“And whatever centuries of poems, songs, and iconic representations of the heart may have told you, the heart of a human being is not always, or even that often, a compassionate, comforting, nurturing organ. While I’m not going to break down the review on a story-by-story basis, I am going to briefly mention the ones I enjoyed most. There were some stories I preferred to others, the collection as a whole was very strong, and I don’t think there was a bad selection in the bunch. Thankfully, my introduction to Beagle’s short fiction landed at just the right time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. “The whole secret of magic…is that nothing is fixed, nothing is forever that everything…all of it yearns to be something else.” Both are books I plan to revisit, the first to see if my appreciation for it has changed, and the second to find out if reading it at the wrong time could be why I didn’t enjoy it more. Summerlong, on the other hand, fell flat for me, but I’m beginning to think the reason behind that lack of connection was my reading it in the wrong mindset and with impossible expectations. I thought that The Last Unicorn was achingly lovely, and I completely get why it’s considered such a foundational classic of the fantasy genre and why it is so beloved by some of my favorite authors. Before picking up this collection, I had only read two books by him: The Last Unicorn and Summerlong. He is absolutely brilliant at mingling the lovely and imaginative with the quietly heartbreaking.

If I had to choose one word to describe Beagle’s writing, I think I’d have to break the rule and use two: melancholy whimsy. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I admit to liking but not loving most of these, but I can't complain about the quality of any of it! I am quite pleased with the quality of the research and the depth of the myths inside some of the tales. There's even a delightful SF about a lonely guy with an awesome computer who has a penpal across the universe. There was something about this one that really got to me.Įven so, there's a little something for everyone in this collection, especially if you like unicorn tales that don't fit in Beagle's Last Unicorn universe. Indeed, I think I prefer all the stories that had that taste, such as these three: The Very Nasty Aquarium, Great Grandmother in the Cellar, and Underbridge.Įven better are timeless stories like: The Queen Who Could Not Walk. I'm particularly fond of his Steampunk story: Music, When Soft Voices Die which had a particularly awesome horror feel. I'm sure that there will be a ton of fans going ga-ga over the fact that there are two Schmendrick shorts here!Įven so, I think I enjoyed a number of the other stories a bit more.

So far, I've been enjoying Beagle's works and this is my first real taste of his short fiction.

The way home peter beagle