Peter S. Beagle Critical Essay | Critical Review by Tom Easton

SOURCE: A review of The Innkeeper's Song, in Analog, Vol. CXIV, No. 5, April, 1994, pp. 166-68.

In the review below, Easton remarks favorably on The Innkeeper's Song.

Peter S. Beagle is well known for beautifully crafted fantasies—think of The Last Unicorn and The Folk of the Air—that offer rather different takes on familiar themes. It is thus a great pleasure to find that he has produced a new novel, The Innkeeper's Song.

Beagle's numerous fans undoubtedly grabbed the book as soon as they saw it on the bookstore shelf. For those of you who resisted temptation but have been wondering whether those who succumbed got their money's worth, let me assure you they did.

The tale is constructed as if, many years later, its several characters are relating what happened to an interviewer, perhaps the novelist, perhaps the reader, perhaps just a stranger who has joined them at their...
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