Steven R. Boyett

A charming little fantasy involving an alternate universe - reached through a bit of misguided spelunking - in which raccoons have evolved to occupy the position of humans in our world. A ridiculous premise, with no attempt at scientific justification, thankfully, so this is a work of unabashed fantasy. And quite a good one, told with enough intelligence and wit to carry it over Sturgeon's Boundary, and real characters with real personalities and motivations, both in Boyett's human narrator show more and the raccoon interlocutors, as well as a serious exposition of a well thought out back story, apparently involving a civil conflict in this alternate world, in which our hero is to play a major part. Unfortunately, there is a hitch. This is volume one of a series, and twenty years on volume two shows no signs of appearing. I don't know why this is, or whether the subsequent material has been written, but this is a great setup which breaks off just as the real meat of the story begins to show up. If you can deal with this, this is an excellent first part of what seems like a promising story - a promise likely to go unfulfilled. show less

A re-read of a book read years ago and loved then despite the sad ending (no spoiler, but given the premise of a unicorn as a main character and the traditional requirement for their companions to be virgins, it won't be a big suprise). And to begin with, I did love it anew.

However this time around, some of the setting became questionable: for example, when the power goes off on the day of The Change and most modern technology stops working, not only is this rather selective - guns don't show more work, or bicycles, but we later discover wristwatches do - but people start to behave very extremely, as neighbours attack the house and murder the protagonist's girlfriend after leaving Pete for dead. Perhaps this scene would have worked later in the story when some people's survival instincts caused a descent into barbarism, but it seems rather too rapid a development.

The 'gold' in the story for me happens two years later, when Pete meets a unicorn. She can communicate in baby talk, and he is able to teach her English, but she doesn't tell him how she hurt her foreleg until much later. As a virgin, Pete becomes Ariel's close companion: they are each others' Familiar, in the terminology of the post-apocalypse world where other creatures such as dragons, rocs, manticores and griffins have appeared and are sometimes bonded with humans, as are normal animals such as hawks. Since Ariel learns English from Pete she becomes a wisecracking character who swears and is generally not how you'd expect a unicorn to be, and that is one of the strongest elements in the story.

Pete and Ariel continue their aimless wandering until they decide to travel to New York to confront a wizard who sent a henchman after them because he wants Ariel's horn to use its magic power. It transpires that it was in an earlier encounter with this henchman and his griffin that Ariel's leg was broken: a memory that returns as they near New York. A man they've met, a somewhat stereotypical expert with a samurai sword who has been teaching Pete how to fight with a sword he gave him, goes ahead of them, since the henchman killed a good friend of his.

On the way to New York, they meet a small boy sent on a quest to kill a dragon by his foolish father, and that part of the story is fine; the boy is charming and the working out of the physics of how dragons can both fly and breathe fire is well done. There are similarities in this section, probably deliberate, with Don Quixote by Cervantes, which Pete is reading to Ariel while they travel. However, they also meet an odd young woman called Shaugnessey who becomes a kind of fem fatale. She latches onto them, ostensibly because she is fascinated by Ariel, but soon develops a rather pathetic mooning crush on Pete.

Apart from the rashness of the journey - how can they defeat the forces against them - the story derails severely when the inevitable happens. Pete only escapes with great difficulty and is debating a suicidal attack on the Empire State Building where Ariel is held captive when he runs into some men who happen to be reconnoitering on behalf of a well-organised group of survivors in Washington. Their community has been preyed upon by the wizard's forces, and they want to strike back, so Pete joins forces with them. This occurs about halfway through and the story then drags despite some well-written action sequences, because the relationship which sustained it - Ariel and Pete - is parked. We don't see her again until almost the end when she is definitely not herself.

There is a focus throughout, and especially in the last half, on Pete's struggle against his sexual awakening (only to be expected considering he is about twenty). He has some embarrassing interludes, and it is clear when they were still together that Ariel was troubled by Shaughnessey's presence. And when they are apart, Pete behaves horribly towards Shaughnessey, coming across as self absorbed and unattractive. We're told Shaughnessey loves Ariel despite her feelings for Pete so it's hard to believe at the finale, after they have searched for days for Ariel, that Shaughnessey initiates the encounter which the story has so obviously been leading towards . Pete is strung out, crying etc - he cries a lot after losing Ariel - so for Shaughnessey to take such advantage of his vulnerability shows her in a very unattractive light. Especially since, earlier on, another woman who nearly does the same out of ignorance, not only backs off but sends a written apology when she discovers it will destroy his relationship with Ariel! Shaughnessey is clearly meant to be seen as a selfish b***h, yet this does not tally with having a real love for Ariel as she must know her actions will cause the unicorn heartbreak.

I believe the book has been reissued with an afterword that explains some of the inconsistencies, including the disappearance of most of the human population and the absence of disease, but I haven't seen it. Suffice to say they stand out on this re-reading. Despite the graphic violence and sex, the book is probably more suited to the higher end of the YA age spectrum than for adult readers, which is a shame. The slump after the loss of Ariel - lectures on hang-gliding etc and guided tours of historic buildings in Washington feature - is indicative of the story's structural problems. I had good memories of it, and when I heard there was a sequel was interested to read that too, but am now not sure I would enjoy it. Hence only a 3-star rating. show less

This is an odd fantasy novel. I bought it in a humble bundle almost three years ago. It is superficially about a young man trying to survive in a world where technology has been replaced by magic. It is, on a deeper level, about love. About how "love at first sight" is about loving the idea of a person, not the person themself. It's about how love doesn't have to last forever for it to have been meaningful. It's a tragedy, without being sad. I'd like to own a paper copy.

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Ariel by Steven R. Boyett

When I was a teenager and first realized my desire to become a novelist, the very first book I went out and found was at a bookstore in Parmatown Mall in Parma, Ohio called B. Dalton's Booksellers. That book was called Ariel by Steven R. Boyett. I didn't know it at the time, but Steven Boyett is only 5 years older than me. He wrote Ariel when he was still a teenager too. I'm glad I was blissfully unaware of this fact or it may have been horribly show more intimidating to know someone so young had written something so fantastic.

Originally published in 1983, although it is not a very well-known book, Ariel is credited by many as being one of the very first true urban fantasy novels. This wasn't a book sending characters from our world into a fantasy world. This wasn't a book mixing magic with the real world. This was a book that actually transformed our world into the fantasy.

The story takes place in our world after an event known as "The Change" and follows a young man named Pete Garey who befriends a unicorn he names Ariel. The Change happened spontaneously and inexplicably, one ordinary afternoon, and thereafter all devices using gunpowder, complex mechanics, or electricity suddenly stop working. Cars stopped in the streets. Planes fell from the sky. Weapons ceased to fire. And magical creatures reappeared and began to roam the towns and countrysides of earth.

Ariel has always held a special place in my heart, because it was the first novel I ever discovered on my own. Before Ariel, every book I read was recommended by a teacher, or based on a movie, or was something a friend told me about.

Ariel was unique.

Ariel was the first time I ever walked into a bookstore and found the book on the shelf and bought it.

Something about that made me feel grown up.

Mature. Responsible.

With Ariel, for the first time in my life, I was choosing my own adventure (not to be confused with the Choose Your Own Adventure books). I was taking command of my path. Picking my destiny.

Because of that, I'm also grateful I picked a great book. Would have sucked if my first foray into reading had been total crap!

The youth of Steven Boyett shows through in Ariel. The story itself has a darling innocence and naiveté about it. I've seen some reviews of Ariel wherein people claim you need to be of a certain age to appreciate the story. Insinuating it's just for kids.

I disagree.

To fall in love with the purity of a unicorn, you need to have kept your own innocence. Most people develop a particular sort of cynicism that makes a book like Ariel difficult to enjoy. When that veneer of too many disappointments, too many betrayals, too many vices, encases your soul, you start getting angry when you see people who are running around without being encrusted in the same tainted shell. Those bitter people won't understand talking unicorns. Those people are dead already, because they have lost the part of their soul that used to dream.

That's not to say Ariel is all rainbows and unicorns. Necromancers and unicorns in a dark dystopian post-apocalypse, sure. But there are no puppies or lollipops. There are demons and samurai and griffins. Maybe some Brach's Peppermint Candy, but no lollipops.

Ariel is the kind of story with characters that become your friends. You go on that road with them. Pete is a little cynical. Ariel is a little sassy. And I think those traits are the ones we love most in our friends. No one likes some phony happy-go-lucky jerk who pretends to always shit sunshine and strawberries. We all like someone with a little sarcasm and snide.

Ariel had such a strong effect on me as a teenager I kept on forgetting it was only a book.

At one point, in junior high, I remember thinking I didn't really need to worry about picking a high school because once The Change happened, I wouldn't be going to school anymore. I'd be fighting to survive in the post-apocalyptic aftermath.

Awakening from that recurring daydream kind of freaked me out.

That was the first moment when I realized I may have been taking the story a little too seriously.

But isn't that what all great books do to us? Make us get so lost in their world, we start to forget where the dream ends.

The first time I read Ariel was in one marathon sitting, from about 7 at night to 7 in the morning. The book does have a bit of sex and violence that was totally appropriate for me to read as a 13 year old boy in 1984. But, since most parents in 2013 are completely disgusting and deranged in your perverse coddling and overbearing protectiveness, you might want to wait until your children are 25 years old before you allow them to read a book where a character dreams about getting fellatio from a succubus. For those of you with no vocabulary and who are too fucking lazy to grab a dictionary, that means getting your dick sucked by a demon.

Anyway, it's a wonderful story about first love, and magic, and the tragedy of losing the soulmate you can't have, so you can be with someone you can. Damn, I never knew I'd have to learn that lesson for real. Bet you never expected that one to happen to you either, did you? There are many other lessons to be learned from the novel as well. Other morals and themes, to be sure, but I refuse to wax philosophical on them by cramming my head too far up my rectum like most critics, because that just puts a crimp in my neck I don't need.

Ariel was out of print shortly after the 1983 debut, but came back into print in 2009. I suggest you pick up a copy as soon as possible. After all, you don't want it to go out of print again. You need to make sure you have your own book as both a survival guide and as a history of the world, once The Change happens. Pays to be prepared. You never know. The Change could be coming any day now. show less