Recent reading - new Peter S Beagle
Jul. 18th, 2024 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daemonlunaOkay, so. I just finished I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons, by Peter S. Beagle. (Yes, The Last Unicorn author Peter S. Beagle.)
The premise, in someone else's hands, could have turned into something light-hearted and twee. A dragon exterminator who wants to be a prince's valet! A beautiful princess who wants the only prince who isn't madly in love with her! A well-intentioned but naive prince whose father wants him to prove himself!
But, this is Peter Beagle. He takes these characters and gives them immense humanity and turns it into a story about expectations and circumventing them, and something a little bit darker than I expected. The last part of the book felt a little bit oblique to me, and the ending was emotionally satisfying, but not as neat and tidy as some people might like. (I kind of wanted a liiiitle bit more denouement?) And I'm supremely glad to see it published, seeing as the author was in a legal battle with his former manager, who was charged with both fraud and elder abuse)
My favourite Peter Beagle book is still Tamsin, a ghost story set in the contemporary English countryside, and this one was firmly a "liked a lot but didn't fall in love with," but I still rec it.
The premise, in someone else's hands, could have turned into something light-hearted and twee. A dragon exterminator who wants to be a prince's valet! A beautiful princess who wants the only prince who isn't madly in love with her! A well-intentioned but naive prince whose father wants him to prove himself!
But, this is Peter Beagle. He takes these characters and gives them immense humanity and turns it into a story about expectations and circumventing them, and something a little bit darker than I expected. The last part of the book felt a little bit oblique to me, and the ending was emotionally satisfying, but not as neat and tidy as some people might like. (I kind of wanted a liiiitle bit more denouement?) And I'm supremely glad to see it published, seeing as the author was in a legal battle with his former manager, who was charged with both fraud and elder abuse)
My favourite Peter Beagle book is still Tamsin, a ghost story set in the contemporary English countryside, and this one was firmly a "liked a lot but didn't fall in love with," but I still rec it.
