caitlinanncran's review against another edition
4.0
This has been recommended to me so many times by both random people and all-time classic fantasy lists, so I finally finally got around to it. While it is easily some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read - every sentence felt like a work of art - and I absolutely ate up the timeless adult fairytale vibes, the characters didn’t quite stick in my heart, at least not until the very end. Still, can definitely appreciate the love there is for this book!
altruest's review against another edition
5.0
The story of the last unicorn.
This book is beautifully sad. This book is so sad I almost cried at the end. This book is so wonderfully, intensely tragic that I wish I could have been the emotional type to cry through reading this book, because that's what it deserves. This book deserves snotty tissues, hot chocolate, and a big comforter to snuggle up in. The prose in this book is so poetic I had to stop reading at one point and look forward to nothing, just to let it sink it. This book makes me want to write poetry, and hold my girlfriend. If I didn't already get it, this book would have made me realize why people write books, and why they read them. Even if I had spent 6 hours bawling and weeping over this book, I would still be glad that I had read it. Read this book in a quiet moment, where you can truly appreciate what it invokes.
I also read the short story that Beagle wrote years after the novel was published, it was similarly beautiful. I don't know who I'm thanking, maybe the author, maybe whoever recommended this book to me, maybe just Life for leading me in the direction to read this book. Maybe just you for reading this. But thank you.
This book is beautifully sad. This book is so sad I almost cried at the end. This book is so wonderfully, intensely tragic that I wish I could have been the emotional type to cry through reading this book, because that's what it deserves. This book deserves snotty tissues, hot chocolate, and a big comforter to snuggle up in. The prose in this book is so poetic I had to stop reading at one point and look forward to nothing, just to let it sink it. This book makes me want to write poetry, and hold my girlfriend. If I didn't already get it, this book would have made me realize why people write books, and why they read them. Even if I had spent 6 hours bawling and weeping over this book, I would still be glad that I had read it. Read this book in a quiet moment, where you can truly appreciate what it invokes.
I also read the short story that Beagle wrote years after the novel was published, it was similarly beautiful. I don't know who I'm thanking, maybe the author, maybe whoever recommended this book to me, maybe just Life for leading me in the direction to read this book. Maybe just you for reading this. But thank you.
childofmongreldogs's review against another edition
adventurous
relaxing
fast-paced
3.0
Not my favorite.
A decent and quick read though it was hard for me to get absorbed in the story. I thought that the unicorn was kind of funny a few times, though.
A decent and quick read though it was hard for me to get absorbed in the story. I thought that the unicorn was kind of funny a few times, though.
schottjm's review against another edition
5.0
Lovely. Just lovely. Not flashy or loud. Just a gentle, engaging story of a magician, a cook, a prince, and a unicorn, with beautiful passages of prose.
truthlessofcanada's review against another edition
medium-paced
4.5
This is a really short stand alone book, and it deserves it's spot as a classic of the genre. I read it mainly because it is someone I know on discords favorite book, but it is also Rothfuss's favorite book, and Hobb loves it as well.
It is a book about a unicorn who is well...the last one, or so she hears, it starts of with some omniscient narration, and I love how it sets the scene, here are some of my 2 favorite examples from the first page and a half.
She did not look anything like a horned horse, as unicorns are often pictures, being smaller and cloven-hoofed, and possessing that oldest, wildest grace that horses have never had, that deer only have in a shy, thin imitation and goats in dancing mockery.
and
and the long horn above her eyes shone and shivered with its own seashell light even in the deepest midnight. She had killed dragons with it, and healed a king whose poisoned wound would not close, and knocked down ripe chestnuts for bear cubs.
In this story the unicorn overhears that she is the last one in the world, and decides to leave her forest to go see if she can find where the unicorns went. In general for books like this, especially classics, I was kinda expecting it to be super introspective, and a slow burn. To my surprise events actually transpire quite rapidly, and this book has a lot of content in it for a 76000 word novel.
The characters you follow on this are quite unique, in that the unicorn feels very much like a real person, who is actually quite grounded in her personality, but all the people feel like they are characters from a classic tale. There is the old king who loves nothing and sucks joy from what he see's, the rogue who is a menace upon the land with his jolly band of men, the old, wise wizard, and the charming, heroic prince. Except none of them are quite what you would expect. The rogue's do not actually challenge authority, and are opportunistic, the wizard is a failure, and the heroic prince is kinda just going through the motions. It managed to balance familiarity, and nostalgia, with complexity in a really impressive way. I will say that despite this it is not my favorite style of characters, but it works wondrously for this novel.
In many ways the sense of wonder is a huge part of this novel, the author often makes the familiar magical, and the magical familiar. A part of that is the writing, which is smooth, and consistently gorgeous. Full of metaphors that only work in very specific circumstances, and feel like they shouldn't work, and yet they do. The writing is so smooth to read, while also being complex. I think it actually really reminds me stylistically to Rothfuss's prose, but I actually prefer the writing in this. Also if anyone gets mad at me for that opinion, Rothfuss probably agrees with me.
This also feels like a novel that has depth. It is the type of novel that you could read to a class of children, or study for months and write a thesis about.
So why isn't the score even higher?
2 reasons.
One. I sometimes found the dialogue hard to follow. the author doesn't tag dialogue very much, and to me I felt it sometimes hampered my enjoyment. I felt myself having to go back and read some conversations.
Two. While the way the characters are done is very unique, more grounded characters is the style I prefer.
That's all I got, this was a really excellent, wonderous, and beautiful story.
9.2/10
It is a book about a unicorn who is well...the last one, or so she hears, it starts of with some omniscient narration, and I love how it sets the scene, here are some of my 2 favorite examples from the first page and a half.
She did not look anything like a horned horse, as unicorns are often pictures, being smaller and cloven-hoofed, and possessing that oldest, wildest grace that horses have never had, that deer only have in a shy, thin imitation and goats in dancing mockery.
and
and the long horn above her eyes shone and shivered with its own seashell light even in the deepest midnight. She had killed dragons with it, and healed a king whose poisoned wound would not close, and knocked down ripe chestnuts for bear cubs.
In this story the unicorn overhears that she is the last one in the world, and decides to leave her forest to go see if she can find where the unicorns went. In general for books like this, especially classics, I was kinda expecting it to be super introspective, and a slow burn. To my surprise events actually transpire quite rapidly, and this book has a lot of content in it for a 76000 word novel.
The characters you follow on this are quite unique, in that the unicorn feels very much like a real person, who is actually quite grounded in her personality, but all the people feel like they are characters from a classic tale. There is the old king who loves nothing and sucks joy from what he see's, the rogue who is a menace upon the land with his jolly band of men, the old, wise wizard, and the charming, heroic prince. Except none of them are quite what you would expect. The rogue's do not actually challenge authority, and are opportunistic, the wizard is a failure, and the heroic prince is kinda just going through the motions. It managed to balance familiarity, and nostalgia, with complexity in a really impressive way. I will say that despite this it is not my favorite style of characters, but it works wondrously for this novel.
In many ways the sense of wonder is a huge part of this novel, the author often makes the familiar magical, and the magical familiar. A part of that is the writing, which is smooth, and consistently gorgeous. Full of metaphors that only work in very specific circumstances, and feel like they shouldn't work, and yet they do. The writing is so smooth to read, while also being complex. I think it actually really reminds me stylistically to Rothfuss's prose, but I actually prefer the writing in this. Also if anyone gets mad at me for that opinion, Rothfuss probably agrees with me.
This also feels like a novel that has depth. It is the type of novel that you could read to a class of children, or study for months and write a thesis about.
So why isn't the score even higher?
2 reasons.
One. I sometimes found the dialogue hard to follow. the author doesn't tag dialogue very much, and to me I felt it sometimes hampered my enjoyment. I felt myself having to go back and read some conversations.
Two. While the way the characters are done is very unique, more grounded characters is the style I prefer.
That's all I got, this was a really excellent, wonderous, and beautiful story.
9.2/10
elat's review against another edition
5.0
A nice, simple book with beautiful imagery. Definitely worth the few hours it took to read it.
jennswan's review against another edition
5.0
Gorgeous art. As a long time fan of the story, I found myself “hearing” the dialogue in my head, as well as music from the movie. Spectacularly done.