Subject: Book Review: The Innkeeper's Song

From: [email-masked] (I was so much older then; I'm younger than that now...)
Date: 15 Mar 94 17:09:15 GMT

The Innkeeper's Song, by Peter S. Beagle

A book review by Mary J. Marotta

What is magic? In this novel by the author of the highly acclaimed "The Last
Unicorn,"  Peter  Beagle's  wizard is the center of the circle of all things
and  his  power  lies  in  his knowledge about the forces around him and his
wisdom  in  understanding  them.  Magic power runs through all the
characters  and  places  in this story about a wizard and his former
students, one of whom as become his arch enemy.  The
location is the Gaff and Slasher, an  inn  with a very
special clientele.  The stable boy, Rosseth, who has
no knowledge of his real origins, is very
interested  in the three women who ride into the inn yard, and he helps them
arrange  for  a  room  against  the innkeeper's better judgement.  Karsh the
innkeeper  is  the  brash, loud manager of this inn and an unfailing critic of
both his help and his new guests: Lal, the warrior with a sword
hidden in a cane; Nyatenari,  the  tall  brown woman with the fox riding in 
her saddlebag; and Lukassa,  the  pale village maiden whom Lal resurrected 
from death and to whom she gave the emerald ring she wore.

Rosseth the stable boy imposes his will on his fierce master once again when
Tikat, a lonely, weak traveller, follows his beloved Lukassa to the Gaff and
Slasher, with nowhere else to go.  Soon Tikat has a place in the stable
near  Rosseth  and  some visiting players.  The old man who Tikat saved from
death at the hands of bandits and who helped Tikat through the arid and
treacherous  journey is gone.

Nyatenari's fox  reveals  the  power to change himself into a human at will,
and is soon pursued in fox form by a great dog who catches him and convinces
him  to  carry the dog to the inn.  The fox takes on his human form,
and the dog also takes his human form: as the wizard who was the teacher
of  both  Lal  and  Nyatenari,  now weakened and injured in a clash with his
former student, an evil wizard.

Lal has arrived at the Gaff and Slasher in her search for that teacher, a
wizard  who  has  sent dreams and visions telling her that he is in trouble.
She  and  Nyatenari travel  together to meet the evil wizard and attemp
to save their teacher, but their meeting
with  the  evil  wizard nearly ends in disaster,  and  they  are
rescued and returned to the inn by their
teacher.   The evil wizard follows them there, bringing his associates,
dark  powers  with  whom  his  bargain  for  everlasting  life was bought by
promising  them his  master's death.  These powers would like to see the 
kind and gentle  old  teacher suffer an everlasting death and torment as a 
terrifying burning  ice monster.

Magic in this story rips and twists the world, causing drought and a
sense of despair.   The evil wizard has made a dangerous
bargain and he does not recognize the true nature
of the  dark  powers.  This story shows how everyone is
marked  by  the decisions they make in life.

Once you  get  used to the weird way things move without being moved in this
book,  you  can  relax and enjoy the humorous situations.  Karsh is a man of
duality  who  is  both  a  competent  and successful innkeeper and a roaring
harassment to his beleagered employees.  Nayatenari's fox tears himself from
contemplations  of  the pretty plump pigeons in Karsh's attic to express his
deep  dislike  of  wizardry  of  any  type.  The fox's
ruminations on the metaphysics of his situation are both poignant and wry.

This is  a  story about fagades, masks, and learning your true identity.  In
his   spare,   graceful   style,   Peter   Beagle   draws   characters  
that have three-dimensionality  and also have universal traits, to show
how plot and characters are intertwined to make a story about change and
growing, as well as about constancy and identity.

This new  novel  deserves  rich praise  and  further  analysis.   It is a
"keeper,"  to  be  read  over and over again.