The Sword and Laser discussion

Finished this book last night. It didn't really grab me. Oh, I can see the artistry in construction and the skillful use of archetypal characters. It's just...this seems less like Fantasy and more like a fairy tale. Several of them strung together actually. I just never clicked with the premise or the characters.

In some ways Beagle is a lot like Bradbury with the use of tone and descriptive language. I feel about this kind of like I do about Dandelion Wine: Related to stuff I like but not in the zone.

Taking the book itself, it starts out as a deconstruction of fairy tales. The world is slowly impinging on the realm of faerie. All but one of the unicorns is gone, and people can rarely perceive her as anything but a horse - her true nature is lost to them. As she travels the world, we see some Middle Ages type society, but others seem as late as the middle 19th century.

The book takes an abrupt turn when the group arrives at the castle. Suddenly there are dragons, ogres and other fairy tale baddies to be slain by the score. It's as if the castle itself hoarded the magic of the realm to itself and its environs. The Unicorn didn't set out to restore magic to the world, but she seems to have done so. The released unicorns restore the realm. And barely as the new king laments his fate, an archetypal damsel in distress shows up to be his bride and queen. It's hope in the face of decay, with the possibility of rebirth.

Maybe I'll watch the movie. Secret of NIMH wouldn't be much to read but was a great film.

It is both. Fairy Tales are a sub-genre of Fantasy.

The book was "ok" but the castle section was definitely the low point of the book for me.

I enjoyed the early sections.