Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A heretical take on Peter S Beagle, Nov 29 2003
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.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
A vivid, bittersweet dream ... but of what?, Jan 20 2003
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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5.0 out of 5 stars
One for real-story lovers, Mar 24 2002
This is my favorite book by Beagle. It creates a perfect world of its own, with real characters and some very strange and disturbing things in it. I could spend years reading it and always finding some new things in it. The only annoying thing about it is the fact that it ends somewhere.
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