#the overneath

i'm gonna make this more gender neutral so everyone can enjoy darl, hope you dont mind! gays and theys deserve to read some fanfiction too!

and yet again, gonna need to skip jervis

Jonathan with a very caring s/o hcs:

he is... not used to being taken care of. hell, he's not even used to taking care of himself. and quite honestly, you're the best fucking thing that ever happened to him. not that he'd ever admit it tho smh

you're just always so... gentle. and you pay so much attention to him and his needs. you never push. you always know when, where and how to soothe him. you always bring him food and coffee and insist on making him drink water. you massage his shoulders whenever he's been working for too long. it feels... weird. surreal. he will probably never get used to it

sometimes, he gets really flustered by you. here you are, a little ray of fucking sunshine, making sure he has a scarf and a warm hat on him, fixing it all for him, styling, patting his cheek like you were his parent. you have to fucking stand on your toes to even reach his neck properly, and yet he feels so small with you. and the amount of respect he harbors for you is immeasurable

Jon has never felt the need to ever explain himself to someone, never felt shame at getting caught redhanded in doing something illegal or whatever the fuck, but all it takes is a single look from you and he's spilling the beans, even looking bashful while doing it. you just have that effect on him

he is not going to lie, he does get self-conscious because of the age gap. he's an old cynic, you're young and so full of love, and not only does your relationship sometimes look like the parent-child dynamic in the most unexpected ways (i mean cmon, the rogues were shocked to see how you've tamed him), but sometimes it's just... hard to keep up. and it gets annoying, always being stared at - for a very different reason this time - whenever he walks hand in hand with you, and the whispers really get to him sometimes. even he can't comprehend what the hell are you doing with an old fuck like him

honestly? the first few times it happened, he had ceased showing you any and all affection in public completely. he didn't hold your arm/hand/waist, he walked a small distance away from you, he used the same cold tone he used for everyone else. it wasn't just because he himself was embarassed (and he hasn't given a shit for public opinion in years), but he was afraid that the whispers might get to you. maybe even... make you realize how you're wasting your life with him. he will need some reassurance from you to even consider showing your relationship to the public. he doesn't give a shit that people are going to point fingers at him, he gives a shit that they will do so at you and he'd hate it if you started developing some insecurities because of that or started considering... leaving him. he knows you probably should but he... so doesn't fucking want you to. it might be selfish, but he so doesn't want to fucking let you go. ever.

Edward with a very caring s/o hcs:

this man is just one big fucking baby, you two will get along very well. you complete each other. ying yang and shit. and he honestly needs you in his life. he needs someone to take care of him, he needs someone to love him like you do. it might not seem so at first glance, but he is practically unable to do that himself. he will never take care of himself like you care for him, he will never love himself like you love him

when you just came into his life and started cooking him decent meals, spoiling him with affection, listening to him, just overall taking care of him, he felt the need to cling to you like his life depended on it. you had him hooked immediately

but there's also this little thing...s. like... parental issues... trust issues... y'know, the usual. it's just... you felt so much like a parent sometimes, and he's used to parents aka the people that were supposed to love him abusing their power over him and belittling him. so, accepting the fact that he loved you and you might love him was a very long and tiring process. and then one time you just hugged him to you after supplying him with the best soup he's ever fucking had, he just curled into a ball in your arms, telling you that he loved you and... asking you not to hate him because of that. it was the most fucking heartbreaking thing because it actually felt like holding a hurt, abused and neglected child in your arms

has called you 'Mom' on more than one occassion, regardless of your gender (he'd never call you Dad. it feels like an insult to him) and got very embarassed because of it. honestly, he often gets hella embarassed whenever you do something for him, like fix his collar or pat his cheek. but every time he sees you like, folding his clothes maybe, just doing normal, domestic things and taking care of him, he's got this dopey smile on his red face as he all but stares at you with love-filled eyes

it does feel... weird sometimes. he feels kind of... creepy. you're younger than him, and yet you're the mother-hen, you're the mature one (though he won't admit that, ever) and it almost makes him feel incompetent. because he literally needs you to take care of him since he so often can't even do that himself. he doesn't blame you at all, of course. at first he did, and he threw a huge tantrum over it, many insults were directed at you but your god-like patience made you just suffer through it, comfort him and have a serious talk about the whole thing

For B&N SCI-FI & FANTASY BLOG, Ceridwen Christensen delivers a loving profile of Peter S. Beagle and his most famous work in Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, Immortal at 50.

Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn was first published in 1968—50 years ago!—but my entrance into the narrative was via the 1982 Rankin/Bass film adaption. Probably best known for stop-motion holiday perennials like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the animation studio briefly had a sideline in adapting fantasy classics, among them J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Beagle’s (then and now) most revered work.

In the U.S. (and particularly in the ’80s), animation meant “for kids.” While neither The Hobbit nor The Last Unicorn were written for children, precisely, they both have charming, conspiring narrators, and are the kind of tales that can be read aloud beautifully. The script for The Last Unicorn was written by Beagle himself, and what resulted is lovely film, and a terrifying one, for children and their inevitable parents. It’s especially striking in the ambiguity of its conclusion—a happily-ever-after more than tinged with melancholy and regret.

When I finally picked up the novel, some years back, I thought I knew what to expect, and was wholly unprepared to be left poleaxed by its delicate beauty.

The Last Unicorn was only Beagle’s second novel, published when he was in his late 20s, but it is an unbelievably accomplished work; both winsome and wistful, happy and sad, longing and fulfilled. My notes, jotted down during that first reading, are just lines of oppositional adjectives, dichotomies that somehow resolve to wholeness within the text.

The ending of the novel feels final and true, but Beagle has written well more into the unicorn wood since The Last Unicorn was published half a century ago—even as he has adapted the original novel into new forms; see the film’s screenplay, as well as a quite beautiful graphic novel. IN CALABRIA details a pair of unicorns who are almost an inversion of first and last unicorn: wholly bestial, without speech, but with the glimmering immortality that does not and cannot know regret.

Last year’s THE OVERNEATH, a collection of short stories about a bestiary of topics, tells the stories of three unicorns, several other monsters, and two anecdotes in the life of Schmendrick, the last of the red-hot swamis. The first elucidates how he ended up with such a horrible name; in Yiddish, a language of the most nuanced insults, schmendrick means something like “one who is out of their depth.” The second finds Schmendrick just after his release from Nikos’ tutelage.

“Two Hearts,” a novelette that won both the Hugo and the Nebula the year it was published, and can be found in the collection THE LINE BETWEEN, is a sort of coda to The Last Unicorn—a telling Beagle resisted for decades. This fall arrives THE LAST UNICORN: THE LOST JOURNEY, 96 pages of pages of musings and ephemera that provide a glimpse of an early draft of the novel, written when Beagle was just 23; the promotional copy promises an encounter with a dragon.

Since I first read The Last Unicorn, I’ve fallen into other of Beagle’s works, and every time I read him, I am floored by his command of language, his sly sense of humor, his almost casual profundity. Just this year he honored by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s of America’s as a Damon Knight Grand Master, an award for lifetime achievement. Unfortunately, many of his books have gone in and out of print. Boy, but I would love to see lush, newly illustrated editions of his prodigious catalog, beginning with The Last Unicorn, his most enduring work. He is such a fine writer, and grows finer with age.

oh to live with a eight ft tall a.i. in a small house by the countryside, surrounded by nature

Ultron with a cottagecore s/o hcs:

coming over to you is a pleasant change of scenery. he's constantly surrounded by technology and heavy machinery, everything he has contact with is sharp, cold and metal, and then suddenly he's sitting with you on your porch, air still misty, the morning sun highlighting your beautiful features as you listen to the birds sing

you surround yourself with nature so much, which in turn makes him surrounded by nature. you've practically forced him to see the beauty earth has to offer and prove him that not all humans wish to destroy it

you show him how to take care of plants, supplying him with personal knowledge and experiences that aren't so easily accessible on the internet, you gave him a patch to have a small garden of his own so he can create something by himself, something good and beautiful

you take him for walks in the fields and the nearby forest and show him the details he never cared to see. you're so amazed by everything nature has to offer, so passionately explaining him just why this plant is growing here and not there, and how to find the best mushrooms, and you're always so fascinated by any animals you see. you show him the wonders of this world that he never really cared to look at

he gets jealous of you often, on those trips. not even mentioning how the smallest things make you happy so easily, he silently seethes on the inside seeing you bask in the sun, dipping your hands in water streams or touching the soft moss. no receptors will ever enable him to feel things like you do, he will never have an actual body. he doesn't hate you for it, he just hates your abilities but also himself. he won't take it out on you and it won't make him despise your walks together, but it leave that bittersweet aftertaste in his mouth

he loves talking with you about environmental issues, because more often than not, you unconsciously have some sort of solution to some of them and you give him many ideas for how to fix the world's problems. he just generally loves talking with you, it's so refreshing and pleasant. he could spend all night sitting with you on the porch, discussing anything that comes to mind

you absolute mad lad

ALL titles written by Peter are 20% off. 

Visit the site and use coupon code BDAYBEAGLE1 for your discount.

Orders receive a Last Unicorn button, courtesy of Geekify , while supplies last! Buttons are all gone. 

Many of the books are signed! 

Free shipping in the US. Sale ends Wednesday, April 24 at midnight.

*In celebration of the iconic Peter S. Beagle turning 80, we’re having a sale! ALL titles written by Peter are 20% off through Wednesday, April 24 midnight PST. Use coupon code BDAYBEAGLE1*

Photo: Rina Weisman

A Recipient of the prestigious World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award and  creator of the iconic The Last Unicorn (1968),  Peter S. Beagle's has thrilled and entertained multiple generations of fans. His other book length works include A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE  (1960), The Folk of the Air (1986, winner of the Mythopoeic Award), The Innkeeper's Song (1993, winner of the Locus Poll Award), The Unicorn Sonata (1996), Tamsin (1999, winner of the Mythopoeic Award), SUMMERLONG (2016),  IN CALABRIA (2017), and THE LAST UNICORN: THE LOST JOURNEY (2018).

Beagle's numerous award-winning short fiction films have been collected in Giant Bones (1997), THE RHINOCEROS WHO QUOTED NIETZSCHE AND OTHER ODD ACQUAINTANCES (1997), THE LINE BETWEEN (2006), Strange Roads (2008), WE NEVER TALK ABOUT MY BROTHER (2009), Mirror Kingdoms: The Best or Peter S. Beagle (2010), SLEIGHT OF HAND (2011), and THE OVERNEATH (2017).

He edited several acclaimed anthologies: Peter S. Beagle's Immortal Unicorn (1995 with Janet Berliner and Martin H. Greenberg), THE SECRET HISTORY OF FANTASY (2010), THE URBAN FANTASY ANTHOLOGY (2011 with Joe R. Lansdale), THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY(2017 with Jacob Weisman, winner of the World Fantasy Award), and  THE UNICORN ANTHOLOGY (2019  with Jacob Weisman).+

Everyone at Tachyon wishes the beloved Peter a special 80th birthday. May it be magical.

The finalists for the 2018 Locus Awards were announced. Peter S. Beagle’s IN CALABRIA and THE OVERNEATH, Ellen Klages’ WICKED WONDERS (as well as her Passing Strange) and Tachyon Publications itself all received nominations. Many Tachyon authors, editors, and artists received notice including John Joseph Adams, Charlie Jane Anders, Ellen Datlow, Julie Dillon, Cory Doctorow, Kate Elliott, Karen Joy Fowler, Daryl Gregory, Kameron Hurley,  Caitlín R. Kiernan, Nancy Kress, John Picacio, Alastair Reynolds, Michael Swanwick, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, Charles Vess, Michael Whelan, and Sheila Williams.

Congratulations to all the finalists.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Persepolis Rising, James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Walkaway, Cory Doctorow (Tor; Head of Zeus)

The Stars Are Legion, Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK)

Provenance, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Raven Stratagem, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK)

Luna: Wolf Moon, Ian McDonald (Tor; Gollancz)

Seven Surrenders, Ada Palmer (Tor; Head of Zeus)

New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

The Collapsing Empire, John Scalzi (Tor US; Tor UK)

Borne, Jeff VanderMeer (MCD; HarperCollins Canada; Fourth Estate)

FANTASY NOVEL

The Stone in the Skull, Elizabeth Bear (Tor)

City of Miracles, Robert Jackson Bennett (Broadway; Jo Fletcher)

Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr, John Crowley (Saga)

The House of Binding Thorns, Aliette de Bodard (Ace; Gollancz)

The Ruin of Angels, Max Gladstone (Tor.com Publishing)

Spoonbenders, Daryl Gregory (Knopf; riverrun)

The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Jade City, Fonda Lee (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

The Delirium Brief, Charles Stross (Tor.com Publishing; Orbit UK)

Horizon, Fran Wilde (Tor)

HORROR NOVEL

Ill Will, Dan Chaon (Ballantine)

Universal Harvester, John Darnielle (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Scribe UK)

After the End of the World, Jonathan L. Howard (Dunne)

Food of the Gods, Cassandra Khaw (Abaddon US; Abaddon UK)

The Night Ocean, Paul La Farge (Penguin Press)

The Changeling, Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)

Red Snow, Ian R. MacLeod (PS)

Behind Her Eyes, Sarah Pinborough (Flatiron; HarperCollins UK)

Mormama, Kit Reed (Tor)

Ubo, Steve Rasnic Tem (Solaris US; Solaris UK)

YOUNG ADULT BOOK

Tool of War, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)

In Other Lands, Sarah Rees Brennan (Big Mouth House)

The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, Stephanie Burgis (Bloomsbury; Bloomsbury USA)

Chalk, Paul Cornell (Tor.com Publishing)

Buried Heart, Kate Elliott (Little, Brown)

A Skinful of Shadows, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan; Amulet)

Frogkisser!, Garth Nix (Scholastic; Allen & Unwin; Piccadilly)

Akata Warrior, Nnedi Okorafor (Viking)

Shadowhouse Fall, Daniel José Older (Levine)

The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage, Philip Pullman (Knopf; Fickling UK)

FIRST NOVEL

The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden (Del Rey)

The City of Brass, S.A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager US)

Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly (Tor)

Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys (Tor.com Publishing)

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss (Saga)

The Art of Starving, Sam J. Miller (HarperTeen)

Autonomous, Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK 2018)

Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders (Random House; Bloomsbury)

An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon (Akashic)

Amatka, Karin Tidbeck (Vintage)

NOVELLA

IN CALABRIA, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon)

River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)

Agents of Dreamland, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Tor.com Publishing)

Passing Strange, Ellen Klages (Tor.com Publishing)

Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)

Binti: Home, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)

“And Then There Were (N-One)“, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 3-4/17)

All Systems Red, Martha Wells, (Tor.com Publishing)

The Black Tides of Heaven, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

The Red Threads of Fortune, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

NOVELETTE

“Children of Thorns, Children of Water“, Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny 7-8/17)

“The Hermit of Houston”, Samuel R. Delany (F&SF 9-10/17)

“Come See the Living Dryad“, Theodora Goss (Tor.com 3/9/17)

“The Worshipful Society of Glovers“, Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny 7-8/17)

“Extracurricular Activities“, Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com 2/15/17)

“The Hidden Girl”, Ken Liu (The Book of Swords)

“The Mathematical Inevitability of Corvids”, Seanan McGuire (Black Feathers)

“Wind Will Rove”, Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 9-10/17)

“The Lamentation of Their Women“, Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 8/24/17)

“Waiting on a Bright Moon“, JY Yang (Tor.com 7/12/17)

SHORT STORY

“Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue“, Charlie Jane Anders (Global Dystopias)

“Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance”, Tobias S. Buckell (Cosmic Powers)

“Persephone of the Crows”, Karen Joy Fowler (Asimov’s 5-6/17)

“Fire.”, Elizabeth Hand (Fire.)

“Dear Sarah”, Nancy Kress (Infinity Wars)

“The Martian Obelisk“, Linda Nagata (Tor.com 7/19/17)

“Fandom for Robots“, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Uncanny 9-10/17)

“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM“, Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex 8/17)

“Starlight Express”, Michael Swanwick (F&SF 9-10/17)

“Carnival Nine“, Caroline M. Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 5/11/17)

ANTHOLOGY

Cosmic Powers, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Saga)

Black Feathers, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Pegasus)

The Book of Swords, Gardner Dozois, ed. (Bantam; HarperCollins UK)

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin)

Bookburners, Max Gladstone, ed. (Saga)

The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories, Mahvesh Murad & Jared Shurin, eds. (Solaris US; Solaris UK)

The Best of Subterranean, William Schafer, ed. (Subterranean)

The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eleven, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris)

Infinity Wars, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris)

Transcendent 2: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, Bogi Takács, ed. (Lethe)

COLLECTION

Six Months, Three Days, Five Others, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com Publishing)

THE OVERNEATH, Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon)

Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman (Norton; Bloomsbury)

Strange Weather, Joe Hill (Morrow; Gollancz)

WICKED WONDERS, Ellen Klages (Tachyon)

Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories, Naomi Kritzer (Fairwood)

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels and Stories, Ursula K. Le Guin (Library of America)

Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf)

Tender, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer)

The Refrigerator Monologues, Catherynne M. Valente (Saga)

MAGAZINE

Analog

Asimov’s

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Clarkesworld

F&SF

File 770

Lightspeed

Strange Horizons

Tor.com

Uncanny

PUBLISHER

Angry Robot

Baen

DAW

Gollancz

Orbit

Saga

Small Beer

Subterranean

Tachyon

Tor

EDITOR

John Joseph Adams

Neil Clarke

Ellen Datlow

Gardner Dozois

C.C. Finlay

Jonathan Strahan

Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas

Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Sheila Williams

Navah Wolfe

ARTIST

Kinuko Y. Craft

Galen Dara

Julie Dillon

Bob Eggleton

Gregory Manchess

Victo Ngai

John Picacio

Shaun Tan

Charles Vess

Michael Whelan

NON-FICTION

Sleeping with Monsters: Readings and Reactions in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Liz Bourke (Aqueduct)

In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1, 1957-1969, Samuel R. Delany (Wesleyan University Press)

The Invention of Angela Carter, Edmund Gordon (Oxford University Press US; Chatto & Windus 2016)

Star-Begotten: A Life Lived in Science Fiction, James Gunn (McFarland)

Iain M. Banks, Paul Kincaid (University of Illinois Press)

Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler, Alexandra Pierce & Mimi Mondal, eds. (Twelfth Planet)

Not So Good a Gay Man, Frank M. Robinson (Tor)

Don’t Live for Your Obituary, John Scalzi (Subterranean)

A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison, Nat Segaloff (NESFA)

J.G. Ballard, D. Harlan Wilson (University of Illinois Press)

ART BOOK

The Art of the Pulps: An Illustrated History, Douglas Ellis, Ed Hulse & Robert Weinberg, eds. (IDW)

Spectrum 24: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, John Fleskes, ed. (Flesk)

Paul Kidby, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Imaginarium (Gollancz)

Jeffrey Alan Love, Norse Myths: Tales of Odin, Thor, and Loki, Kevin Crossley-Holland (Candlewick Studio)

Gregory Manchess, Above the Timberline (Saga)

Syd Mead, The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist, Craig Hodgetts (Titan)

Jean-Baptiste Monge, Celtic Faeries: The Secret Kingdom (Goblin’s WAY)

Wendy Pini, Line of Beauty: The Art of Wendy Pini, Richard Pini (Flesk)

Omar Rayyan, Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti (Donald M. Grant)

James Wyatt, The Art of Magic: The Gathering: Kaladesh (Viz)