Rating: 
Summary: who will like this book?
Review: In reading other reviews, I noticed that the 5 star reviews got their analyses right on the mark, while many 1 star reviews were lacking any appropriate criticism.
One poor review said that the book could not decide if it was fantasy or parody. A parody, by definition, imitates another piece of work, and there is no other piece of work quite like this one. Peter S. Beagle simply knows what any good writer should know-- that a piece of writing will be boring if it focuses on one emotion or mood to the exclusion of all others. J. R. R. Tolkien and William Shakespeare knew the value of humor in a work which was not expressly written to be humorous, but it is Beagle who finds the perfect balance of humor and beauty in this novel which will take the reader through nearly every emotion there is. This is a book that does NOT make the mistake that all too many fantasy novels make-- taking themselves too seriously. The label "fantasy" does not have a set of laws stating that humor must be avoided at all costs.
That said, you will like this book if:
*you appreciate the amazing things that can be done with the English language.
*you appreciate the amazing things that Peter S. Beagle can do with the English language.
*you won't throw a hissy fit if the ending isn't perfectly happy.
*you like unicorns.
*you enjoy fantasy, but don't insist all fantasy be like Dungeons and Dragons.
*you are a kid at heart.
*you enjoyed the movie.
*you can appreciate a humor which is sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious.
*you like poetry.
*you're looking for story that was written to be perfect, not to sell, and then sell a sequel.
There is no sequel to The Last Unicorn, but at the end you will be wishing there were, not because of loose ends, but because the story is too beautiful to leave.
Rating:
Summary: What insight!!
Review: This is the first book by Peter S. Beagle that I ever read and it remains my favorite. Beagle has such a beautiful talent to deict good and evil very well but also in such a light that you end the book with a renewed hope and beautiful view of life. I rarely read a boo more than once but I have read this book about half a dozen times and am about to read it again. The world just more beautiful when I read it and colors seem to become more vibrant. Any book that helps you look at life, even when it's a fantasy, in such a way that you see the bad but you retain that ope for the good and dreams seem possible is one I want not only on my shelf but several more copies to give out to friends and family.
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK!
Review: I only wish I could have read this book before seeing the movie as a child. The writing in the books are verbatim with most of the lines in the movie, so much so that I find it very hard to separate the two. Thus, my imagination is infinitely jaded so that I can only see the childhood film interpretations. Of course the story is beautiful and somewhat unconventional at that. If this book interests you, I would encourage you to read "The Princess Bride". It too has a movie that lifted most of its lines verbatim from the text, but there's enough extra to make it much better than the film---and SO much funnier.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice, but no Tolkien
Review: I remember watching the movie, the original by Rankin/Bass many many years ago, and fell in love with it. Here I am, 28 years old, and just read the book. This is one case where I think the movie was better.A lot of people compare this particular story to Tolkien. But I have to be honest and say, it is far from his works. Granted it is an interesting story, original. But I found it to be a little boring. It has interesting fantasy, and a great villan (love the bull). But I couldn't help but be slightly bored with the slow travel, and encounters, and very few climactic scenes (or battles). It has it's moments, surely, but it isn't all it's cracked up to be. People make this book sound like it's the next gospel. But I found it to be creative, yet simple, and even though it's fairly small book (which was surprising) it took a while to get through it. And I found some areas difficult to understand, and had to re-read a few paragraphs to understand exactly what was happening. Nevertheless I'm glad I read it. It isn't horrible, it's just been glamourized a little too much. Check out the movie, I think it's actually better.
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