The Last Unicorn
by Peter S. Beagle · first published 1968
40% recommend60% neutral
The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone… …so she ventured out from the safety of the enchanted forest on a quest for others of her kind. Joined along the way by the bumbling magician Schmendrick and the indomitable Molly Grue, the unicorn learns all about the joys and sorrows of life and love before meeting her destiny in the castle of a despondent monarch—and confronting the creature that would drive her kind to extinction.... In The Last Unicorn, renowned and beloved novelist Peter S. Beagle spins a poignant tale of love, loss, and wonder that has resonated with
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So many good books to recommend. Here's a selection - Diaspora by Greg Egan - Pushing Ice by Alastair Raynolds - Watership Down by Richard Adams - The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle - The Price of Nothing by R. Scott Baker - Blindsight by Peter Watts
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite fiction book?” ↗I read mostly fantasy and sci-fi - some favorites: "Lord of the Rings" J.R.R.Tolkien "The Last Wish", "The Sword of Destiny" A.Sapkowski "The Last Unicorn" P.Beagle almost anything by S.Lem. My favorite mainstream book is "Wielki Las" Zbigniew Nienacki (unfortunately no English translation available).
on “Do Hackers read *other* books?” ↗…only are you getting six ebooks for a great price (that you set!!!!), but you're also striking a blow against DRM by proving that people pay for quality digital content. Also, if you've never read The Last Unicorn, it's actually really funny and self-aware. You may have seen the animated movie some years ago, but IMHO, it's even better as a book!
on “Humble eBook Bundle 2” ↗…Politics of Heroin (McCoy): Dense but very very good. First hand reporting of the CIA’s role in the global drug trade and how it has, to a surprising degree, shaped the modern world. Children’s - The Last Unicorn (Beagle): Surprisingly nice. Some rough edges but I’m enjoying it. If my son was able to understand more than just that he’s spending time with me and that I’m making comforting noises I think he’s enjoy…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…solve. It's a universal namespace, just like UUIDs, but with just enough extra sauce to make it theoretically possible to do interesting things with it. So 'urn:isbn:0451450523' might represent The Last Unicorn, and if you fed it to your Kindle it might enable you to buy it, and if you fed it into Nook ditto, and if you fed it into Project Gutenberg you might get a notice that it won't fall out of copyright…
on “We have broken HTTP” ↗…copyright a cancer-fighting, aging, midlist author can still demand royalty payments if Disney bought his books and are still selling them for profit (Alan Dean Foster, specifically). Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn author) was put through elder abuse and lived in poverty, and only many years later was he able to regain rights to his work back as well as force recompense for harm committed to him- this wouldn't work…
on “If we lose the Internet Archive, we’re screwed” ↗"Lullaby, lullaby, swindles and schemes. Flying's not near as much fun as it seems." -- Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
on “Intelligence Evolved at Least Twice in Vertebrate Animals” ↗…against Heaven itself. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0345321383/ Amazon's review: Bridge of Birds is a lyrical fantasy novel. Set in "an Ancient China that never was", it stands with The Princess Bride and The Last Unicorn as a fairy tale for all ages, by turns incredibly funny and deeply touching. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1985, and Hughart produced two sequels: The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen.…
on “Ask YC: Favorite fantasy novel(s)?” ↗…don't build their careers by publishing books in 5 year periods. They generally build a body of work over decades whose residuals keep them alive in hungry/lean years. You also run into issues e.g. The Last Unicorn's author whose rights were taken from him because of elder abuse!
on “Study: 87% of classic video games are not legally available” ↗> there’s a distinction between the work (the book The Last Unicorn), the expression (a given edition of the book), a manifestation (a given physical format for an expression, such as paperback or hardcover), and an item (an individual object in a collection) The author…
on “The Perils of ISBN” ↗