The Last Unicorn
The last unicorn is one of those books that you think you have read but later found out you really haven’t. I have a few books like that, chief of which is Lord of the Rings. The reason I thought I’ve read the book is because the material around The Last Unicorn is pretty ubiquitous, especially around the whole Unicorns being popular craze of the last few years.
First, you have the animated movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxR6T… Then you have the song from the movie (which has made more of an impression than the actual movie): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2_oy… Then comics: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Unicorn-P…
And then finally the book that spawned it all.
With all that, its little wonder that I thought I had read it when I probably have consumed it a few other times via other mediums. With that said, the book is really a sign of its times, back when authors would add poems and songs to their novels because….I hate to say it, becuase tolkein did it? I almost always skip these sections when they are more than a paragraph long because I have a hard time reading poetry and songs in the middle of my prose.
The story follows that of the unicorn who was led to believe that she is the last of her kind, and thus sets out to find if that is true. In the middle of her quest, she gets captured, find companions, finds the big bad of the book, and finally reaches the conclusion of her quest.
The beauty of the prose is hard to describe, but you feel that you’re floating while you’re reading the gorgeous lustrous prose. I don’t recall reading other Peter Beagle’s books, but the prose is that of the type that takes you away and leaves you slightly breathless. I might be a tad exaggerating, but i’m not too far off.
The style of the world is that of a slightly medieval society but with everyone in the world seemingly to know of modern (in 1960s) events and folks. This type of interesting dichotomy could be disastrous but Peter Beagle handled it mostly becuase its used as a throwaway statement and never really affects the main storyline.
The best part of the book really is that the Unicorn is written in a way that humans can’t really understand her, but she’s not so alien that you cannot see how her actions can be interpreted or misinterpreted. Her grace, beauty and power are all put in full display, as is her alienness of how she thinks. You are put in her shoes for a bit of the book, and you can imagine her as a type of queen, above society, knowing how the others live, but not really able to care, and yet knowing she possesses the power to change their lives drastically.
The story can get a bit dense, but it does move on pretty quickly. I took a while to read it mostly becuase i was taking my time to sun in the prose.
Highly recommended as long as you realize its a book of the times when it was written. Its very good, but it doesn’t move as fast as books in the modern era, but my god, is it prettily written.