The Last Unicorn

Rating:
Summary: Sad, really...
Review: I am one of those who grew up with the movie, and dreamed about unicorns thanks to this author. Only recently did I actually pick up the book to read. It was very different from my childhood fantasy. The book is very sad and philosophical, not a light easy read. It is one of those very believable books, where, though the characters are princes and magicians and unicorns, you can understand and sympathise with them.

Beagle deals with the thoughts on immortality very well, and gives a reader plenty to think about. The reason that I only gave it three stars is because it is a slow read, and I didn't feel satisfied after reading it. But perhaps that is what the author was going for, after all.

Rating:
Summary: A true fairy tale
Review: What seperates fantasy and fairy tale? It's a fine line, but this one is definitely in the latter category. It's truly literature, with a poetic type prose that breaths an otherworldly life to the characters, and the insight into the mind of the unicorn is breathtaking. There is not a paint by numbers storyline, but in fact one that is original and unlike anything I have read before or since. The animated movie was my original introduction to this story - about a unicorn's quest to discover if she's really the last unicorn left upon the earth. Touching, romantic, and emotional, there are plot twists that leave the reader wondering what will happen next, provided they have not witnessed the movie beforehand as a warmup. A sentimental must read for anyone who loves a well written story.

Rating:
Summary: The Last Unicorn
Review: This book is one of the best books I've read. And that is saying alot for I read 24/7!!! I kinda knew already what would happen because I've seen the cartoon movie years ago. Since that was great and could still remember it I wanted to see if the book is just as great.

This is a story of a quest, the search by the unicorn-immortal, infinitely beautiful-for her lost fellows. Early on, she is joined by Schmendrick the Magician. A kind of upside-down Merlin, Schmendrick is looking for something for himself too, his life perhaps. Molly Grue, the third of the travelers, seems simply to embody every womanly trait. After a richl entertaining variety of adventures the search reaches its climax at the castle of evil King Haggard, where the terrifying Red Bull is encountered and where the handsome Prince Lir plays his predestined role.

I like the whole book but the ending. It was sad and tears were falling from my eyes. I won't give the ending away but it should have told us what happened to the characters.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful story...a heart wrenching story
Review: Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved The Last Unicorn. A couple of years ago I finally got the book, and I was amazed at how much better the book is than the movie. The story is very romantic, sad, and dark. Anyone who's a huge fan of fantasy novels, and especially unicorns, will love this story. You will remember it for years to come, and will probably read it many many times.

Rating:
Summary: Post-Modern Fantasy of the Highest Order
Review: Hidden away in a lilac wood, the last unicorn cares little for the outside world. After all, she is magic and she is immortal. However, when she hears that she might be the only unicorn left in the world, she sets out on a journey to see if there are any of her kind left. After being captured by a freak show she meets and joins forces with a bumbling magician, Schmendrick, and later, a middle aged maiden, Molly Grue. Together these three embark on a quest that will take them into the dangerous realm of King Haggard. It will be here that the last unicorn will have to face her nemesis, the Red Bull, in order to free the rest of her kind.

To a large extent, Peter Beagle's book is considered an interesting work of fantasy because it was one of the first post-modern science fiction novels. The most salient feature of post-modern science fiction is a rebellion against the classical fantasy/science fiction novel that creates a world that is completely separate from our own. In this traditional world the characters say and do things that are completely in line with the small universe that the author has created in his novel. The author strives to draw the reader completely into the story. Beagle rebels against this by creating a novel that constantly pulls the reader out of the novel, back in to the real world, only to slide back into the plot. The Last Unicorn is a novel that is written in this post-modern style, of which many examples can be found.

Beagle does not immediately strike you with his departure from traditional fantasy. The unicorn lives in a lilac wood all by herself, in what is seemingly a medieval world. There are kings and wizards and peasants. But just when the reader is being drawn into this "other" world, Beagle introduces a character to disrupt it in the form of a talking butterfly. The thing that pulls the reader out of Beagle's world, back into his own, is not the butterfly's ability to talk (that, after all, is not too bizarre in a fantasy novel), but what he has to say. Among the many things that do not belong in a traditional fantasy novel, but work well in a post-modern one, are the butterflies' references to Shakespeare "you're a fishmonger," children's singalongs "you are my sunshine," and songs from America's pop culture "Won't you come home, Bill Bailey, won't you come home."

Now, a veteran of fantasy could probably come up with a list of science fiction cliches that could explain this odd knowledge. Perhaps the butterfly learned these phrases by falling into a wormhole and spending time in our world. Maybe the butterfly is in fact a traveler from our world, secretly disguised. Or, perhaps this is really some bizarre post-apocalyptic world where after many millions of years and genetic mutation, the new inhabitants of our planet are uncovering our twentieth-century pop culture. But this, like other details in Beagle's novel that clearly do not fit in with the rest of the story, and are not easily explained away.

Evidence of Beagle's unorthodox style can be seen later when Schmendrick and Molly are taken captive by Captain Cully. Schmendrick tries to flatter the outlaw by pretending that he has heard of many of the outlaw's exploits. As Cully begins to fall for this, he becomes much more friendly with Schmendrick, offering the wizard a place by his fire, an invitation to talk of what people supposedly say about Cully in other countries, and with a unique twist, a taco. An odd foodstuff for outlaws seemingly modeled after Robin Hood. Later, Schmendrick spends a good part of the night making up stories about the glories of Captain Cully. The reader learns later on that most of these tales came from his "good grounding in Anglo-Saxon folklore."

Beagle uses many other small descriptions to rip the reader out of his fantasy world. At one point a prince is described "reading a magazine." At another point, Prince Lir is described as having armor that is partially made of bottlecaps.

A more subtle example of post-modern fantasy is the birth of Prince Lir. The Prince was found on butcher's block, warm despite the fact that it was snowing, surrounded by stray cats. As Drinn, the villager that found him said "it purred prophecy." But it is at this point that Beagle breaks the spell. If this were a traditional fantasy, Drill would have become the foster parent for the boy and raised him. But this is not traditional fantasy. Drill instead scares away the cats and leaves the baby to what he expects will be death; because, he fears that the child that seems to have an aura of destiny around him might grow to be the one that brings down the prophecy of doom that had been cursed upon his town by a witch.

These are just a few of the many examples that make The Last Unicorn a very different, but very beautiful, kind of fantasy. The post-modern style of fantasy, or the fantastic, has had a hard time being accepted by many hard core fantasy fans. Many critics do not like novels that try to constantly toss the reader back and forth between the world of fantasy in the book, and the real world. These people find it very hard to take the story seriously. Others, however, are able to enjoy the beauty of a book such as this. They see The Last Unicorn and books like it as a fantasy novel that does not take itself too seriously, and can use references from real life as a form of humor and another form of expression in the novel. Imagination, after all, isn't a bad thing to have, especially in a fantasy world.

The Last Unicorn is a beautiful book, one that is filled with holes and spaces that draw you into its beauty and let you become a part of its creation.

Rating:
Summary: Post-Modern Fantasy of the Highest Order
Review: Hidden away in a lilac wood, the last unicorn cares little for the outside world. After all, she is magical and she is immortal. However, when she hears that she might be the only unicorn left in the world, she sets out on a journey to see if there are any of her kind left. After being captured by a freak show she meets and joins forces with a bumbling magician, Schmendrick, and later, a middle aged maiden, Molly Grue. Together these three embark on a quest that will take them into the dangerous realm of King Haggard. It will be there that the last unicorn will have to face her nemesis, the Red Bull, in order to free the rest of her kind.

To a large extent, Peter Beagle's book is considered an interesting work of fantasy because it was one of the first post-modern science fiction novels. The most salient feature of post-modern science fiction is a rebellion against the classical fantasy/science fiction novel that creates a world that is completely separate from our own. In this traditional science fiction/fantasy world the characters say and do things that are completely in line with the small universe the author has created in his novel. The author strives to draw the reader completely into the story. Beagle rebels against this by creating a novel that constantly pulls the reader out of the novel, back in to the real world, only to slide back into the plot. The Last Unicorn is the novel written in this post-modern style, of which many examples can be found.

Beagle does not immediately strike you with his departure from traditional fantasy. The unicorn lives in a lilac wood all by herself, in what is seemingly a medieval world. There are kings and wizards and peasants. But just when the reader is being drawn into this "other" world, Beagle introduces a character to disrupt it in the form of a talking butterfly. The thing that pulls the reader out of Beagle's world, back into his own, is not the butterfly's ability to talk (that, after all, is not too bizarre in a fantasy novel), but what he has to say. Among the many things that do not belong in a traditional fantasy novel, but work well in a post-modern one, are the butterflies references to Shakespeare "you're a fishmonger," children's singalongs "you are my sunshine," and songs from America's pop culture "Won't you come home, Bill Bailey, won't you come home."

Now, a veteran of fantasy could probably come up with a list of science fiction cliches that could explain this odd knowledge. Perhaps the butterfly learned these phrases by falling into a wormhole and spending time in our world. Maybe the butterfly is in fact a traveler from our world, secretly disguised. Or, perhaps this is really some bizarre post-apocalyptic world where after many millions of years and genetic mutation, the new inhabitants of our planet are uncovering our twentieth-century pop culture. But this, like other details in Beagle's novel that clearly do not fit in with the rest of the story, and are not easily explained away.

Evidence of Beagle's unorthodox style can be seen later when Schmendrick and Molly are taken captive by Captain Cully. Schmendrick tries to flatter the outlaw by pretending that he has heard of many of the outlaw's exploits. As Cully begins to fall for this, he becomes much more friendly with Schmendrick, offering the wizard a place by his fire, an invitation to talk of what people supposedly say about Cully in other countries, and a unique twist, a taco. An odd foodstuff for outlaws seemingly modeled after Robin Hood! Later, Schmendrick spends a good part of the night making up stories about the glories of Captain Cully. The reader learns later on that most of tales came from his "good grounding in Anglo-Saxon folklore."

Beagle uses many other small descriptions to rip the reader out of his fantasy world. At one point a prince is described "reading a magazine." At another point, Prince Lir is described as having armor that is partially made of bottlecaps.

A more subtle example of post-modern fantasy is the birth of Prince Lir. The Prince was found on butcher's block, warm despite the fact that it was snowing, surrounded by stray cats. As Drinn, the villager that found him said "it purred prophecy." But it is at this point that Beagle breaks the spell. If this were a traditional fantasy, Drill would have become the foster parent for the boy and raised him. But this is not traditional fantasy. Drill instead scares away the cats and leaves the baby to what he expects will be death; he fears that the child that seems to have an aura of destiny around him might grow to be the one that brings down the prophecy of doom that had been cursed upon his town by a witch.

These are just a few of the many examples that make The Last Unicorn a very different, but very beautiful, kind of fantasy. The post-modern style of fantasy, or the fantastic, has had a hard time being accepted by many hard core fantasy fans. Many critics do not like novels that try to constantly toss the reader back and forth between the world of fantasy in the book, and the real world we inhabit day-to-day. These people find it very hard to take the story seriously. Others, however, are able to enjoy the beauty of a book such as this. They see The Last Unicorn and books like it as a fantasy novel that does not take itself too seriously, and can use references from real life as a form of humor and another form of expression in the novel. Imagination isn't a bad thing to have, after all, especially in a fantasy world.

The Last Unicorn is a beautiful book, one that is filled with holes and spaces that draw you into its beauty and let you become a part of its creation.

Rating:
Summary: No, no. Don't listen to me. Listen.
Review: I have read this book a numerous amount of times and I still learn something new every time. It starts out making you think that it's generally about a unicorn who cannot find others like herself in the world. A butterfly comes by and tells her that a creature called the Red Bull has driven all the unicorns into the sea for his owner, King Haggard. This unicorn was the last. So the unicorn sets out on a journey that would forever change her life. Along the way, she meets a want-to-be wizard, but he is only a kindly skinny magician. And a woman named Molly Grue. When finally they reach King Haggard's castle, the Red Bull senses the unicorn's presence. The only way the unicorn can escape and save her people is by turning into something else. So her magician turns her into a human. They get into King Haggard's castle and stay there for a while. And as the unicorn becomes more human, she forgets that she was once a unicorn and she forgets her mission and why she actually came to King Haggard's castle. And through everything, the unicorn learns to love, cry, and even regret. And as her last few touching words, she says, "I am the only unicorn that regrets. I regret. And I thank you for that, too." It's a must read for any emotional lover of fantasy. Or even anyone who isn't. You'll love it. It's an amazing look at the human world of emotions through the eyes of a creature who has just began to feel them.

Rating:
Summary: very nice Book.
Review: i saw the Movie and read the Book and they both blew me away. this Book is a good recommendation for you who likes Fantasies and J.R.R. Tolkein.

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular blend of Prose and good storytelling....
Review: The movie does not hold a candle to this delightful story.

Rating:
Summary: 1,000,000,000 stars
Review: I grew up watching this movie. This was one of my favorite cartoon movie when I was younger. It was such a well made movie. I thought that the voice of the Unicorn (Mia Farrow) was ever so enchanting for an immortal creature. I had tried over the years to find the movie, but couldn't find it. It had been out of print for quite some time. Well thanks for time and a little bit later I finally did get to buy the movie. The next thing I wanted to do was to find the novel and read it. I had wondered if the novel had the same power as the movie had. I was so happy to find out that it did. I was so happy to find out that the guy who wrote the screenplay for the movie was also the writer of the novel... Peter S. Beagle. I have read a few of his works since then and have been impressed... He is a great author. In a biography of himself he had said, that "The Last Unicorn" was the only novel that anyone ever identifies him with. If I were him, I would feel honored to have such a beautiful story to be remembered by.