Sleight of Hand

Peter S. Beagle

Jan 2011 · Tachyon Publications

About this ebook

Magic is back.

Peter S. Beagle returns with an inspired collection of new fantasy that showcases 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 brand-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.

Ratings and reviews

I think it is so cool I went to see him and the last unicorn he is amazing

About the author

Peter S. Beagle is the best-selling author of The Last Unicorn, which has sold a reported five million copies since its initial publication in 1968. His other novels include A Fine & Private Place, The Innkeeper’s Song, and Tamsin. His short fiction has been collected in four volumes by Tachyon Publications, including The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche, The Line Between, We Never Talk About My Brother, and Sleight of Hand. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, Mythopoeic, and Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire awards and the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.