My latest read is another young adult fantasy: The Black Unicorn by Tanith Lee. This one doesn’t draw on Tolkein, though. Tanaquil is the daughter of a sorceress, but she has no magical abilities herself. However, she can fix things, so in order to occupy her mind and her days, she fixes broken things brought to her by the residents of the desert fortress where she lives. The monotony of her existence shifts when she befriends a peeve who helps her put together the skeleton of a unicorn. The adventure that follows eventually leads Tanaquil to her destiny.
I haven’t read any of Tanith Lee’s other novels, but if this is an example of her work, I look forward to the rest. The book is short, but even so, Lee is able to flesh out characters and locations enough to connect them with the reader. She has left the ending open for sequels, which have been written (Gold Unicorn, Red Unicorn), so I will seek those out first.
