The title character of Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn (1968) is an interesting creation: she is transcendentally beautiful and has a real gentleness to her, yet at the same time she's vain and aloof. This in itself isn't remarkable, as much as how Beagle stopped me from being judgmental. Like a well-written alien in a Science Fiction novel, the unicorn can't be approached using the same value system we use with people. Like Chris Rock says, "That tiger didn't go crazy; that tiger went tiger."

The Last Unicorn is a well-written novel that doesn't feel self-satisfied and aware of its style. Although an interest in style is essential for literary critics (and English teachers looking to justify their existence), for me it's always secondary to character and plot. Beagle's writing is never merely serviceable, yet he continually avoids being verbose and overly ornate. His similes are original and imaginative:

They were like the noise bees might make buzzing on the moon.

His writing style is as it should be, an added bonus that adds to the story instead of drawing attention to itself:

It was a small smile...but Prince Lir leaned toward it to be warm. He would have cupped his hands around her smile and breathed it brighter, if he had dared.

At one end of Fantasy, you have worlds built from the ground up (Lord of the Rings); at the other, you have settings that are immediately recognizable, yet contain a twist that clearly places them within the genre (The Shining). The Last Unicorn falls somewhere in between. It has traditional fantasy elements, like harpies and wizards, yet has a strangely contemporary tone to it. This is due partly to its self-awareness (thankfully, it's not too self-referential), and partly to its dry humour:

And in the evening, before she went to bed, (Molly) usually read over Prince Lir's new poems to the Lady Amalthea, and praised them, and corrected the spelling.

As always, personal taste can't be ignored. The Last Unicorn was a little too traditional in it's fantastical elements for me, but it avoids clichés and is generally a solid work deserving of its reputation.