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Title: The Innkeeper's Song: A Novel by Peter S. Beagle ISBN: 0-451-45414-6 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: October, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.15 (27 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A heretical take on Peter S Beagle
Comment: I kept hearing about Peter S Beagle, so I kept trying his books. I read about half of "The Last Unicorn", and couldn't be bothered to finish it. I read "A Fine and Private Place", and it was OK - well written and unusual, but that's as far as I would go. Then I read "The Folk of the Air" and I thought: what is a writer this good, doing writing a book like that? Is it a famous author, writing a "genre" book under a pseudonym, or what?
And then I read "The Inkeeper's Song" and I fell hopelessly, shamelessly in love with it. Never mind the obligatory supernatural climax, which thankfully does not end the book. Never mind some quibbles about plot mechanics. The book is populated by compellingly vivid characters, who by the end become utterly real people, living in a real world. This is writing of a quality verging on magical, which leaves one with the lasting impression of knowing the book's characters in all their quirky, individual humanity - and caring for them!
So, ignore those who say that "The Inkeeper's Song" is not up to Beagle's best standard. It IS Beagle's best standard! Just don't read it in the "quick - what happens next?" frame of mind. Read it, and get to know Rosseth, Neyteneri, Lal (Swordcane Lal, Saylor Lal, Lal Alone, Lal After Dark) and all the others. It is worth it. Believe me it is worth it! And I don't rave easily.
Rating: 5
Summary: Something new at last
Comment: I was waiting for this. A fantasy novel that doesn't involve games of state (I guess I should say kingdom), plots of kings and princes, teenage hero + party of five deliver world from evil doom, or the quest for the magic sword. Instead, you get treated to a very quiet tale about a couple of characters who all converge at an inn. No earth-shattering battles. Rather, the tale deals with questions of loyalty and friendship in a very personal way, never overdoing it, not going for the cheap drama. If the plot is rather simple, the book more than makes up for it with the characters and world-building. Beautiful writing and a fresh taste.
Rating: 3
Summary: A vivid, bittersweet dream ... but of what?
Comment: The Innkeeper's Song is a one-volume fantasy for mature readers that is by turns (or even simultaneously) lyrical and maddening. Lyrical because much of its language is, in contemporary fantasy, on par with only Patricia McKillip and Guy Gavriel Kay. Maddening because--despite the full-throttle beginning, intricately woven characters and a world made wondrous without a map or long descriptions but simply by names and prosaic brushstrokes--the promise of the beginning and middle absolutely fizzles to a all-but-incomprehensible anti-climax in which none of the characters' skills, virtues or flaws seem to matter. It's the equivalent of dreaming oneself into a world of rich and dread beauty, flying over that world so freely as to go beyond dreaming entirely ... and then being slapped awake to find oneself flailing at the air and wondering, "What might have been ..."
Sigh.
The tale concerns three women who arrive at an inn in the course of their quest to protect their ancient magician-friend from a renegade apprentice so that he might die in peace and not rise as a tormented ghost. The three are a warrior-nun who has escaped her convent; a legendary thief-sailor-swordsman; and a village girl whom the thief raised from a drowning death with the magician's ring. Added to these memorable figures are the earnest stable-boy; the gruff innkeeper; the nun's companion (a fox); and the stubborn boy who was betrothed to the village girl and follows her in the hope of reclaiming their lost love.
Each chapter proceeds from the first-person viewpoint of a different character (central or not), which works well overall but sometimes proves tiresome, especially when the author chooses (or is forced to) use a minor character as the "camera" for a particular scene or plot development or when the character's "voice" is confusing or not quite right. However, the chapters told by the thief are particularly well done; and she emerges as one of the most admirable, engaging characters in contemporary fantasy. (One actually wishes for more tales of Lal, Sailor Lal, Swordcane Lal, Lal-after-dark.)
Recommended as a library loan for dedicated fantasy buffs, fans of Kay or McKillip, or those looking for something completely different.
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Title: Giant Bones by Peter S. Beagle ISBN: 0451456513 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: August, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: FOLK OF THE AIR by Peter S. Beagle ISBN: 0345346998 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 12 December, 1987 List Price(USD): $4.50 |
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Title: Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle ISBN: 0451458206 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 06 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Unicorn Sonata by Peter S. Beagle, Robert Rodriguez ISBN: 1570362882 Publisher: Turner Pub Pub. Date: October, 1996 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: A Dance for Emilia by Peter S. Beagle ISBN: 0451458001 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 10 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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