{"id":86,"date":"2005-06-26T08:38:05","date_gmt":"2005-06-26T15:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=86"},"modified":"2021-05-31T19:53:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T23:53:00","slug":"the-last-unicorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/86","title":{"rendered":"The Last Unicorn"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Last Unicorn<\/em> (1968) by Peter S. Beagle<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Although I’ve read other books by Peter S. Beagle, I had not yet read The Last Unicorn<\/em>. It’s mentioned as a classic, and I kept getting stunned disbelief that I had never read it, so I finally picked up a copy.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was a case over a book being overhyped, and of raising my expectations too high to be met.<\/p>\n

Because although the book was good, I didn’t think it was great, and I don’t think I would qualify it as a classic. <\/p>\n

In fact, I prefer The Innkeeper’s Song<\/em> (1993) and Giant Bones<\/em> (1997) to The Last Unicorn<\/em>. Part of it was the writing: I could see the writing style that I liked in the later books, but for me, it wasn’t quite there yet. <\/p>\n

The story was very good–the last unicorn’s search for her lost kindred, as she’s joined by some of the few others who can see her for what she truly is. And I really liked the Magician Schmendrick. But then I love charlatans and scoundrels. (Which is amusing beacause I’m quite sure that I wouldn’t like them at all in real life.)<\/p>\n

This doesn’t make this a bad book by any stretch–because it isn’t a bad book. I just wouldn’t personally qualify it as a classic, and given my druthers, I’d rather read Giant Bones<\/em>.
\nRating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Last Unicorn (1968) by Peter S. Beagle Although I’ve read other books by Peter S. Beagle, I had not yet read The Last Unicorn. It’s mentioned as a classic, and I kept getting stunned disbelief that I had never read it, so I finally picked up a copy. Perhaps it was a case over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,291],"tags":[317],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","tag-peter-s-beagle"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1o","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":408,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/408","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":0},"title":"The Line Between","author":"Michelle","date":"July 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Line Between (2006) Peter S. Beagle The Line Between is a collection of short (and some not so short) stories by Peter S. Beagle. It contains two short stories that are related to two of his books. Two Hearts is a sequel to The Last Unicorn and looks at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Line-Between.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":158,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/158","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":1},"title":"The Innkeeper’s Song","author":"Michelle","date":"November 14, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Innkeeper's Song (1993) Peter S. Beagle I read The Innkeeper's Song several years ago--probably soon after it was published, and I picked it up solely on the strength of its cover. I'm a sucker for fantasy books with strong females, and the three women on the cover--especially Lal on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/11\/Inkeepers-Song.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3199,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3199","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":2},"title":"Return","author":"Michelle","date":"October 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Return (2010) Peter S. Beagle Return takes us back to the world of The Innkeeper's Song. Soukyan is still being chased by Hunters--trained assassins who have been after him since he escaped from that place--a place that seems to be a monastary, and where Soukyan had fled to as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Return.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8618,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8618","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":3},"title":"Beyond the Pale: A Fantasy Anthology","author":"Michelle","date":"January 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Beyond the Pale: A Fantasy Anthology (2014) edited by Henry Herz I probably started reading this right after it came out, and got hung up on a single story. Two years later I decided to skip through the stories that didn't interest me and finish the anthology. \u201cHooves and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Beyond-Pale.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2328,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2328","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":4},"title":"Full Moon City","author":"Michelle","date":"April 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Full Moon City (2010) edited by Darrell Schweitzer and Martin H Greenberg I love anthologies. Though I have to admit that with the way paranormal romance has taken off, the ratio of wheat to chaff has been unfavorable for me. However, Carrie Vaughn and Peter S. Beagle were pretty compelling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Full-Moon-City.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22636,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22636","url_meta":{"origin":86,"position":5},"title":"Foxglove Summer, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"January 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Foxglove Summer Audio Book (2014) Ben Aaronovitch narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Rivers of London) it was clear that requests for assistance were now being routed through the Police National Information Coordination Center (PNICC), commonly pronounced \u201cpanic\u201d\u2014particularly if you\u2019ve reached the stage of having to call it. The problem was that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Foxglove Summer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Foxglove-Summer-e1510876641386.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}