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

This topic is about
The Last of the Unicorns
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. Fantasy Short Story, mid-80's - Man seeks to buy matched pair of unicorns, owner refuses to sell - additional spoilers/twist ending
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Could be one of the collections edited by Martin H. Greenburg, but I don't think I've read 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.





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

"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...
- 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...

- 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.

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.

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.

Looks like it's also been released in audio form as The Last of the Unicorns.
Books mentioned in this topic
The Last of the Unicorns (other topics)100 Great Fantasy Short Short Stories (other topics)
Highway To Heaven: Twelve Blasphemous Short Stories (other topics)
Horse Fantastic (other topics)
Highway To Heaven: Twelve Blasphemous Short Stories (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Isaac Asimov (other topics)Laura Resnick (other topics)
Martin H. Greenberg (other topics)
Joan Aiken (other topics)
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?