The Unicorn in the Maze

[Farseer]

I received The Unicorn Treasury in my mailbag today. It is a compilation of "Stories, Poems and Unicorn Lore" that I just had to buy for both my daughter and myself.......okay, more for myself!

As some of you may know, one of the contributors is none other than our very own Megan Lindholm, with her contribution being 'The Unicorn in the Maze'.

It's an enjoyable little short story that allowed me to not only introduce ML/RH to my youngest but it also gave me an opportunity to glimpse still more RotE parallels. Oh, Farseer, come on! Hey, it's true!

*The Unicorn in the Maze and Farseer/TM spoilers*

Spoiler

Magic from the unicorn showed its presence by the 'silver' within the water, much like the silver associated with Skill magic, and magic allowed both Fool and Willem to use their hands to shape natural materials such as wood and clay. Okay, it's not much, but I got a kick out of it nonetheless!!

Anyone else here read it?


Edit: Doh! How many times do I need to edit this tiny post?! I've reached six edits already!! WHAT?! Make that seven!

[KekPafrany]

I received The Unicorn Treasury in my mailbag today. It is a compilation of "Stories, Poems and Unicorn Lore" that I just had to buy for both my daughter and myself.......okay, more for myself!

I may have it in some weeks, thank you for advising

[Farseer]

[KekPafrany]

So I have read the short story. Honestly: first I skipped everything, jumped right to the Lindholm story and read it. It was good, not a pinky-sweety-princessy tale, but the semi-realistic yet mystical story I expected. And I was content

Then I tried the introduction then the other stories in the book. Well.. I was moderately disappointed.

[spoiler=-> Beware of the mighty spoilers! <-]

There was two story cut out from novel, so it needed a story-long explanation before you read them to understand them if you haven't read them yet as a whole novel, so I felt them out of place. They weren't whole story, they just showed two writer, who mentioned the existence of the one-horned beasts.

There were pinky-princessy stories, I know I might be hard on them, but maybe I am not cut out for reading unicorn mystery.

A quote from one of the short stories that I can't help but laughing at: "She rubbed my horn hard, making enough magic rub off to last of a very long time." Okay, this is awesome if you read it out of context.

There was that one suicid nightmare thingy I especially disliked, the 'Homeward Bound'. It can be interpreted as the story about a boy, who sees a narwhal's horn at his uncle and because he feels out of place, he kills himself with it, sees something while dieing. I know I polarize it a little, and maybe overreact too but.. well... I don't have to be always objective, do I? (Just as we can interpret 'The wizard of pigeons' as a story of a homeless veteran who struggle with mental problems).
I find dangerous to write such story where you have to kill yourself to find out you are a mystical supernatural creature, and everybody has the same potential as you.

And the cover... well.. not my taste. But that shall be my least problem. I am a little spoiled because I see such such great artists everywhere and I expect to see their work or works of similar quality.
[/spoiler]


I liked 'The court of summer king' and the 'The Princess, the Cat, and the Unicorn' they were quite refreshing, and the introduction story ( The Lore of the Unicorn) was interesting. They (with the Lindholm story included) made me didn't regret buying the collection.

[Mervi]

It's funny how a book is designed to look can alter how you think about it, isn't it? KekPafrany, I'm guessing you have the paperback with the violet cover with a sort of dream-scape illustration clearly marketed towards children? I used to have a copy of that, but I gave it away when I purchased a hardcover edition with Tim Hildebrandt's cover and colour illustrations. I know the contents are exactly the same, but the book simply has more street cred.