THE LINE BETWEEN
Peter S. Beagle

Unsigned, $15
Signed by the author, $25
Personalized, $30

Click here to order The Line Between.

Cover design and art by Ann Monn.
Tachyon Publications 2006 trade paperback edition. 232 pages.

The beginning of Peter's unexpected 21st-century emergence as a prolific writer of amazing short fiction. This recent story collection includes "Two Hearts," the Hugo and Nebula-winning sequel to The Last Unicorn, plus a wide-ranging set of spectacularly imaginative tales. Please note: five of the eight stories collected here were picked for different "Best Fantasy of the Year" anthologies!

Contents:

          Introduction by Peter S. Beagle

          Gordon, the Self-Made Cat
          Two Hearts
          Four Fables —
              The Fable of the Moth
              The Fable of the Tyrannosaurus Rex
              The Fable of the Ostrich
              The Fable of the Octopus
          El Regalo
          Quarry
          Salt Wine
          Mr. Sigerson
          A Dance for Emilia

FROM THE BACK COVER

America’s greatest living fantasist returns, with the signature elegance and originality that has earned him comparisons to J. R. R. Tolkien, Fritz Leiber, and Kurt Vonnegut. Readers seeking magic, wonder, and mystery need look no further. In these resonant new stories, some appearing for the first time, you will find bold adventure, sly humor, and resounding depth.

— Return to the extraordinary world of The Last Unicorn, in the thrilling and beautiful "Two Hearts."

— Observe the World’s Most Annoying Eight-Year-Old bend time, fate, and household chores to his sorcerous will.

— Learn how Soukyan met the Fox, and why a stolen dream might be more dangerous than an unstoppable assassin.

— Discover the price of a merman’s treasure; match wits with the man who saw right through Sherlock Holmes; redefine feline style with Gordon, the self-made cat — and more.

The Line Between is a captivating blend of traditional and contemporary fantasy, crafted by the field’s most remarkable imagination. It is a collection you will return to again and again, and treasure forever.

FROM BOOKLIST'S STARRED REVIEW

When Beagle's A Fine and Private Place (1960), a story of two ghosts in love, emerged virtually simultaneously with other brilliant debuts by Philip Roth, Reynolds Price, and Wendell Berry, he was hailed as one of their cohort of promising American novelists. The Last Unicorn (1968), however, disclosed him delving more deeply into fantasy (the unicorn is the protagonist, not a metaphor), and he was critically drummed out of the troop. He hardly lost his talent, though, and ever since The Last Unicorn, one of the most beloved fantasies ever written, fantasy critics and readers have treasured his work, all the more so because he isn't prolific. For all their variety — "Four Fables," a children's story for all ages, a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, an old tar's tall tale, a sequel to one novel (The Last Unicorn) and a prequel to another (The Innkeeper's Song, 1993), and the germ of a prospective witch novel — all eleven stories in this book are lucid and refreshing as spring water, full of amusement, humanity, and wisdom. Perhaps Beagle is incapable of genuinely dark fantasy, but his tall tale "Salt Wine" touches the tonalities of R. L. Stevenson in "The Bottle Imp" and W. W. Jacobs in "The Monkey's Paw," while on the other end of the spectrum, the Last Unicorn follow-up "Two Hearts" is like Kenneth Grahame's "Reluctant Dragon" with greater gravitas.

          — Ray Olson

Yes, I would like to get The Line Between.