Tachyon’s upcoming Unicorn Anthology seeks to revitalize the genre of horse-girl literature while also proving that unicorns aren’t just for little girls anymore. Needless to say, I was delighted in being given an opportunity to read and review it, and for that I have to thank NetGalley.

The stories within tend to vary a fair amount, from the traditional high fantasy to things a bit darker and a whole lot stranger. While I wish the works as a whole could have pushed the boundaries of what is and isn’t a unicorn a bit more, perhaps included some more diversity in cultural views of the unicorn, overall there’s a pretty good spread, if all fairly confined to the fantasy genre.

Unfortunately, many of them aren’t new stories, though they may be new to you. They come from other anthologies, and for the unicorn-savvy reader, that means reading a lot of words you think you’ve seen before. That’s not to say they aren’t strong stories, but rather, that they may not be as fresh as you would imagine, which can be disappointing when backed by Beagle’s strong name.

Particular stand-outs for me were: “The Magical Properties of Unicorn Ivory,” a story about conservation and the thirst for more, some new magical panacea, centering conservation and unicorns in a way that I wish I had written.

“Falling Off the Unicorn” was about unicorn dressage and young love between two teenage girls- what is virginity anyway?

“The Maltese Unicorn” is perhaps the raunchiest story, centering around a black dildo with rather unusual properties that may or may not be made of unicorn horn.

I still think it was a fun collection, and the unicorn fan in your life will enjoy it as long as they haven’t read too many other anthologies. It was rather hit-or-miss though, not quite sure where it was going to fall thematically.