Not only does Peter S. Beagle know his unicorns (and boy, does he ever), he knows his romance, too. Very lovely. I've never felt like an old, grumpy, Italian farmer before and now I wouldn't have want to miss out on this experience.

Rating anthologies is always hard. The Unicorn Anthology, fittingly edited by Peter S. Beagle contained stories that touched me, and stories that just passed some time. Different strokes for different folks, and all that. Most stories tended to be dark and tragic, unsurprisingly enough. There are a couple of very good stories in there, so if the whole mythical realism thing interests you, check it out. (An ARC in exchange for a review was provided by the publisher via NetGalley.)

Peter S. Beagle is always interesting and never quite conventional. This book starts out with the titular Innkeeper's Song, providing us with the entire plot condensed into a folk song, and then proceeds to elaborate in first-person chapters from different viewpoints. It does so beautifully, and it's never predictable, and yet, I never felt really close to the plot. I've felt this way about all books by Beagle so far, though, and I still like them.

I really enjoyed this one - it's a fairytale, it's very very lyrical, but at the same time it surprises you with bursts of dry humour. The length and pacing is perfect, too - it's a short book, but it carries its length well.