Peter S. Beagle

A strange young woman enters the lives of Abe, a historian, and his partner Joanna, a flight attendant, who live on an island in Puget Sound. The presence of Lionesse, for that is her name, affects their lives, and those of friends and neighbors in strange ways, including even the weather. This is a captivating novel, as one expects from Beagle. The characters are well draw and memorable, and they fit in well with their physical surroundings, and the mystery of Lioness and the other characters who are appear with her is teased out well. A very enjoyable, rewarding book.… (lisätietoja)

TW: Animal death, blood, child death, death, kidnapping, loss of a child, violence, sexual assault of a child

It’s nice to once again see Schmendrick and Molly Grue, and a delight to meet Sooz, who is certainly either brave or stupid for her age. King Lír I didn’t expect to be so old, but I guess the book takes place a long time after The Last Unicorn. His eyes are described as “so tired and heavy, I didn’t know how he kept them open. Sometimes he didn’t.” I cared deeply about what happened to these characters, even Sooz who is a new character to me. She seemed a valiant little girl. Especially when she said she’d go find Jenia. I like that her mother didn’t argue with her, just told her to wait until after the lambing season and not to tell her father when she leaves.

Beagle does a lot of descriptions in his writing, such as “they had a fireplace big enough to roast three cows,” that paints an image in your head of how things are. I could easily picture the setting, and the creatures. The humans were a little harder, though he did mention things like Schmendrick’s green eyes and how they were the green like the shadows of a forest are green. It almost felt like you could reach out and touch the griffin and its iron feathers.

I love Beagle’s writing style, though his chapters have always been a bit long. Though this is a novella rather than a novel, so it makes sense for it to have gone longer than his chapters in The Last Unicorn. It was easy to read, and I rather enjoyed the flow of it. I’d definitely read his other books, if my TBR ever gets anywhere near done I hope to read the rest of his books. The second novella seems to have chapters, so I’m not sure why the first one didn’t? But I am glad for the breaks in the second one, they help me “catch my breath” so to speak.

The pacing was good, I didn’t feel like any parts particularly dragged on. I enjoyed the plot and was happy when Sooz bumped into Schmendrick and Molly Grue, who I immediately recognized before their names were even introduced. I loved seeing Lír again too, even if he was an old man this time. I’d actually love to know just how many years have passed since the original story! Also, was not expecting the sexual assault. Be warned when reading the second novella that it is not always a happy story.

I had quite a few interruptions while trying to read this book, but it was easy to jump back in and pick it back up. It held my attention throughout (except when people came up to me and asked me to do things) and I genuinely wanted to get to the end to see how things went.

The characters stuck pretty solidly to their own motives, with King Lír sticking to his usual hero ways and Schmendrick only using magic when necessary, even though he’s much better at it now than he was in the the last book. Molly Grue is still a sweet woman with a fire in her, and Sooz, dear Sooz, I knew she would end up facing the griffin that terrorized her town even though I wasn’t sure how that would go.

I loved the novellas overall, and would recommend it to others who have read The Last Unicorn. I particularly like the line, “Remembering, it seems to me that I didn’t have anything like hope or any vision at that point. All I had was plain blind stubbornness. Sometimes that will do.”… (lisätietoja)