The Way Home
Just finished reading "The Way Home" by Peter S. Beagle, released by ACE Books.
Should a beloved fantasy classic have a sequel? It was a question I found myself asking when I started reading "The Way Home. Not too many people are aware that J.R.R. Tolkien actually started writing, but abandoned, wisely some would say a sequel trilogy to "The Lord of The Rings," which was actually a sequel and/or continuation of "The Hobbit." And while William Goldman has never actually written a sequel to "The Princess Bride," he spoofed an unwritten sequel to his classic work called "Buttercup's Baby," which is rarely mentioned these days.
"The Way Home" features two novellas set decades after the events of "The Last Unicorn" - "Two Hearts" which is the direct sequel to Beagle's beloved fantasy classic in which he introduces nine-year old Sooz, who when her village is terrorized by a Griffin who has started snatching and eating her friends, goes off to seek help from the distant king. On her journey to the king, she runs into Schmendrick and Molly Grue who take her in and accompany her on her quest to see the king, who is their old friend Prince Lir.
It's Molly who tells Sooz that Schmendrick gets time wrong - suggesting that both have the ability to move to past, present, and future. Schmendrick himself makes the odd comment about wanting to be able to feel his mortality - suggesting that both he and Molly are immortal. Yet it is Sooz who rushes in to face the griffin when it kills her beloved dog Malka, who gives Schmendrick the finial impetus he needs to sing out to the unicorn.
"Two Hearts," while a compelling tale of courage, hope, and acceptance of time and passing, just doesn't have the same magic as "The Last Unicorn." It's more of a here's what happened to our heroes years later kind of tale that is as unfinished as life itself.
Now at the end of "Two Hearts" Molly gives Sooz a gift, a tune she can whistle on her 17th birthday that will allow her to call out to someone special to her and sets up the jumping off point for the next novella - "Sooz."
Hoping to see Molly, or Schemdrick, or even the Unicorn again, Sooz goes out to a place special to her and whistles the tune that Molly had taught her. Only she doesn't see her old friends, she instead sees a girl and finds out that it's her sister who had been taken by the dreamies, fairies. Sooz also finds out that she is a changeling left in place of her stolen sister. So like she did so many years ago, Sooz sets off an a quest to rescue her lost sister and return her home to their parents.
Now if I'm remembering correctly, Beagle had resisted the temptation to write a sequel to "The Last Unicorn," and it would be unfair not to point out that "Two Hearts" did win the Hugo and Nebula awards back in 2006. But was it a necessary story? He's never to my knowledge written a sequel to his classic story "Come, Lady Death." Sometimes ever after is left to a reader's own imagination.
Both novellas are well written, and it's "Two Hearts" that has the most magic. But necessary? Only each reader can answer that question for himself.
Recommended.
Four Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Way-Home-Novel...
Should a beloved fantasy classic have a sequel? It was a question I found myself asking when I started reading "The Way Home. Not too many people are aware that J.R.R. Tolkien actually started writing, but abandoned, wisely some would say a sequel trilogy to "The Lord of The Rings," which was actually a sequel and/or continuation of "The Hobbit." And while William Goldman has never actually written a sequel to "The Princess Bride," he spoofed an unwritten sequel to his classic work called "Buttercup's Baby," which is rarely mentioned these days.
"The Way Home" features two novellas set decades after the events of "The Last Unicorn" - "Two Hearts" which is the direct sequel to Beagle's beloved fantasy classic in which he introduces nine-year old Sooz, who when her village is terrorized by a Griffin who has started snatching and eating her friends, goes off to seek help from the distant king. On her journey to the king, she runs into Schmendrick and Molly Grue who take her in and accompany her on her quest to see the king, who is their old friend Prince Lir.
It's Molly who tells Sooz that Schmendrick gets time wrong - suggesting that both have the ability to move to past, present, and future. Schmendrick himself makes the odd comment about wanting to be able to feel his mortality - suggesting that both he and Molly are immortal. Yet it is Sooz who rushes in to face the griffin when it kills her beloved dog Malka, who gives Schmendrick the finial impetus he needs to sing out to the unicorn.
"Two Hearts," while a compelling tale of courage, hope, and acceptance of time and passing, just doesn't have the same magic as "The Last Unicorn." It's more of a here's what happened to our heroes years later kind of tale that is as unfinished as life itself.
Now at the end of "Two Hearts" Molly gives Sooz a gift, a tune she can whistle on her 17th birthday that will allow her to call out to someone special to her and sets up the jumping off point for the next novella - "Sooz."
Hoping to see Molly, or Schemdrick, or even the Unicorn again, Sooz goes out to a place special to her and whistles the tune that Molly had taught her. Only she doesn't see her old friends, she instead sees a girl and finds out that it's her sister who had been taken by the dreamies, fairies. Sooz also finds out that she is a changeling left in place of her stolen sister. So like she did so many years ago, Sooz sets off an a quest to rescue her lost sister and return her home to their parents.
Now if I'm remembering correctly, Beagle had resisted the temptation to write a sequel to "The Last Unicorn," and it would be unfair not to point out that "Two Hearts" did win the Hugo and Nebula awards back in 2006. But was it a necessary story? He's never to my knowledge written a sequel to his classic story "Come, Lady Death." Sometimes ever after is left to a reader's own imagination.
Both novellas are well written, and it's "Two Hearts" that has the most magic. But necessary? Only each reader can answer that question for himself.
Recommended.
Four Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Way-Home-Novel...
No comments have been added yet.
