. The main action in this book is not played out in gallant sword fights, daring chases, and grand acts of wizardry (although there is plenty of that, make no mistake at times this can be a very violent and bloody book), but rather the choices and changes the characters go through in their lives.
Finally, to speak of the few criticisms directed at the text - without giving too much away, for the second half of the book there is indeed a romance in the pages and some others have spoken about how it lacks a heart gripping quality and to this I'd have to agree. But you have to remember that the romance really isn't meant to be viewed as such and so people seeking a grand romantic adventure will be advised to look elsewhere. The Lady Amalthea throws herself at Liir with an unnatural devotion that quite frankly obliterates all that she is, even admitting to herself that she allows him to construct everything she is as a person and as a result their romance is very light, very lovely but it hasn't been earned at all. And because you can not claim something you haven't gained the right to earn in the end they are the only ones left with nothing to posses.
Book Review: Beautiful Fantasy Fairy Tale
Summary: 5 Stars
"The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea."
So begins Peter Beagle's, The Last Unicorn. What a fantastic book! This one has been on my to be read list for a long while.
The Last Unicorn is everything that a fantasy should be. It has unicorns to begin with, magicians, gypsies, old kingdoms, kings, princes, magic, an old castle on top of a hill, and a giant red bull.
It is the story of a unicorn who is on a quest to find others like herself. Along the way, she meets a magician and a gypsy sort of woman. They are on a quest to find The Red Bull who must be defeated in order for her to find the other unicorns. Plenty of magic, fighting, wizardry, love and loss occur along the way, all in breathtaking fashion.
The unicorn is a wonderful, powerful character. Unicorns are one of the first things that pop into my mind when I think of fantasy. Even white horses look magical in real life because of the idea of a unicorn. Peter Beagle's unicorn is the definition of what a unicorn should be. She's mysterious, powerful, beautiful, glowing, and magical. She reminded me a lot of Yvaine from Stardust even though Yvaine wasn't a unicorn. Read the book and you'll understand why. I thought of Stardust a lot while reading this book. It has the same magical theme, and is a classic fantastic fairy tale like Stardust is. In fact, I'm hoping that there's one scene involving a unicorn in Stardust that does not make it to the film because it was very upsetting just reading it.
The red bull was a wonderful character in The Last Unicorn. He is described as an enormous red bull who's size is more than one can imagine with horns like lightning and a sort of electricity coming off of him. He is also blind. He herds unicorns into the sea. Wonderful fantasy character and even though he's somewhat of a villain I still loved him.
The illustrations are done by Mel Grant and I loved them. They were exactly what they should be and I can't describe them much better than that. Black and white illustrations with a very "sketched" look that fit perfectly with the story.
This was my first book of Peter Beagle's. The man is an extraordinary writer. His descriptions are so detailed and beautiful and so different from any other authors I've read. He has a wonderful way with words and creates a beautiful story here. The next issue of Orson Scott Card's online magazine Intergalactic Medicine Show is supposed to have an interview with him and a new short story by him. Can't wait for that.
There's also an animated version of The Last Unicorn out there that I'd like to check out. It's always good to see a book translated into a movie and I believe that Peter Beagle wrote the screenplay for the movie.
Book Review: Childhood memories enhance a great read
Summary: 5 Stars
Despite my obvious (to those who know me) passion for Star Wars and the Transformers, one movie remains close to my heart, closer even than my favorite space saga and giant robots. Animated by the same folks who brought us the old "Lord of the Rings" movies, "The Last Unicorn" was a mainstay of my childhood. Even today I can almost quote the movie by heart word for word; singing or hearing the theme song performed by America (the "Horse With No Name" folks) still moves me almost to tears; hearing Christopher Lee's voice in "Attack of the Clones" will forever remind me of the pitifully twisted King Haggard. And my joy knew no bounds when, years after the rental store that carried "The Last Unicorn" closed down, a family member tracked down the DVD version for me.
But when I learned the movie was based on a book, I decided to check out the source. After all, few books-turned-to-movies are even comparable to their source material. If my childhood movie was good, then the book had to be better, right?
I'm happy to say that the book was indeed better... and yet the movie was so faithful to the book that it was almost a novelization rather than source material, and the film remains a classic in my mind.
A single unicorn, guardian of a lilac wood, overhears a hunter describing her as the last unicorn. Unwilling to believe this, she leaves her enchanted home to find out the truth. Along the way, she is joined by Shmendrick, a magician whose magic is unpredictable at best, and Molly Grue, a cynical woman who is nonetheless willing to believe in the unicorn. Together, they seek out the fearsome Red Bull, which is said to serve a tyrannical king in a blighted kingdom and has chased all the unicorns to some fearsome fate. And in the course of her travels, the unicorn will taste, for the first time, the wonders of sorrow, fear, mortality... and love.
Beagle's prose is sheer poetry from beginning to end. Unlike most authors, who may have a dozen or so outstanding lines in a work, Beagle fills The Last Unicorn with so many such lines that it's impossible to pick out one or two I think are exemplary. His work is gentle and beautiful, his characters are delightful to know, and his landscape is so vividly painted that it's almost readily visible in the mind. He has created a fairy tale, no mean feat in a day and age that generally dismisses fairy tales.
As a child, I loved "The Last Unicorn" as a visual treat. Now, in my adulthood, I love The Last Unicorn as a last hurrah to the art of the fairy tale.
Book Review: Review From Books & Wine
Summary: 5 Stars
Seriously, I cannot think about unicorns without thinking about this book. And no, the unicorn in this book is not bloodthirsty. Although I had made up my mind earlier to be Team Unicorn, I think had I been on the fence, this book would definitely have pushed me onto Team Unicorn.
The Last Unicorn is a truly beautiful, breathtaking book. It is very short, but quite a bit is packed into those pages. We open with a unicorn walking through the forest she protects. She overhears some hunters talking about how they can never kill anything in the forest, because it is protected by the unicorn. The hunters go on to state how there are no other unicorns left in the world. The unicorn then takes it upon herself to discover just what happened to the other unicorns. Along the way adventures are had, friends are made, evil is faced, yet good is also discovered.
You know that feeling you get when reading a fairy tale and you have the perfect narrator? I got while reading The Last Unicorn. I felt like magic could be real. Of course, my emotions ran the gamut. At times I felt melancholy. I was not really sure what I wanted for the unicorn, as she had to make this hard decision, but if you read the book or have seen the movie, you'll know what I mean.
The Last Unicorn is a simple tale. I am sure that there is a deeper meaning, however, I haven't really figured it out. That's okay though, we can't all be brilliant at uncovering the underlying message. What I did enjoy was how imaginative the book was. I could picture everything as I was reading it. However, maybe that is due to seeing the movie in childhood. Or maybe I could attribute it to Beagle's writing. His prose is gorgeous. It is never too flowery, but still retains beauty.
The Last Unicorn is definitely a fantasy classic. It absolutely had me craving more fantasy, and I could see why the brilliant Patrick Rothfuss said it was one of his favorite books.
Here are a few quotes which made my spirit sing:
"I know exactly how you feel," Schmendrick said eagerly. The unicorn looked at him out of dark, endless eyes, and he smiled nervously and looked at his hands. "It's a rare man who is taken for what he truly is," he said. "There is much misjudgement in the world....we are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream." pg. 29-30
"Men have to have heroes, but no man can ever be as big as that need, and so a legend grows around a grain of truth, like a pearl." pg. 64
Book Review: Lovely, bittersweet, truly a treasure
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my longterm guilty non-reads has been Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn. And my gosh, I'm glad I finally did. It's a remarkable, beautiful, book. The prose is lovely, the story very moving, the characters involving -- the plot, well, probably just OK but that's not at all the point.
The story is about, no surprise, the last unicorn in the world. As the story opens she is brought to a vague realization that there are no other unicorns anymore, as far as anyone knows. She ends up deciding to search for her fellows, and soon gathers that they were taken away by the agency of the nasty King Haggard, and his mysterious creature the Red Bull. She is captured by a witch running a traveling animal exhibit, but she escapes with the help of a rather incompetent magician named Schmendrick. Schmendrick is tormented by his inability to control his magic in any way, and usually his inability to do any real magic. The two begin to follow Haggard's trail, but Shmendrick is captured by the outlaw Captain Cully, who imagines himself Robin Hood but doesn't quite manage it. Shmendrick escapes, of course, accompanied now also by Molly Grue, a rather faded and beaten down version of Maid Marian who had been cooking for Cully's band for years. And the three make their way to Haggard's strange castle, and to the neighboring town, cursed by prosperity.
At the castle the unicorn encounters the Red Bull, and is unable to deal with it -- and Shmendrick saves her, but by the terrible means of making her a human woman. Admitted to Haggard's haggard castle, they meet his amiable son, and of course the son falls for the unicorn in her womanly form. And eventually she begins to fall for him, once he understands that what she wants is not heroic quests and the heads of dragons and ogres. The shape of the story is clear, and the only resolution -- for Haggard to be deposed and the unicorns freed the Red Bull must be vanquished, and that vanquishing will require a certain sacrifice.
As I said, it's quite wonderful. In particular the first few chapters are astonishingly beautiful: some of the most intense prose I've ever read -- yet always undercut by odd humor and something akin to cynicism but not quite that. These abrupt shifts in tone work startlingly well. Beagle can't really maintain that level, though he reaches such heights again when needed, particularly at the climax. It's truly a treasure.