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BOOK REVIEW: The Unicorn Anthology, edited by Peter S. Beagle

- Meg 1 Comment

BOOK REVIEW: The Unicorn Anthology, edited by Peter S. BeagleTitle: The Unicorn Anthology by Peter S. Beagle, Jacob Weisman, Garth Nix, Carrie Vaughn, Patricia A. McKillip, Bruce Coville, Carlos Hernandez, Karen Joy Fowler, Jane Yolen, Nancy Springer, Cailtin R. Kiernan, Margo Lanagan
Published by Tachyon Publications
Published: April 19th 2019
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 288
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads

“What a treasure trove!”—Sarah Beth Durst, author of Queen of the Blood

Unicorns: Not just for virgins anymore. Here are sixteen lovely, powerful, intricate, and unexpected unicorn tales from fantasy icons including Garth Nix, Peter S. Beagle, Patricia A. McKillip, Bruce Coville, Carrie Vaughn, and more. In this volume you will find two would-be hunters who enlist an innkeeper to find a priest hiding the secret of the last unicorn. A time traveler tries to corral an unruly mythological beast that might never have existed at all. The lover and ex-boyfriend of a dying woman join forces to find a miraculous remedy in New York City. And a small-town writer of historical romances discovers a sliver of a mysterious horn in a slice of apple pie.

 I love unicorns. The mythology surrounding unicorns is so intriguing to me, especially when the traditional concepts of unicorns are broken down, dismantled, and challenged, and the idea of innocence and purity is explored in so many of the stories in this volume. What does it mean, ultimately, to be innocent and pure? How can one take the familiar myths of unicorns and subvert them?

This is not an anthology for younger readers, as there are references to bestiality (didn’t finish this story), references to sexual acts, and references to heavy-handed violence to people of all ages. This is a collection of stories that will make you reconsider the unicorn trope, and the collection includes a wide variety of stories to appeal  Overall, it’s a solid collection of stories, and I found myself wishing for a few more at the end.

My favorites were “The Maltese Unicorn” by Caitlín R. Kiernan (the lesbian unicorn noir you didn’t know you needed to read until now), “Ghost Town” by Jack C. Haldeman II (brother of Joe Haldeman!, and I also love western-esque stories about rogues being changed by chance encounters in nearly-abandoned towns), “The Highest Justice” by Garth Nix (I love anything Nix writes), “Survivor” by Dave Smeds (a Vietnam soldier gets a unicorn tattooed on his chest and therefore cannot die), “Homeward Bound” by Bruce Coville (he wrote a series of unicorn books for middle grade readers that I thoroughly enjoyed and was happy to see another unicorn story by him!), and “The Transfigured Hart” by Jane Yolen (anything she writes is pure magic and pure joy).

This collection comes with a recommendation from me, especially with the introduction by Peter S. Beagle himself.

This releases April 19, 2019! Thank you to Tachyon Pub and Netgalley for a complimentary copy to read and review. All opinions are my own

BOOK REVIEW: The New Voices of Fantasy, edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman

- Meg

BOOK REVIEW: The New Voices of Fantasy, edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob WeismanTitle: The New Voices of Fantasy by Peter S. Beagle, Jacob Weisman
Published by Tachyon Publications
Published: August 8th 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Fiction
Pages: 336
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads

Ready for the next big thing?

The New Voices of Fantasy spotlights nineteen breakout writers who are reinventing fantasy right now. Usman T. Malik, Sofia Samatar, Eugene Fischer, E. Lily Yu, Ben Loory, Maria Dahvana Headley, Ursula Vernon, Max Gladstone, and other emerging talents have been hand-picked by fantasy legend Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn) and genre expert Jacob Weisman (Treasury of the Fantastic). International, crosscultural, and fearless, many of these rising stars have just or are about to publish their first novels and collections. They bring you childhood stories gone wrong, magical creatures in heat, a building that’s alive and full of waiters, love, ducks, and a new take on a bloodsucking fiend.

Table of Contents:“Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong“Selkie Stories are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar“Tornado’s Siren” by Brooke Bolander“Left the Century to Sit Unmoved” by Sarah Pinsker“A Kiss with Teeth” by Max Gladstone“Jackalope Wives” by Ursula Vernon“The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees” by E. Lily Yu“The Practical Witch’s Guide to Acquiring Real Estate” by A. C. Wise“The Tallest Doll in New York City” by Maria Dahvana Headley“The Haunting of Apollo A7LB” by Hannu Rajaniemi“Here Be Dragons” by Chris Tarry“The One They Took Before” by Kelly Sandoval“Tiger Baby” by JY Yang“The Duck” by Ben Loory“Wing” by Amal El-Mohtar“The Philosophers” by Adam Ehrlich Sachs“My Time Among the Bridge Blowers” by Eugene Fischer“The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado“The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn” by Usman T. Malik

 Edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman, The New Voices of Fantasy is a solid collection of short stories introducing new and familiar readers of fantasy to relatively new writers to the genre. I say relatively, because a good portion of these appear to have been originally published in 2014 and 2015, and it’s 2017 now, so that’s a few years ago now. However, I feel like I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction and follow quite a few of these writers on social media (and follow writers who have introduced some of these writers to me), so those who are either not active on social media or casual readers of the genre will find these to be “new” writers!

My favorite stories in the collection are: Brooke Bolander’s “Tornado’s Siren” that’s about a tornado who falls in love with a girl; Max Gladstone’s “A Kiss With Teeth” that’s about Vlad the Impaler living in the modern age and the struggles he faces in deciding whether or not to remain appearing like a human or to give into his vampiric tendencies; and Ursula Vernon’s “Jackalope Wives” that’s about shapeshifters that brought me to near-tears by the end with longing.

Several of the stories verge on the science/speculative fiction aspect, but genre is something so easily malleable and never a definite thing. It’s a perfect fall read as so many of the stories are terrifying, dark, and beautiful.

Thank you to Netgalley for a review copy! All opinions are my own.

Little List of Reviews #5

- Meg

Here’s another little list of reviews! There isn’t a theme to this list this time, but they’re all books that I’ve been reading on and off for a long time that I’ve finally finished!

Little List of Reviews #5Title: Summerlong by Peter S. Beagle
Published by Tachyon Publications
Published: September 6th 2016
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 240
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads

Beloved author Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn) returns with this long-anticipated new novel, a beautifully bittersweet tale of passion, enchantment, and the nature of fate.
It was a typically unpleasant Puget Sound winter before the arrival of Lioness Lazos. An enigmatic young waitress with strange abilities, when the lovely Lioness comes to Gardner Island even the weather takes notice.
As an impossibly beautiful spring leads into a perfect summer, Lioness is drawn to a complicated family. She is taken in by two disenchanted lovers—dynamic Joanna Delvecchio and scholarly Abe Aronson — visited by Joanna’s previously unlucky-in-love daughter, Lily. With Lioness in their lives, they are suddenly compelled to explore their deepest dreams and desires.
Lioness grows more captivating as the days grow longer. Her new family thrives, even as they may be growing apart. But lingering in Lioness’s past is a dark secret — and even summer days must pass.

Peter S. Beagle can spin a fantastic, beautiful phrase, and I’m looking forward to reading more of his work (can you believe I’ve never read The Last Unicorn??). However, Summerlong didn’t do it for me. I feel like I might have approached this book differently had I know about the mythological twist that reveals itself in the last third of the book, because without having known it, I felt that the fantastic elements of it led to a disconnect between the story that I had become familiar with and the story it ended up being. I don’t recall reading anywhere about the ties to Greek mythology, so it was definitely a wait, what?? sort of moment. I think my lack of enjoyment of the story is completely on me, because I was expecting something more fantasy driven than the contemporary character driven story it is. I felt like I didn’t relate to any of the characters, and it took a long time for me to get through a relatively short novel. If you enjoy stories about coming to life, as it were, after the summer of your life has passed, I think you’ll find this novel right up your alley!

I received a review copy from Netgalley and Tachyon Pub; all opinions are my own.

Little List of Reviews #5Title: Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda, Rus Wooton
Series: Monstress #1
Published by Image Comics
Published: July 19th 2016
Genres: Graphic Novel
Pages: 202
Format: Trade Paper
Source: Purchased
Goodreads

The illustrations in this are amazing and worth it just to peruse it for that, but I found the story incredibly complex and a little unforgiving to casual reading. Not every graphic novel needs to have the ability to just pick up and go, but this is something that will require rereading (either after a first read or while reading it [the latter of which is irritating to me because I really don’t like having to backtrack through a short-form story to find clarity]), so maybe it’s ultimately not the thing for me? The story did become clearer about halfway through once the pieces came together, and I think I’ll read the next ones, but it’s not on the priority list for me at the moment.

Little List of Reviews #5Title: Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A Strauss, J. Richard Gott III
Published by Princeton University Press
Published: September 29th 2016
Genres: Science
Pages: 472
Format: Hardcover
Source: Borrowed
Goodreads

Some of this stuff went way over my head, but it was interesting! And definitely better read in sections as each chapter is essentially a lecture! I liked the structure of it, though. Each chapter built on the one before it, and while it was challenging at times to understand the concepts, I feel like each of the three author’s thoroughly explained the concepts and their relativity (heh) to other concepts in the knowledge we have of our vast universe.