8/11

8/11 Steven R. Boyett's Ariel takes unicorns into a very different landscape. The Change has stopped modern technology and brought magic into the world. Pete Garey is surviving in the remains of that civilization when he meets the unicorn he names Ariel. Their relationship has a practical side. He teaches her to talk and read, and they have to work out how to survive together. Ariel also has an attitude. Giving the unicorn a distinct personality changes the feeling of the partnership because Pete has someone to deal with, rather than a silent emblem accompanying him through the ruins. The danger becomes personal when they learn that someone wants her horn. Their journey toward the sorcerer pursuing it connects the friendship to the larger problem of what a unicorn is worth in this changed world. The setting does a lot here. A unicorn moving through abandoned modern civilization creates a different feeling from one living in a timeless forest. The arrival of magic has happened alongside catastrophe, so wonder and loss occupy the same places. Ariel belongs on this list because the creature gets to be a companion in a post-apocalyptic road story. The conversations and the relationship matter alongside the pursuit.