Elegy Beach

In November I read a little oddity originally published in 1983, this was a minor cult classic called Ariel by Steven R. Boyett.

Elegy Beach is the sequel to Ariel, published 27 years later. The action picks up roughly 30 years after the end of the first book. Humanity seems to have settled down into a form of existence after coming to terms with their technologyless existence. Where Ariel was the story of 'change' survivor Pete Garey, Elegy Beach is the story of his teenage son; Fred, so named after Pete's original samurai sword.

Fred works for a trader and magic caster, an elderly Greek man, commonly referred to by most of the residents in the beach community of Del Mar, California, as Paypay. What minor magic Paypay teaches Fred, he promptly shares with his best friend; Yanamandra 'Yan' Ramachandani, son of the local 'doctor'. What Pete Garey experienced in Ariel, and on his journey westward to try and make a new life for himself and his family have left him both mentally and emotionally scarred.

While Fred is happy to learn as much as he can from Paypay and discover the brave new world of humanity, Yan wants more. Eventually Yan's obsession with returning humanity's former dominance over the world by means of technological supremacy causes a rift between the two, and Yan is banished from the beachside community.

Yan's actions in the world outside bring an old friend back into Pete's life and a small band are forced to leave their home and bring the now immensely powerful Yan to heel, before it's too late for everyone.

In the 27 years between the publication of Ariel and Elegy Beach Steven R. Boyett has matured both as an author and a person, and this is obvious in the sequel to one of his best known works. There's a lot more magic in Elegy Beach than there was in it's predecessor, and he's developed an interestlingly explained magical system that works rather like computer software (the author calls it spellware). There was nothing like this in Ariel, the magic worked just because. The post 'change' world is a little more completely realised, although I still felt there were too many well preserved remnants of the modern world in a society that had been removed from that lifestyle for nearly 3 decades. As with the young dragon slayer George (get it?) in Ariel, who seemed like he was in the book, because he was a good idea at the time, there's a foul mouthed teenage girl called Avy in Elegy Beach, she gets the band of merry adventurers out of a few scrapes, seems to form a relationship with Ariel and Fred, then disappears the same way George went back to his family. In fact Fred seems to develop a few tentative liaisons with girls, but they're never followed through on.

I've felt given the setting Boyett has created for these 2 books that he's missed an opportunity to really explore magical creatures. In Ariel we got to know a lot about unicorns as seen by one, and griffins, manticores and dragons were also mentioned, but we never really saw much of them, although the idea of dragons being full of gas, thus enabling them to fly and breathe fire, was pretty cool and logically thought out. In Elegy Beach we hear about sea serpents and rocs, but the readers actually see centaurs. To a large extent the centaurs are the bad guys, taking the place of the necromancers hired thugs in Ariel. There is of course one soft hearted centaur by the name of Bob, who is slightly different from the rest of his warlike race. I quite liked Boyett's depiction of centaurs as somewhat alien creatures very different from the usual image of a person with a horse's body that is seen in most literature featuring centaurs (Harry Potter, Piers Anthony's Xanth series, etc...). It also made me wish that Raymond E. Feist had written more about the Thun (centaur like inhabitants of Kelewan) in his Midkemia books.

As with Ariel, Boyett writes action very well, and his fight sequences obviously drew on his martial arts experience and were the better for it. Like Ariel the ending was bitter sweet. There's scope for further novels, but I doubt that Boyett wants to write them. It did take him 27 years to write Elegy Beach after all. Elegy Beach can be read as a standalone novel, it is not necessary to have read Ariel, although it's a good read too, and a chapter of Elegy Beach is devoted to covering the events of Ariel as background for the story that will take place

It's a good, fun adventure novel and does make you think occasionally how you would deal with life if all the technology we take for granted suddenly ceased to exist. I don't regret the time spent reading it.

Ariel

I picked up Ariel on a whim. I liked the concept, you don’t see many books featuring unicorns these days and this was the first post apocalyptic book I can ever remember seeing with one.

The best one line description I’ve seen for Ariel comes from author Cory Doctorow: Part post apocalypse, part road trip, part sword-and-sorcery.

The twist on the post apocalyptic setting was that there was no real explanation given for what caused the apocalypse. It just happened. Survivors refer to it as ‘the Change’. One evening all technology on Earth just stopped working and magical creatures started appearing.

Pete Garey is a survivor, ever since ‘the Change’ he’s simply drifted aimlessly across a depopulated USA. One day while bathing in a stream he encounters an injured unicorn. He befriends the creature, helps her heal, names her Ariel and the two of them continue the journey.

Things are fine until they get to Atlanta and other people become aware of Ariel, or more specifically the magical properties of her horn. She becomes the target of a powerful necromancer based in Manhattan. Pete’s friend, the warrior Malachi goes to Manhattan to take the necromancer out and make the world just that little bit safer for everyone. Pete and Ariel aren’t supposed to follow, but since when did teenagers (Pete is probably in his early 20’s, but acts like a teenager and Ariel is very similar in that respect) do what they were told.

As they track Malachi cross country they meet up with other inhabitants of this strange new world, among them are a young man whose idiot father has given him the task of killing a dragon and not returning home with proof that he has done so. Then there is Shaughnessy. Shaughnessy is an attractive university student who has dreamt her whole life of meeting something like Ariel. Her presence and Pete’s attraction to her causes some problems between unicorn and young man, although they are resolved to a certain extent by the time the trio reach Manhattan.

Author Steven R. Boyett does action sequences very well and the climactic face off between Pete and his small band of survivors and the forces of the necromancer, including an assassin who rides a griffin, is very well written and genuinely suspenseful.

This book was published when the author was 21 (in 1983, it was reprinted by ACE in 2009) and there are some things that make the reader wonder: where have all the people gone, how did Pete and Shaughnessy managed to survive for as long as they did when they’re both pretty clueless when they’re originally introduced, how come the shops haven’t been looted more in 4 – 5 years, how has food and other goods managed to keep for that length of time? They’re minor quibbles, but they do take you out of the story at times.

Essentially Ariel is a coming of age story as much as anything and the emotional journey that the two protagonists go on is what keeps the reader turning the pages.

I found Ariel a definite page turner and an easy read, a little lighter than the subject material would initially indicate. Despite its flaws I did enjoy the novel and have no hesitation in recommending that people pick it up and give it a chance.

Boyett has written a sequel; Elegy Beach, set 30 years after the events of Ariel.

The Last Unicorn

The 6th book of the challenge and the 3rd of the B's.

Peter S Beagle is a fantasy author who has been active in the field for over 40 years. He's worked in Hollywood and written fantasy and science fiction, even some non fiction, he he will always been best known for his 3rd book, a whimsical fairy tale fantasy called The Last Unicorn.

It's basically a quest book. The last unicorn in the world (never named) sets out from her lilac grove in an enchanted forest to see if it's true, if she really is the last unicorn and whether or not she can find more of her kind. Joining her on her journey of discovery are the incompetent wizard Schmendrick, the incurable romantic Molly Grue and the heroic and lovesick Prince Lir. Along the way the unicorn encounters the perils of the world beyond her forest. A travelling show of curiousities, a village of hopeless people, a band of roaming bandits and finally the miserable King Haggard who has the secret to her quest.

The characters, aside from the unicorn were very deliberately made generic fantasy quest characters, but then their dialogue and actions gave them depth. The language used by Beagle is extraordinary and very uniquely descriptive, but it works. The entire story has this lovely feel to it that makes you keep reading to discover more about the world and it's inhabitants. You care about what happens to the unicorn and her friends. It takes the known fairytale concepts and ever so subtly and cleverly turns them on their heads.

I can see why it's become a modern classic. It can be read and enjoyed for varying reasons across a number of ages, from children under the age of 10 (although they'd need some help and it may even need to be read to them) to adults who just enjoy a well told tale. Other works in a similar vein are William Goldman's The Princess Bride.