What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I read an anthology of fantasy and science fiction stories back in the eighties that included a story I'm trying to track down.

The story starts with a man negotiating to buy a mated pair of unicorns, but he can't meet the owner's asking price. He sneaks into the stable later that night and attempts to steal them, but gets caught and run off by the owner.

The twist ending is that the man returns home and tells his father that he wasn't able to obtain the unicorns. The last line is something along the lines of "That's a shame," Noah said, "the unicorns were such beautiful creatures. Go and help your brothers load the other animals."

Can anybody tell me the name of the story and/or the title of the anthology?

Does anything on the Noah's Ark list look familiar?

Oh, man. This seems so familiar to me. I'm going to have to dig in my library. Wonder if it's in one of the many Martin H Greenburg collections. Maybe Horse Fantastic? Hmm.

Nothing on the Noah's Ark list rings a bell for this story.

Could be one of the collections edited by Martin H. Greenburg, but I don't think I've read Horse Fantastic.

bump

Found a list of stories from Horse Fantastic:

"Stolen Silver" by Mercedes Lackey
"Love at First Ride" by Mickey Zucker Reichert
"Dancer's Fire" by Josepha Sherman
"The Phantom Watch" by Charles Ingrid
"The Czechoslovakian Pigeon Farmer & the Pony that Wasn't a Paint" by Mary Stanton
"Riding the Nightmare" by Jennifer Roberson
"When Lightning Strikes" by Lee Barwood
"Classical Horses" by Judith Tarr
"One Ten Three" by Barry N. Malzberg
"No Room for the Unicorn" by Laura Resnick
"The Horse Boy" by Mary Stanton
"The Power of Young Girls" by Constance Ash
"Malish" by Mike Resnick
"Wings" by Barbara Delaplace
"The Most Magical Thing About Rachel" by Nancy Springer
"Dream's Quarry" by Elizabeth Moon
"Silverdown's Gold" by Janny Wurts

And this title stands out:
"No Room for the Unicorn" by Laura Resnick

And it *is* a story about The (singular) unicorn and the Ark, told by Noah. But there was no mated pair, and while Noah did send his son to try and find a mate, none was found.

This story is available in (at least) one other collection.

I think I remember something by Joan Aiken along those lines... Maybe one of the Armitage Family Stories?

Jeremy, can you help me understand how the twist ending is a twist? There's some context I'm missing.

Daisy, I think the twist is that at the end you find out the man trying to buy the unicorns is the son of Noah, as in Noah's ark (the Bible). Because he isn't able to buy the unicorns and take them onto the ark, it means that unicorns died out in the Great Flood. (Presumably at the beginning of the story, you don't know who the man is or why he's trying to buy the unicorns.)

Ohh, got it! I wasn't seeing "Noah" as anything other than a character's name, but now I get it. Thank you!

This sounds very familiar to me. Could it be in the Unicorns! short story collection?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorns!

Sorry, I haven't checked this thread in a while.

"No Room for the Unicorn" by Laura Resnick sounds like it might be a winner. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a free copy anywhere online to confirm. I'll do a bit more digging.

I've never read anything by Joan Aiken, so it couldn't be the series that Robert mentioned,

Here are two collections that contain the short story "No Room for the Unicorn" by Laura Resnick:

- Highway To Heaven: Twelve Blasphemous Short Stories by Laura Resnick. Amazon's "Look Inside" preview:
https://www.amazon.com/Highway-Heaven...

- Horse Fantastic edited by Martin H. Greenberg. Google Books has a snippet preview. You might get lucky searching for keywords:
https://books.google.com/books?id=4Qz...

Horse Fantastic is available on archive.org

Kris wrote: "Here are two collections that contain the short story "No Room for the Unicorn" by Laura Resnick:

- Highway To Heaven: Twelve Blasphemous Short Stories by [author:Laura Resnick|886..."

Thanks for the links, Kris.
Unfortunately, neither of them included the text of "No Room for the Unicorn".

Per Amber's suggestion, I'm setting up an account at archive.org to see if I can track it down there.

Per Amber's suggestion, I'm setting up an account at archive.org to see if I can track it down there.

OK, I was able to track down "No Room for the Unicorn" on archive.org. It's similar in concept to the story niggling at the back of my brain, but it's not the story I'm trying to remember.

I found it! (Actually the person who originally lent me the anthology remembered it).

The name of the story is The Last Unicorns by Edward D. Hoch, and it was included in 100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories, edited by Isaac Asimov.

EDIT: I tried to include a link to the story in case anybody wanted to read it, but Goodreads wouldn't let me post an external link. If anybody is interested, DM me.

Oh, awesome news! Super glad you found it.

Looks like it's also been released in audio form as The Last of the Unicorns.