Search Worlds Without End

Award-winning author Peter S. Beagle presents a deeply personal story of dreams abandoned and recovered, friends loved and lost, and the strength it takes to let go...

Conversing in a mausoleum with the dead, an eccentric recluse is tugged back into the world by a pair of ghostly lovers bearing an extraordinary gift--the final chance for his own happiness. When challenged by a faithless wife and aided by a talking raven, the lives of the living and the dead may be renewed by courage and passion, but only if not belatedly. Told with an elegiac wisdom, this delightful tale of magic and otherworldly love is a timeless work of fantasy imbued with hope and wonder.

Locus Award winning novelette. It originally appeared in the collection We Never Talk About My Brother (2009). The story can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Four (2010), edtied by Jonathan Strahan.

This novelette originally appeared in the collection The Line Between (2006), and was reprinted in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 2006. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume One (2007), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Way of the Wizard (2010), edited by John Joseph Adams. The story is included in the collection Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle (2010).

Listen to the full story for free at Podcastle.

This short story originally appeared in the collection The Line Between (2006) and was reprinted in Lightspeed, July 2012. It can also be found in the anthology Tails of Wonder and Imagination (2010), edited by Ellen Datlow.

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Dragons are common in the backwater kingdom of Bellemontagne, coming in sizes from mouse-like vermin all the way up to castle-smashing monsters.

Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax (who would much rather people call him Robert) has recently inherited his deceased dad's job as a dragon catcher/exterminator, a career he detests with all his heart in part because he likes dragons, feeling a kinship with them, but mainly because his dream has always been the impossible one of transcending his humble origin to someday become a princess valet.

Needless to say, fate has something rather different in mind...

Claudio Bianchi has lived alone for many years on a hillside in Southern Italy's scenic Calabria. Set in his ways and suspicious of outsiders, Claudio has always resisted change, preferring farming and writing poetry. But one chilly morning, as though from a dream, an impossible visitor appears at the farm. When Claudio comes to her aid, an act of kindness throws his world into chaos. Suddenly he must stave off inquisitive onlookers, invasive media, and even more sinister influences.

This is a novella of 31,954 words.

This short story originally appeared in the collection Strange Roads (2008). It can also be found in the anthologies It can also be found in the anthologies Year's Best Fantasy 9 (2009), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, and The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2009, edited by Rich Horton. The story is included in the collection We Never Talk About My Brother (2009).

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology Full Moon City (2010), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Darrell Schweitzer, and was reprinted in Lightspeed, January 2016. It is included in the collection Sleight Of Hand (2011).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

Includes Hugo- and Nebula-winning Novelette "Two Hearts", the sequel to The Last Unicorn

When New York Times Bestselling writer Tad Williams described Peter S. Beagle as a "bandit prince out to steal reader's hearts" he spoke a truth that's been evident for more than 50 years. But during the first four decades of his career Beagle was known mainly as a novelist and screenwriter. Every short fiction piece he wrote was recognized as a classic -- "Come Lady Death", "Lila and the Werewolf", "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros", and the tales that made up his collection The Magician of Karakosk -- but there were only a handful. That changed in 2001, when Beagle turned his attention to short fiction in earnest, producing a stunning array of more than 40 new and award-winning stories during the next decade.

In Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle, acclaimed genre editor Jonathan Strahan collects his favorite Beagle stories -- over 200,000 words' worth -- in a single volume ranging across 47 years of brilliantly diverse creativity. It's a book which shows, more than any other, just how successful this bandit prince from the Bronx streets has been, and exactly why the World Fantasy Association honored him with their Lifetime Achievement Award.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay
• Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros - (1995) - novelette
• The Last and Only, or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French - (2007) - shortstory
• Come Lady Death - (1963) - shortstory
• El Regalo - (2006) - novelette
• Julie's Unicorn - (1995) - novelette
• The Last Song of Sirit Byar - (1996) - novelette
• Lila the Werewolf - (1969) - novelette
• What Tune the Enchantress Plays - (2008) - novella
• Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel - (2008) - novelette
• Salt Wine - (2006) - shortstory
• Two Hearts - (2005) - novelette
• Giant Bones - (1997) - novella
• King Pelles the Sure - (2008) - shortstory
• Vanishing - (2009) - novelette
• The Tale of Junko and Sayuri - (2008) - novelette
• The Rock in the Park - shortstory
• We Never Talk About My Brother - (2007) - novelette
• The Rabbi's Hobby - (2008) - novelette

Since 1968, Peter S. Beagle's classic, The Lost Unicorn, has captured the hearts and imaginations of more than 1 million readers. At last. Beogle has reunited with the fabulous mythical creature in this massive original anthology featuring 30 bestselling writers.

Table of Contents:

• Preface - (1995) - essay by Janet Berliner
• Foreword - (1995) - essay by Peter S. Beagle
• Sea Dreams - (1995) - shortstory by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta
• Old One-Antler - (1995) - shortstory by Michael Armstrong
• Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros - (1995) - novelette by Peter S. Beagle
• The Same But Different - (1995) - shortstory by Janet Berliner
• Big Dogs, Strange Days - (1995) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• Gilgamesh Recidivus - (1995) - shortstory by P. D. Cacek
• Seven for a Secret - (1995) - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• What the Eye Sees, What the Heart Feels - (1995) - shortstory by Robert Devereaux
• Stampede of Light - (1995) - shortstory by Marina Fitch
• The Brew - (1995) - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• Mirror of Lop Nor - (1995) - novelette by George Guthridge
• The Hunt of the Unicorn - (1995) - shortstory by Ellen Kushner
• The Devil on Myrtle Ave. - (1995) - novelette by Eric Van Lustbader
• Winter Requiem - (1995) - shortstory by Michael Marano
• Daughter of the Tao - (1995) - shortstory by Lisa Mason
• A Rare Breed - (1995) - novelette by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
• A Plague of Unicorns - (1995) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Taken He Cannot Be - (1995) - shortstory by Will Shetterly
• The Tenth Worthy - (1995) - novelette by Susan Shwartz
• Survivor - (1995) - novelette by Dave Smeds
• A Thief in the Night - (1995) - shortstory by S. P. Somtow
• Dame à La Licorne - (1995) - shortstory by Judith Tarr
• Convergence - (1995) - shortstory by Lucy Taylor
• Half-Grandma - (1995) - shortstory by Melanie Tem
• The Trouble with Unicorns - (1995) - shortstory by Nancy Willard
• Three Duets for Virgin and Nosehorn - (1995) - novelette by Tad Williams
• We Blazed - (1995) - novelette by Dave Wolverton

This novelette originally appeared in Fantasy Magazine, #3, June 2006. It can also be found in the anthologies Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition, edited by Rich Horton, and Mermaids and Other Mysteries of the Deep (2015). It can also be found in the collections The Line Between (2006) and Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle (2010).

Magic is back!

Peter S. Beagle returns with an inspired collection of fantasy stories that showcase his incomparable mastery and range. In these tales -- with settings as different as an impossible reconstruction of the Berlin Wall and the kitchen of Mrs. Eunice Giant (72 Fairweather Lane, East-of-the-Bean, Sussex Overhead) -- warriors, monsters, and utterly ordinary people struggle with possession and forgiveness, life and love, hate and death... and the choices that come after everything else has been stripped away by Fate. Inside these pages:

• The daughter of the Shark God leaves her Pacific island home, determined to find her mysterious father and hold him accountable for the curse of her own existence.
• A dilapidated dragon, a frustrated cop, and an unapologetic author square off over a dangerously abandoned narrative.
• An enchantress-to-be sings of power, desire, and the ultimate betrayal of her heart.
• In a nothing diner, in a nowhere town, a woman lost in grief learns how to fool Death with one artful shuffle of the deck.

Featuring a new Schmendrick tale set before The Last Unicorn, plus twelve other wonderful stories, Sleight of Hand is suffused with a luminous misdirection that moves the soul as much as it fools the eye. Always ready to delight his readers, Beagle proves yet again that he is a master magician.

Table of Contents:

• The Rock in the Park - (2010) - shortstory
• Sleight of Hand - (2009) - shortstory
• The Children of the Shark God - (2010) - shortfiction
• The Best Worst Monster - shortstory
• What Tune the Enchantress Plays - (2008) - novella
• La Lune T'attend - (2010) - shortfiction
• Up the Down Beanstalk: A Wife Remembers - (2009) - shortfiction
• The Rabbi's Hobby - (2008) - novelette
• Oakland Dragon Blues - (2009) - shortstory
• The Bridge Partner - shortfiction
• Dirae - (2010) - novelette
• Vanishing - (2009) - novelette
• The Woman Who Married the Man in the Moon - novelette

Beloved author Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn) returns with this long-anticipated new novel, a beautifully bittersweet tale of passion, enchantment, and the nature of fate.

It was a typically unpleasant Puget Sound winter before the arrival of Lioness Lazos. An enigmatic young waitress with strange abilities, when the lovely Lioness comes to Gardner Island even the weather takes notice.

As an impossibly beautiful spring leads into a perfect summer, Lioness is drawn to a complicated family. She is taken in by two disenchanted lovers--dynamic Joanna Delvecchio and scholarly Abe Aronson -- visited by Joanna's previously unlucky-in-love daughter, Lily. With Lioness in their lives, they are suddenly compelled to explore their deepest dreams and desires.

Lioness grows more captivating as the days grow longer. Her new family thrives, even as they may be growing apart. But lingering in Lioness's past is a dark secret -- and even summer days must pass.

Tamsin Willoughby, dead some 300 years, haunts ramshackle old Stourhead Farm in Dorset, England, an ancient 700-acre estate that 13-year-old Jenny's new, English stepfather is restoring. Thoroughly American Jenny, miserable at being transplanted from New York City to rural Britain, finds a suffering kindred spirit in Tamsin, a ghost who is mourning Edric, a love she lost during Dorset's punitive Bloody Assizes under King James II.

Tamsin leads Jenny through an engrossing night world inhabited by an array of British spirits, the Black Dog, a braggart Boggart, ominous Oakmen, the shapeshifting Pooka and a marvelous mystical army-booted Earth Mother.

To save Tamsin and gentle Edric from eternal torment, Jenny faces evil personified: demonic Judge Jeffries, who sentenced hundreds of people to brutal execution during the Assizes.

Slipping effortlessly between Jenny's brash 1999 lingo, the raw primeval dialect of ancient Dorset and Tamsin's exquisite Jacobean English, Beagle has created a stunning tale of good battling evil, of wonder and heartbreak and of a love able to outlast the worst vileness of the human heart. Fantasy rarely dances through the imagination in more radiant garb than this.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle) - (1978) - essay
• Lila the Werewolf - [Sam Farrell] - (1969) - novelette
• The Last Unicorn - [Last Unicorn] - (1968) - novel
• Come, Lady Death - (1963) - short story (variant of Come Lady Death)
• A Fine and Private Place - (1960) - novel

While attending the revels of the League for Archaic Pleasurs, a group dedicated to the pleasures of the medieval period, Joe Farrell comes face-to-face with Nicholas Bonner, a spirit from the past and an ancient evil.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Eclipse One: New Science Fiction and Fantasy (2007), edited by Jonathan Strahan. It can also be found in the anthologies Best American Fantasy 2 (2008), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, and The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Two (2008), edited by Jonathan Strahan. The story is included in the collections We Never Talk About My Brother (2009) and Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle (2010).

The long-awaited sequel to the popular classic The Last Unicorn is the centerpiece of this powerful collection of new tales from a fantasy master. As longtime fans have come to expect, the stories are written with a grace and style similar to fantasy's most original voices, such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Fritz Leiber, and Kurt Vonnegut. Traditional themes are typically infused with modern sensibilities-reincarnated lovers and waning kings rub shoulders with heroic waifs; Schmendrick the Magician returns to adventure, as does the ghost of an off-Broadway actor and a dream-stealing shapeshifter; and Gordon, the delightfully charming "self-made cat," appears for the first time in print, taking his place alongside Stuart Little as a new favorite of the young at heart. This wide-ranging compilation contains sly humor and a resounding depth that will charm fans of literary fantasy.

Table of Contents:

• Gordon, the Self-Made Cat - (2005) - short story
• Two Hearts - (2005) - novelette
• The Fable of the Moth - short story
• The Fable of the Tyrannosaurus Rex - short story
• The Fable of the Ostrich - short story
• The Fable of the Octopus - short story
• El Regalo - novelette
• Quarry - (2004) - novelette
• Salt Wine - (2006) - short story
• Mr. Sigerson - (2004) - shortfiction
• A Dance for Emilia - (2000) - novella

New short fiction from the beloved author of The Last Unicorn

An odd couple patrols a county full of mythological beasts and ornery locals. A familiar youngster from the world of The Last Unicorn is gifted in magic but terrible at spell-casting. A seemingly incorruptible judge meets his match in a mysterious thief who steals his heart. Two old friends discover that the Overneath goes anywhere, including locations better left unvisited.

Lyrical, witty, and insightful, The Overneath is Peter S. Beagle's much-anticipated return to the short form. In these uniquely beautiful and wholly original tales Beagle once again proves himself a master of the imagination.

Table of Contents:

• The Green-Eyed Boy - [Last Unicorn] - (2016) - short story
• The Story of Kao Yu - (2016) - short story
• My Son Heydari and the Karkadann - short story
• The Queen Who Could Not Walk - (2013) - short story
• Trinity County, CA: You'll Want to Come Again and We'll Be Glad to See You! - (2010) - novelette
• The Way it Works Out and All - (2011) - short story
• Kaskia - (2010) - short story
• Schmendrick Alone - [Last Unicorn] - short story
• Great-Grandmother in the Cellar - [World of The Innkeeper's Song] - (2012) - short story
• Underbridge - (2011) - novelette
• The Very Nasty Aquarium - novelette
• Music, When Soft Voices Die - (2011) - novelette
• Olfert Dapper's Day - (2012) - novelette

Peter S. Beagle's The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche and Other Odd Acquaintances celebrates the beginning of Beagle's extraordinary career as a fantasist. Widely available for the first time and with a new preface by the author, this delightful book contains seven short stories and three essays by one of the most popular authors in the history of the fantasy field.

The Last Unicorn, Beagle's most beloved novel, was an underground best-seller in the late 1960s and 1970s and is still in print and enchanting new readers today. It reached an audience far beyond the market for fantasy books, tying in with an emerging counter-culture and selling hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of copies. The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche contains two of Beagle's popular unicorn stories, "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros" and "Julie's Unicorn," as well as "Lila the Werewolf" (anthologized in the Oxford Book of Fantasy) and a tribute to J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Naga."

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Under the Zucchini - (1997) - essay by Patricia A. McKillip
• Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros - (1995) - novelette
• Come Lady Death - (1963) - short story
• Lila the Werewolf - (1969) - novelette
• Julie's Unicorn - (1995) - novelette
• The Naga - (1992) - short story
• Pittsburgh Stories - (1997) - short fiction
• Telephone Call - (1957) - short story
• My Daughter's Name Is Sarah - (1959) - short story
• Learning a Trade - (1997) - essay
• My Last Heroes - (1965) - essay
• D. H. Lawrence in Taos - (1969) - essay
• The Poor People's Campaign - (1997) - essay

Fantasy is more than just sword-and-sorcery novels of epic adventures. Here are innovative tales where mythology, fairy tales, and archetypes are reimagined into a new style of storytelling.

Anthologist Peter S. Beagle knows fantasy. The author of the inventive fantasy novel The Last Unicorn and the introduction to The Lord of the Rings now introduces the gifted writers that returned to the classics and thoroughly redefined the genre: Gregory Maguire, Francesca Lia Block, Robert Holdstock, Patricia McKillip, and Steven Millhauser, and others who have lead the way to expanding imaginative frontiers.

From the depths of a dangerous English forest to the top of the Tower of Babel, on a caffeinated journey to the empire of ice cream, discover The Secret History of Fantasy.

Contents:

• Ancestor Money - (2003) - short story by Maureen F. McHugh
• Scarecrow - (2001) - short story by Gregory Maguire
• Lady of the Skulls - (1993) - short story by Patricia A. McKillip
• We are Norsemen - (1977) - short story by T. C. Boyle
• The Barnum Museum - (1990) - short story by Steven Millhauser
• Bears Discover Fire - (1990) - short story by Terry Bisson
• Bones - (2000) - short story by Francesca Lia Block
• Snow, Glass, Apples - (1995) - short story by Neil Gaiman
• Fruit and Words - (2001) - short story by Aimee Bender
• The Empire of Ice Cream - (2003) - novelette by Jeffrey Ford
• The Edge of the World - (1989) - short story by Michael Swanwick
• Super Goat Man - (2004) - short story by Jonathan Lethem
• John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner - (2006) - short story by Susanna Clarke
• The Book of Martha - (2003) - short story by Octavia E. Butler
• The Vita Æterna Mirror Company: Mirrors to Last Till Kingdom Come - (1993) - short story by Yann Martel
• Sleight of Hand - (2009) - short story by Peter S. Beagle
• Mythago Wood - (1981) - novelette by Robert Holdstock
• 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss - (2008) - short story by Kij Johnson

"The Story of Kao Yu" is a new fantasy short story by the legendary Peter S. Beagle which tells of an ageing judge traveling through rural China and of a criminal he encounters. Of the story, Beagle says it "comes out of a lifelong fascination with Asian legendry - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Indonesian - all drawn from cultures where storytelling, in one form of another, remains a living art. As a young writer I loved everything from Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries to Lafcadio Hearn's translations of Japanese fairytales and many lesser-known fantasies. Like my story 'The Tale of Junko and Sayuri,' 'The Story of Kao Yu' is a respectful imitation of an ancient style, and never pretends to be anything else. But I wrote it with great care and love, and I'm still proud of it. "

This story originally appeared on Tor.com, December 7, 2016. It can also be found in the anthology The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017, edited by John Joseph Adams and Charles Yu. The story is included in the collection The Overneath (2017).

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Unicorns: Not just for virgins anymore. Here are sixteen lovely, powerful, intricate, and unexpected unicorn tales from fantasy icons including Garth Nix, Peter S. Beagle, Patricia A. McKillip, Bruce Coville, Carrie Vaughn, and more. In this volume you will find two would-be hunters who enlist an innkeeper to find a priest hiding the secret of the last unicorn. A time traveler tries to corral an unruly mythological beast that might never have existed at all. The lover and ex-boyfriend of a dying woman join forces to find a miraculous remedy in New York City. And a small-town writer of historical romances discovers a sliver of a mysterious horn in a slice of apple pie.

Table of Contents:

• "The Magical Properties of Unicorn Ivory" Carlos Hernandez
• "The Brew" Karen Joy Fowler
• "Falling Off the Unicorn" David D. Levine and Sara A. Mueller
• "A Hunter's Ode to His Bait" Carrie Vaughn
• "Ghost Town" Jack C. Haldeman II
• "A Thousand Flowers" Margo Lanagan
• "The Maltese Unicorn" Caitlín R. Kiernan
• "Stampede of Light" Marina Fitch
• "The Highest Justice" Garth Nix
• "The Lion and the Unicorn" A. C. Wise
• "Survivor" Dave Smeds
• "Homeward Bound" Bruce Coville
• "Unicorn Triangle" Patricia A. McKillip
• "My Son Heydari and the Karkadann" Peter S. Beagle
• "Unicorn Series" Nancy Springer

A misfit 13-year-old girl, Joey Rivera, hears mysterious music and encounters an even more mysterious boy who calls himself Indigo. Thus begins a quest that leads Joey to the faerie land of Shei'rah, source of the music and home of the Old Ones, unicorns who are menaced by blindness.

Indigo is a unicorn who has preferred to remain in our world in human form, but he helps Josephine to take her grandmother to Shei'rah and to cure the plague of blindness. The story is slight, but the characterizations are grand, enhanced by graceful prose laced with exquisite detail, and through both literary creativity and folkloric expertise where unicorns are concerned. The return to unicorns and the massive promotional effort behind the novel should put Beagle's name before the public in a way that it has deserved to be for many years.

-- Publishers Weekly

Includes eleven full-color illustrations by Robert Rodriguez.

Whether featuring tattooed demon hunters, angst-y vampires, supernatural gumshoes, or pixelated pixies, Urban Fantasy mashes up old-school tales with pop culture, creating iconic characters, diverging moralities, and complex settings. Urban fantasy is finally showcased in this star-studded collection, representing all three of its distinct styles, including the playful new mythologies of Charles de Lint, the sexy paranormal romances of Patricia Briggs, and the gritty urban noir of Neil Gaiman.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2011) - essay by Peter S. Beagle
• A Personal Journey into Mythic Fiction - essay by Charles de Lint
• A Bird That Whistles - (1989) - shortstory by Emma Bull
• Make a Joyful Noise - (2005) - novelette by Charles de Lint
• The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories - (1996) - novelette by Neil Gaiman
• On the Road to New Egypt - (1995) - shortstory by Jeffrey Ford
• Julie's Unicorn - (1995) - novelette by Peter S. Beagle
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Urban Fantasy - essay by Paula Guran
• Companions to the Moon - (2007) - shortstory by Charles de Lint
• A Haunted House of Her Own - (2009) - shortfiction by Kelley Armstrong
• She's My Witch - (1995) - shortstory by Norman Partridge
• Kitty's Zombie New Year - (2007) - shortstory by Carrie Vaughn
• Seeing Eye - (2009) - novelette by Patricia Briggs
• Hit - (2008) - shortstory by Bruce McAllister
• Boobs - (1989) - shortstory by Suzy McKee Charnas
• Farewell, My Zombie - (2009) - shortfiction by Francesca Lia Block
• We Are Not a Club, but We Sometimes Share a Room - essay by Joe R. Lansdale
• The White Man - (2004) - novelette by Thomas M. Disch
• Gestella - (2001) - novelette by Susan Palwick
• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown - (2009) - novelette by Holly Black
• Talking Back to the Moon - shortfiction by Steven R. Boyett
• On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks - (1989) - novelette by Joe R. Lansdale
• The Bible Repairman - (2006) - shortstory by Tim Powers
• Father Dear - (1983) - shortstory by Al Sarrantonio

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July-August 2011. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection (2012), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection The Overneath (2017).

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the collection Strange Roads (2008). The story can also be found in the novellas The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Three (2009), edited by Jonathan Strahan, Real Unreal: Best American Fantasy Volume III (2010), edited by Matthew Cheney and Kevin Brockmeier, People of the Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy (2010), edited by Sean Wallace and Rachel Swirsky, and The Mammoth Book of Angels and Demons (2013), edited by Paula Guran. It is included in the collections We Never Talk About My Brother (2009) and Mirror Kingdoms (2010).

A college professor befriends, in a strange way, the odd caretaker of the Seattle Troll.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy (2011), edited by Ellen Datlow. It can also be found in the anthology The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six (2012), edited by Jonathan Strahan. The story is included in the collection The Overneath (2017).

Listen to the full story for free at PodCastle.

The extraordinary stories in this new contemporary fantasy collection show a mature, darker side of the author of The Last Unicorn in modern parables of love, death, and transformation shadowed lightly with melancholy.

The Angel of Death enjoys newfound celebrity while moonlighting as an anchorman on the network news; King Pelles the Sure, the shortsighted ruler of a gentle realm, betrays himself in dreaming of a "manageable war"; an American librarian discovers that, much to his surprise and sadness, he is also the last living Frenchman; and rivals in a supernatural battle forgo pistols at dawn, choosing instead to duel with dramatic recitations of terrible poetry.

Featuring previously unpublished stories alongside recently published classics, this is a lovely, haunting, and wholly satisfying read.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Charles de Lint
• By Moonlight
• Chandail
• King Pelles the Sure
• Spook
• The Last and Only, or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French
• The Stickball WitchThe Tale of Junko and Sayuri
• The Unicorn Tapestries
• Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel
• We Never Talk About My Brother

An unlikely friendship based on philosophy develops between an aging academic and a mythological beast. A mysterious, beautiful attendee who attends a ball thrown in her honor chooses whether or not to become mortal. A dysfunctional relationship is not improved by the consequences of lycanthropy. One very brave young mouse questions his identity and redefines feline wiles.

From heartbreaking to humorous, these carefully curated stories by Peter S. Beagle show the depth and power of his incomparable prose and storytelling. Featuring an original introduction from Jane Yolen (Owl Moon) and gorgeous illustrations from Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (Shadowscapes), this elegant collection is a must-have for any fan of classic fantasy.

A dilapidated dragon, a frustrated cop, and an unapologetic author square off over a dangerously abandoned narrative. The seemingly perfect addition to a weekly card game hides a dark secret from everyone but her teammate. A deeply respected judge meets his match in Snow Ermine, a gorgeous pickpocket.

From heartbreaking to humorous, these carefully curated stories by Peter S. Beagle show the depth and power of his incomparable prose and storytelling. Featuring a newly published story,"The Mantichora," an original introduction from Meg Elison (Find Layla), and gorgeous illustrations from Stephanie Pui-Mun Law (Shadowscapes), this elegant collection is a must-have for any fan of classic fantasy.

The Last Unicorn is one of the true classics of fantasy, ranking with Tolkien's The Hobbit, Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy, and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Beagle writes a shimmering prose-poetry, the voice of fairy tales and childhood:

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.

The unicorn discovers that she is the last unicorn in the world, and sets off to find the others. She meets Schmendrick the Magician--whose magic seldom works, and never as he intended--when he rescues her from Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival, where only some of the mythical beasts displayed are illusions. They are joined by Molly Grue, who believes in legends despite her experiences with a Robin Hood wannabe and his unmerry men. Ahead wait King Haggard and his Red Bull, who banished unicorns from the land.

This is a book no fantasy reader should miss; Beagle argues brilliantly the need for magic in our lives and the folly of forgetting to dream.

Nebula-winning and Hugo- and World Fantasy-nominated Novelette

"Two Hearts" is a novelette written by Peter S. Beagle in 2004 as a coda to The Last Unicorn (1968), despite his decades-long reluctance to continue the original story.

A young girl named Sooz lives in a village plagued by a griffin. The beast has preyed on the village's sheep and goats for years, but recently it has started killing children as well. Sooz embarks on a quest to recruit the King to save her village, and on the way runs into Schmendrick and Molly Grue from The Last Unicorn.

Read this story online for free at the author's website.

The Last Unicorn is one of fantasy's most revered classics, beloved by generations of readers and with millions of copies in print. Revisiting the world of that novel, Beagle's long-awaited Hugo and Nebula-Awards-winning "Two Hearts" introduced the irrepressible Sooz on a quest to save her village from a griffin, and explored the bonds she formed with unforgettable characters like the wise and wonderful Molly Grue and Schmendrick the Magician.

In the never-before-published "Sooz," the events of "Two Hearts" are years behind its narrator, but a perilous journey lies ahead of her, in a story that is at once a tender meditation on love and loss, and a lesson in finding your true self.

The Way Home is suffused with Beagle's wisdom, profound lyricism, and sly wit; and collects two timeless works of fantasy.

Eugene Fisher, Brooke Bolander, Amal El-Mohtar, Maria Dahvana Headley, Max Gladstone, Ben Loory, Carmen Maria Machado, Usman T. Malik, Sarah Pinsker, Hannu Rajaniemi, Adam Ehrlich Sachs, Sofia Samatar, Kelly Sandoval, Chris Tarry, A. C. Wise, Alyssa Wong, JY Yang, E. Lily Yu

What would you do if a tornado wanted you to be its Valentine? Or if a haunted spacesuit banged on your door? When is the ideal time to turn into a tiger? Would you post a supernatural portal on Craigslist?

In these nineteen stories, the enfants terribles of fantasy have entered the building--a love-starved, ambulatory skyscraper. The New Voices of Fantasy tethers some of the fastest-rising talents of the last five years. Their tales were hand-picked by the legendary Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn) and genre expert Jacob Weisman (The Treasury of the Fantastic).

So go ahead, join the Communist revolution of the honeybees. The new kids got your back.

Table of Contents:

• "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" by Alyssa Wong
• "Selkie Stories are for Losers" by Sofia Samatar
• "Tornado's Siren" by Brooke Bolander
• "Left the Century to Sit Unmoved" by Sarah Pinsker
• "A Kiss with Teeth" by Max Gladstone
• "Jackalope Wives" by Ursula Vernon
• "The Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees" by E. Lily Yu
• "The Practical Witch's Guide to Acquiring Real Estate" by A. C. Wise
• "The Tallest Doll in New York City" by Maria Dahvana Headley
• "The Haunting of Apollo A7LB" by Hannu Rajaniemi
• "Here Be Dragons" by Chris Tarry
• "The One They Took Before" by Kelly Sandoval
• "Tiger Baby" by JY Yang
• "The Duck" by Ben Loory
• "Wing" by Amal El-Mohtar
• "The Philosophers" by Adam Ehrlich Sachs
• "My Time Among the Bridge Blowers" by Eugene Fischer
• "The Husband Stitch" by Carmen Maria Machado
• "The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn" by Usman T. Malik

Six breathtaking stories set in the bestselling world of The Inkeeper's Song.

This short story originally appeared in the anthology Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron (2012), edited by Jonathan Strahan. It can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven (2013), edited by Jonathan Strahan, and The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2013, edited by Paula Guran. The story is included in the collection The Overneath (2017).

Read the full story for free at the Baen website.

Locus Award nominated novelette.

This short story originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May, 2004. It has been collected in The Line Between (2006) and anthologized in Fantasy: The Best of 2004, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Karen Haber, and in Year's Best Fantasy 5, edited by Kathryn Cramer and David G. Hartwell.

Set in a shadowy world of magic and mystery, a fantasy novel in which a young man sets off on a wild ride in pursuit of the lover whose death and resurrection he witnessed.