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Summary: I would also like to gush...
Review: ...about Peter Beagle. He writes simple stories that mean more to you the more you read them. He has a quirky and ironic way of writing that makes him fantasy's answer to Vonnegut. I read this book from a proof copy I found at a used book store, which meant it had quite a few typos and some missing lines, which did not make it any less endearing.
This story plays with the form, much like Vonnegut did in Slaughter-House Five. Instead of coming unstuck in time, Beagle's story comes unstuck in narrator, as each chapter is told from inside a different head than the last. By the end, you know all the characters so well it's hard to let go.
This book was a little hard to find, but the search made it sweeter. It is more mature than the Last Unicorn-- there is a sex scene that's probably too vivid for youngsters-- but if you're old enough to handle it, you will enjoy this book.
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Summary: Interesting
Review: A couple of surprises, a dark little love story, plenty of magic, and first person narrative with multiple narrators. How could this book not be fun? It was, rather original, you have to pay attention or the descriptions can get a bit confusing. Reading it twice might make it more enjoyable. I, however, wasn't very moved by the book. If you are looking for an enjoyable story, purely for entertainment, get this book. It was an interesting story, but the overall affect wasn't terribly strong.
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Summary: An improper death and its consequences
Review: According to the Peter S. Beagle fan-site, the author composed a song of the Innkeeper, before he wrote a book from his song---rather like Samuel Taylor Coleridge writing a fantasy novel about Xanadu, years after he had composed his poem of like name:"...A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!" The "Innkeeper's" world is also savage and enchanted, and haunted by a weaver wailing for his drowned lover. Not only does he wail; Tikat, the weaver's apprentice seeks after his lover when a wizard raises her from the bottom of the river and steals her away. Although many readers may know and love Beagle's fantasy "The Last Unicorn," few of them probably know that he also writes songs. To the inn, "There came three ladies at sundown: /one was as brown as bread is brown, /one was black, with a sailor's sway, /and one was pale as the moon by day." I wish I could hum the tune for you. This book reminds me of the author's "A Fine and Private Place," as both are about the dead who refuse to die, or are not allowed to stay dead because of love or other unfinished business. "Innkeeper" is told from numerous points of view---something I don't normally like--- but Beagle consummately weaves his characters' stories together into a single time and place. His tapestry is almost complete by the time three women come to stay at an inn called 'The Gaff and Slasher.' We learn of the already-woven pattern through flashbacks and dialogue. The innkeeper, Karsh knows that the three women are going to cause trouble: "The white one wore an emerald ring, /the brown led a fox on a silver string, /and the black one carried a rosewood cane /with a sword inside, for I saw it plain." The fox-who-is-not-a-fox immediately slaughters one of the innkeeper's chickens. The women hunt for a dying wizard, and keep the rest of his guests awake all night with their fighting and chanting. A starving boy collapses in his yard. When brought back to life the boy, Tikat yearns hopelessly after the woman who "was pale as the moon by day." She doesn't remember who he is. "The Innkeeper's Song" won a Locus Award and the Mythopoetic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature in 1994. It really is that good.
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Summary: Disappointing
Review: After reading 'The Last Unicorn', I must say I was not impressed with Peter Beagle`s latest work, which seems to combine all the worst elements of his writing and none of the best. Set in a colorless, drab, nondescript world, the story is told from a dozen different perspectives in a somewhat rag-tag style. Beagle is painfully obvious in his attempts to develop the characters or make us believe that some great depth lies beneath the surface of each one (a too-terrible-to-talk-about-past, a love too deep to put into words,etc.) and it is through this blatant lack of subtlety that all attempts fall flat. The total absence of any sense of morality only increased my dislike for the characters, though I got the impression that it was intended for amusement. The ideas that pervade the book are aimless, contrived in accordance with the plot instead of the other way around; thus the entire book has little more substance than the song upon which it was based
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Summary: Unique fantasy book left me wanting to read more
Review: Any book that ends leaving me wanting to know more, to follow the characters through more adventures, to find out what happens to each of them next, immediately gets 4-5 stars from me. And that was the case here...when I read the last words of the book I found myself wishing there was more to read, more to enjoy, more to learn about the characters. I will admit that the book took a little while for me to get into. It didn't immediately grab me, and the style of each chapter being told from a different character's perspective was at first off-putting. But somewhere around page 25-50, I suddenly found myself sucked into the book. It wasn't the plot, which I'd say was just so-so, almost a bit formulaic. No, what sucked me in was the richness of the characters. Even the assassins, who appear for very short periods of time, were interesting. If you enjoy fantasy books but are tired of straightforward storytelling, try this one out. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
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Summary: An Elegant Fantasy Which Transcends Genre
Review: Beagle is one of the finest fantasy novelists currently writing, and for those who hunger for mature and literate stories his work appears far too infrequently. As in "The Last Unicorn" or "The Folk Of The Air", his writing rises far beyond the typical trappings of sword & sorcery. In "The Innkeeper's Song", Beagle starts us off with what appear to be recognizeable fantasy cliches - the old wizard, hard-bitten mercenaries, the crotchety taverner - and then stands each of them on their heads. Instead, Beagle weaves a subtle, intricate tale of deception, loyalty, and love, in which the characters having the adventure are at least as important as the adventure itself. By writing each chapter from the first-person perspective of a different character, he not only underscores differences in perception, but takes the reader deep inside each of his literary creations. In the hands of a lesser writer, this would be nothing but an annoying gimmick. But under Beagle's masterful guidance, it serves to make these characters living, breathing people. From hard, competent swordswoman Lal, to the dreamy stableboy Rosseth, to fat, cynical innkeeper Karsh, the reader comes to know them like old friends. A marvelous story which will linger in the mind long after the last page is read.
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Summary: Beagle is the best, and he just gets better and better.
Review: Beagle is the best, and he just gets better and better. This is the third time I've gead this book, and I can't praise it highly enough. A thrilling (and sexy) adventure/fantasy, and so much more--the world he creates here is as powerful as Leguin's Earthsea, and his magic is equally profound and moving. And on each return, the book deepens. Very, very fine.
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Summary: Tired of Epics with the inevitable Dragon? Read this.
Review: Fed up with those bloated "trilogies," now on book 7 or 8, when the story died during book two? Want more than Fantasy soap opera and Fantasy-Light? Than read this book. YesYesYes. The fox character is a rare creation - you feel how alien he is from human ways and emotions, he's not just a human character who gets furry now and then. The fox character is as vivid and unusual a character as Golum was in "Lord of the Rings." The orgy scene was weird, and I still don't know if I liked it, but it made discovering Nyateneri's secret a delicious surprise! I was absolutely *mesmerized* by Beagle's handling of the fight scene between Nyateneri and the two strange men who had trapped her inside the steam room. And also, again, when Tikat is pursuing after his Lukassa - Beagle's description of the starvation, delirium and exhaustion that Tikat suffered was so convincing that I re-read the same paragraphs over and over just for the pleasure of hearing the rhythm and cadence of Tikat's voice.
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Summary: Fantasic...
Review: How quickly Harry Potter became second on my list of favorite books after reading this. The journey is long and imaginative, and I could not put it down. If you are in need of escaping the horror of our current life on this planet, open this book. You will feel as though you are in the taverns and on the less traveled roads in this story. You will soon come to love the fox, and the love story, and the magic and danger. It is a story told from many points of view, each chapter titled after the character telling the story from that point. Sometimes you will go back and sometimes you will hear the last chapter all over again, and never with a lull in the pace. Peter S. Beagle is a master of words and storytelling. He takes the fantasy genre and pushes it onward with the stroke of genius he used to write this little novel. I highly recommend investing a few hours into this story, and the limits of your imagination will be forever changed.
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Summary: Uncomparable to the Last Unicron
Review: I applaud the previous reviews which praised "song" for it's originality and varios POV. To the fans who complain that it isn't the Last Unicorn...yes, it isn't the last unicorn. It is a bit unfair to judge Beagle's Song to a novel he wrote nearly 30 years before. Must artists always "live up to" or copy their previous work. I love Song. I also love Unicorn and Place. I love all of his works for different reasons. Song is edgy, sharper, perhaps a bit racy, and less linear than Unicorn. I don't think we should count these as strikes against it. If you or a Beagle fan and haven't read it do so, but don't pine away for Unicron in the back of your mind or you'll miss some of the book's best points. I loved the continuation of the metamorphis them in SOng with Lukassa's resurrection and Nyatenrri. The wizard I think, is not that flat of a charcter, less is more people.
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