Hello everyone!
Apparently, I have so many books reviewed in my little notebook that I'm covered until way after New Year's. That's pretty awesome, isn't it?
But then, I've always been a pretty voracious reader, it didn't matter what was happening around me at the time. Reading was my escape, even if it was just ten pages per day on a really busy one, or just enough to tire me out and have my head drop after a long day of exams when I couldn't unwind and was too keyed up to sleep.
And the best part of this is that I've started a couple of series and have definitely not finished all of them yet! So there's still a whole lot more on the book front to go, which I am very excited about.
Of course, every time I think I'm done, a friend of mine suggests another book or another book series, and I'm like MUST. READ. NOW.
Yeah, I'm a bit of a monster.
As the title goes, this book is going to be a retelling.
Of what, you may ask?
Why, Arabian Nights, of course; or the 1001 Arabian Nights, really, the title makes no difference as long as you get the essential message across.
In the original, to be brief, Scheherazade is one of the many brides that the rather monstrous prince takes to wife, but unlike her predecesors, she enchants him by telling him a piece of a story each night, weaving it with such craft that he is obliged to let her live another day, so that he may get the continuation the next night. And our skillful storyteller is basically so good, she tells him a thousand and one stories, and he falls in love with her in the process and doesn't kill her, but they live happily ever after (if you're wondering, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is from this, and the oiginal Aladdin, as well).
Now, this tale by EK Johnston is a retelling of the original story, with a slight twist: in this one, Lo-Melkhiin (aka the prince, or in this case, the king) has been possessed by a demon of the desert. The demons have always taken artisans and craftsmen from the race of Men to fashion objects for them or whatever their talent was, but the one inside Lo-Melkhiin was different.
It wanted more (don't we all?).
By the time our narrator comes into play as the next bride, the king has gone through three hundred young girls. In fact, he would have probably married the prettier of the two sisters, if not for the fact that our narrator dresses herself like a queen and manages to catch his eye. So instead, he weds her.
And she survives the first night by telling him about her sister.
Now, at this point, you'd think it would go on the same way, but it doesn't - in fact, I was a little confused because there aren't that many stories in the book at all. At least, no in the 1001 Nights sense.
Instead, we get visions that our narrator sees, and weaves into cloth, and her connection to the desert life, its people, and her family. We learn a lot about how to survive in the wadi over the summer heat, the tradition of the wandering tribes, their lives, their deaths, their connections. It's actually really, really interesting as I haven't read anything like it before.
But, no, there aren't that many stories about. Just proof that something is inside Lo-Melkhiin that shouldn't be, and she decides to fight it at every turn.
There is something supernatural at work as she sees strands of copper fire passing from her hands to her husband's, and the scene which she envisions and embroiders into her work actually happens, which shows her that she is someone who can combat the demon.
The demon, in turn, wants to possess her as its desert queen (gotta love supernatural despotism).
It's actually interesting to watch these two, as they are like fire and ice to each other; and the demon, as much as it sucks energy out of people around it (namely its brides, leaving them as old, withered corpses by morning) can also cure our heroine when she overworks herself with the copper fire.
Life is not to continue on this precipice though; the heroine's father arrives, to take her back home for her sister's wedding (on the topic of the sister, the narrator imagined a husband for her and he actually appeared ... yeah), but in reality he wants her safely on his side when he stages the rebellion against their ruler.
Unfortunately, Lo-Melkhiin brings reinforcements with him, aka other demons, and only his bride can stop him as she wields her copper fire and creates new animals with her gift to help her fight him. She also saves her husband in the process, making his lion mane-wig mother happy, and she returns with him to the capital, now bereft of her own fire as well.
And that's how the story ends.
It's enchanting and magical and you might have noticed that I didn't give the heroine a name.
That's because she doesn't have one.
The only person named is Lo-Melkhiin, the ruler, on the basis that only rulers are usually remembered and written down in history books ... and everyone else remains unseen and hidden, regardless of their deeds. The book wasn't just a fantasy read, it also showed that people can interpret it however they want with nameless personas, and also, that each culture has it's own version of the same story. Bottom line, however? The man gets recognized; but it is the woman who saves him.
I loved it, I loved the details about life in the wadi, the desert, the courage of the girl who took her sister's place, not to mention I'm a huge 1001 Nights fan to begin with. There's another book on the same theme out as well, The Wrath and the Dawn, and I'm itching to get my hands on that to compare the two.
I seriously recommend this one though! It's a standalone, and a very interesting read that won't take you long.
xx
*image not mine
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