The Last Unicorn (The Last Unicorn, #1) in What's the Name of That Book???

Mar 12, 2011 Jessica rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: childhoodfavorites, witches, own, fantasy, read-aloud

I grew up with the movie of this, and then realized that it was a book when I was in junior high. As crazy as I was about that strange cartoon (Alan Alda as Schmendrick!), the book was on a whole 'nother level. Gorgeously written, some of the imagery is still with me today. This is a magnificent work, and a must read for any fantasy fan.

2023: Read this aloud to the kids. It's a weird read aloud. The language is so beautiful and so complex, I would give the kids a brief rundown of what had happen ...more

40 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2012 Jessica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, all-timefavorites, theclassics

Such a gorgeous book. This is one of the classics of fantasy, poetic, wry, tender, a luminous look at how wonder and magic can fade from the world.

7 likes · Like · see review

Apr 09, 2013 Punk rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Fantasy. A unicorn realizes she is the last of her kind and must leave the safety of her forest to discover what happened to the others, but it's been so long since unicorns roamed freely that the people of the realm see her as nothing but a horse. Only a few see her for what she is, and Schmendrick, a hapless magician, and Molly Grue, like Maid Marian, but less glamourous, join her on her journey to confront the evil King Haggard in his castle by the sea.

It took me a really long time to read th Fantasy. A unicorn realizes she is the last of her kind and must leave the safety of her forest to discover what happened to the others, but it's been so long since unicorns roamed freely that the people of the realm see her as nothing but a horse. Only a few see her for what she is, and Schmendrick, a hapless magician, and Molly Grue, like Maid Marian, but less glamourous, join her on her journey to confront the evil King Haggard in his castle by the sea.

It took me a really long time to read this. Not because it's hard to read. It's filled with marvelous language. Beagle can get a mood across with a single well-placed metaphor; his prose is never flashy or awkward, just perfectly crafted to fit the scene. And the story is straightforward enough, your basic hero's quest. But somehow between the deconstruction of heroic epics and the stock characters, everything but the writing (and the Harpy) just rolled right off me.

I appreciated that it's a story that plays with the function and purpose of stories, but neither it nor the characters made me feel invested in it. This can happen when characters are more interested in engaging with their archetypes than being people in their own right. They had their moments of humor or angst, but like characters in a fairy tale, they're meant to serve a purpose and are rarely developed beyond that. I struggled to find a way to describe Molly and ended up stealing the idea of Maid Marian from Molly herself, but it's easy to peg Schmendrick as a useless magician because we're used to that guy. We see him everywhere. Both as actual wizards, such as Pratchett's Rincewind, and metaphorical wizards, like Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Jake Peralta. Or, the best of both worlds, Arrested Development's GOB. Hapless magicians: They make mistakes and ruin everything! And then make even more mistakes and somehow set everything to rights again! I could go on. But all of those guys have more personality than Schmendrick. Sorry, Schmendrick.

Three stars. Wonderful prose and a story that both challenges and conforms to its genre, but I wish we'd gotten closer to the characters. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 21, 2009 Maria Elmvang rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, not-owned, 2009, 3-stars

I just about dropped the book when I came to page 15 and read, "Your name is a golden bell, hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name". A good friend from New Zealand used to quote this to me all the time, and I never knew where she had it from. For that reason alone, I was inclined to love this book. Vanessa Jans, here's to you, wherever you are!

Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn't really live up to my expectations. The writing was stilted, the senten ...more

Like · see review

Mar 09, 2020 Ray rated it liked it · review of another edition

I know this is a sacred cow to many, but I couldn’t overlook the sexism and the male-centeredness I f it all. It was the unicorns job to save her kind from extinction, but she has to be passive and deferential to the mediocre men she met along the way to get there. And poor Molly—what liberties are taken with her.

Like · see review

Jul 11, 2007 Alloni rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

This is one of my comfort books, one of the ones that I have to re-re-re-re-re-read every now and again. The rich imagery and memorable phrasing gets to me every time. In fact, come to think of it, I haven't read it in a while... ...more

Like · see review