Customer Reviews

Peter S. Beagle's Immortal Unicorn

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have always been a fan of books on unicorns and this one is no exception. Truth is aside from 'The Last Unicorn", also by Peter S. Beagle this would have to be one of my favorite. It is a renewal in the faith of the unicorn. If you don't believe in them now, you will after reading this coalecance of stories written by exceptional writers including Peter S. Beagle. Each story holds new worlds, new ideas and new outlooks that captures everything that denotes what I have grownup and loved...the immortal unicorn.

Okay, I admit that I'm only half-done reading the stories in this excellent book, but I am completely hooked. A big fan of unicorns as a child, I guess I never grew up, but the market for ADULT unicorn stories isn't that big. What a find this was! The traditional unicorn isn't pictured here, but the stories are somtimes funny, sometimes haunting, and always memorable. Savor it!

If you think you might enjoy a unicorn snuff film, you'll probably relish this short story collection. Beagle has collected a diverse set of fantasies about creatures very unlike the traditional colt-like being with a horn and a penchant for virgins (although a few of those time-honored beasts do show up in strange settings). He could very easily have done a bit of cut and paste and called his book, "Immortal Dragon," or "Immortal Manticore" for all the 'unicorn-ness' of the featured mythical beast.

Here is a sampling of the stories, starting with my two favorites:

"Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros" by Peter S. Beagle - A unicorn in the guise of a smelly Indian Rhinoceros that loves to discuss the Scholastics and take hot baths? It works for Beagle, who exhibits his usual deft touch at the border between life and immortality.

"Gilgamesh Recidivus" by P.D. Cacek - a grim story of a man who tracks a unicorn through the cold barrens of Siberia, in order to beg for death, not immortality.

"The Devil on Myrtle Ave." by Eric Lustbader - a long, somewhat incoherent tale of a stone killer whose mother ODs on the first page. A little silver unicorn dangles from his nose chain as he goes about his daily rounds of break-ins, armed robberies, and murder.

"The Trouble with Unicorns" by Nancy Willard - A man has his beloved cat put down due to the infirmities of old age. While looking for another pet, he finds an ad for an enrocinul.

"Old One-Antler" by Michael Armstrong - A man takes his thirteen-year-old son on a hunting trip to teach him how to shoot. A bull caribou with a missing horn instructs the father on the true meaning of manhood.

"Taken He Cannot Be" by Will Shetterly - Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday go hunting a rustler and find him at creek-side, three sheets to the wind and reading aloud from the "Illiad." A unicorn accompanies the posse of two.

Right when I had decided to title a novel "Immortal Unicorn", I found this anthology. Oh well! There is a lack of unicorn stories in the world, so I always welcome something new in the genre. Some of these stories are good and some aren't, as is to be expected. You can even tell that some of these stories were made just for the anthology, which means they were forced. Despite this, I think anyone who loves the unicorn will love the book, just because unicorns are so darn rare.

I hated this collection. It is a mash of wildly different themes, mainly uninteresting, pedestrian writing, and the whole concept was deeply exploitive of Beagle's own success. Indeed, the only well-crafted interesting short story in the mix was his "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros." There is no unifying type of story, with high brow literary works straining towards horror, some mild sprinkling of science fiction and urban fantasy. Many stories are simply incoherent; others include the mandatory reference to unicorns as an extremely minor chord. Altogether, this work is out of print and deserves to stay there.

Peter S. Beagle's fantastic world of unicorns and magic comes alive in a whole new way in this collection of extraordinary stories. Although all of the stories allude to unicorns in a fashion, nonconventional beliefs about them are expressed. Each individual author brings a new perspective. For example, in We Blazed, the "nicorn" is the representation of a man in his wife's mind, where he realizes what griefs consumed her whether they were true or false. In A Thief in the Night, the narrator, the Antichrist, compares God to the immortal unicorn and one of the Christs to a beach comber. I loved the insight found in many of these stories; coping with life, love, and loss, the characters spread messages of hope or slight despair. All authors eloquently spoke with individual voices collected by the general themes of immortality and mortality.

Some of the stories in here just mention the unicorn and that's it, but it's still a cool book. I gives you a new definiton of unicorn. When I think of a unicorn I see a horse whith cloven hooves, a lions tail and a horn in the middle of it's forhead, but in this book you get to read about other types of unicorns too. For exsample: A caribou named "Old one Antler", is a caribou that can heal the sick, live forever and make a person immortal. Anyways, in closing I would like to say that this is a good book.