Sometimes, you just stumble on to something, that ends up being the most delightful thing for you. Has that ever happened to you? The Last Unicorn by Peter S Beagle was first published more than 50 years ago, and just a couple of days back I got to know that it was also made to the silver screen.
The Last Unicorn is undoubtedly one of the best fantasy books of all time. The story has metaphors but no way it starts to distract the readers too much. The Unicorn is living alone and it's a journey of her with two intriguing characters Molly Grue and a magician named Schmendrick who has been blessed or cursed to stay young till he tap the potential magic inside his heart. The Last Unicorn does not have a stereotypical villain, instead we have a King with a cold heart. After a point, for whom I felt a certain pity and why not? How heartbreaking it is, to lose interest in everything, once someone achieves that.
Peter S Beagle did not create epic battles, new languages or complex world maps to create an immersive experience for the readers. The journey of the protagonists is fairytail-ish, sweet, sad and dreamy and ofcourse- Magical. In places I was reminded about Sanderson's Mistborn series, while reading this one. The last Unicorn flows like a poetry and that's what makes it beautiful, and the poetry in the book is what makes it a bit distracting at time.
For the characters, there are no absolutes. There are dilemmas, desire and the book shifts gradually from the Unicorn to her Human companions. It was surprising for me that I did not know about this book till now and it is not difficult to see, why authors like Neil Gaiman and Patrick Rothfuss rate this book as one of their favorites. Read, if you haven't and let it transport you to another world, a world of Magic, a world where there you can fall in Love with a Unicorn, even though you may not end up spending your life with her. A world, that will stay with you, long after you are awake from your dream!
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