The Storyteller's Daughter: A Retelling of "The Arabian Nights" by Cameron Dokey
This is one of my favorites of the 'Once Upon a Time' series but one of the least imaginative colors. They could have done all kinds of cool things with the Arabic wear and veils and many different fabrics. As it is the poor half-woman on the cover has diamonds patterned over her skin and a bland looking, oddly patterned dress...
However, this is one of my favorites probably because of the inherent magic. Shahrazad is the daughter of the vizier to the king and Maju, a storyteller from a faraway land. Maju is one of great beauty and one of the greatest storytellers but is blind. By feeling cloth that comes out of her trunk she is able to decipher the story in the weave of the cloth. Once Maju died this gift to read the cloth (and also blindness) went to Shahrazad. The vizier remarried and his second wife also bore him a daughter but that wife died birthing the child.
Every good fairy tale must have a prince and so the story takes a turn to look at the two princes of the king that Shahrazad's father serves. Both sons married and both sons had their wives betray them (and nearly kill them). The eldest prince was cursed by his wife before she killed herself that he would never know peace until he knew the heart of the woman and that woman knew his heart as well. This tormented the prince so much that his heart turned to stone and he set forth an edict that he would take a new wife at the full moon so that he would not be without female company but would have her beheaded the next day so that she would not have time to betray him. No one wanted to give up their daughters but Shahrazad volunteered for the job. Her father and sister tried to dissuade Shahrazad but she had a plan in place that would hopefully give her the time needed to learn the prince's heart and him to knows hers as well. Each night she would read the cloth and tell the prince (and her little sister) part of the story within the cloth.
The plot is deceptively simple with a little bit of tricky politics but under it all is just a well-written love story.
This is one of my favorites of the 'Once Upon a Time' series but one of the least imaginative colors. They could have done all kinds of cool things with the Arabic wear and veils and many different fabrics. As it is the poor half-woman on the cover has diamonds patterned over her skin and a bland looking, oddly patterned dress...
However, this is one of my favorites probably because of the inherent magic. Shahrazad is the daughter of the vizier to the king and Maju, a storyteller from a faraway land. Maju is one of great beauty and one of the greatest storytellers but is blind. By feeling cloth that comes out of her trunk she is able to decipher the story in the weave of the cloth. Once Maju died this gift to read the cloth (and also blindness) went to Shahrazad. The vizier remarried and his second wife also bore him a daughter but that wife died birthing the child.
Every good fairy tale must have a prince and so the story takes a turn to look at the two princes of the king that Shahrazad's father serves. Both sons married and both sons had their wives betray them (and nearly kill them). The eldest prince was cursed by his wife before she killed herself that he would never know peace until he knew the heart of the woman and that woman knew his heart as well. This tormented the prince so much that his heart turned to stone and he set forth an edict that he would take a new wife at the full moon so that he would not be without female company but would have her beheaded the next day so that she would not have time to betray him. No one wanted to give up their daughters but Shahrazad volunteered for the job. Her father and sister tried to dissuade Shahrazad but she had a plan in place that would hopefully give her the time needed to learn the prince's heart and him to knows hers as well. Each night she would read the cloth and tell the prince (and her little sister) part of the story within the cloth.
The plot is deceptively simple with a little bit of tricky politics but under it all is just a well-written love story.
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