Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Give it some time to cast its spell., January 12, 2007
This review is from: The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden (Paperback)
If I had followed my impulse in the first 50 pages of The Orphan's Tales, then I never would have finished the book. I was actually irritated by the book. The prose struck me as bad Tanith Lee and I just knew that the structure of the book was going to irritate me.
However, I did not stop reading. The book had been recommended strongly by someone I really respect, so I decided that I would give it an honest try. After the irritation, I was interested, and after that I was entranced. By the last few hundred pages of the book, I literally could not put it down. I read it late in 2006, but I would be willing to include it as being among my best reading experiences of the year.
Valente's prose may seem labored and precious at first, but if you give it sufficient time it settles into its own rhythm. Her diction fits beautifully with the structure of her work. Some writers who try the same kind of prose miss any sense of lightness or humor. Valente, by contrast, is as often wickedly funny in her stories as she is full of descriptive symbolism. I liked it every much in the end, and I was left with the strong sense of wanting to read more.
The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden is dark fantasy, structured as a series of interlocking stories. It should appeal to both younger and more adult readers although the themes can be quite adult. Highly recommended, particularly if you are fan of darker fantasy.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Fairy Tales, October 31, 2006
This review is from: The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden (Paperback)
If you had asked me a couple of years ago what my favorite fiction book was (except that's a very hard question, of course), I would have probably said American Gods or Diamond Age.
I still love those books, but this is my new favorite.
It is hands down the best book of fairy tales that I've ever read, and probably the best fiction book. Just like the Arabian Nights, it is a series of nesting tales with an over-arching narrative to frame it. But every single tale is original here (and yet so archetypally familiar), and the tales and the meta-narrative are much more intertwined and integral, and tell an epic tale of a world almost our own.
It's a tale about a young girl in a palace garden, cursed to exile until she has told all of the stories tattooed around her eyes, and of course the stories themselves, stories of pirates and living ships, the deaths of Stars, of slave wizards and bitter old witches, of princes and beast maidens, heretic papesses and jeweled cities, body thieves and skin peddlers, monsters and saints and mathematician kings. They are stories of strong women, of men ambitious and passionate and despondent, of cruelty and kindness, of making hard choices and facing the consequences, but also of plain silly wonder. They are lucid and lyrical, and a little bit painful, like True things are, and filled with longing and fear and beauty and blood and love and fierce joy.
This book made me cry several times, sometimes because of the story, and sometimes just out of relief and recognition -- this is how tales should be told, wisely and fearlessly. I have been a fan of Valente's writing for a while, but this is her most brilliant and straightforward and accessible book yet.
I cannot recommend it enough.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You want to buy this book., December 4, 2006
This review is from: The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden (Paperback)
This is Cathrynne Valente's sixth novel, and her first one with a major publisher. It is a gorgeous retelling of fairy tales--not the whitewashed, bland and Disneyfied versions that too many people have grown up believing to be the "real" versions of these tales. No, these are dark and mysterious versions where evil is not readily thwarted and salvation does not immediately equate "happily ever after."
This is not to say that the tales are dour, Hans Christian Andersen morality plays. Far from it. There is much joy and passion in the stories, but there are many surprises as well.
The Orphan of the title is a girl of noble descent who was born under an unfortunate curse - she is marked in a way that incites fear in the extensive household of the Sultan, and no one will claim her for their own. Eventually abandoned to the garden, she does not die but instead thrives, living there as a sort of spectre until a young son of the royal family stumbles upon her and she begins telling him the tales that are her destiny to tell. The story of a prince's quest is brought short by the witch he encounters, who tells her story to him, which necessarily includes the story of her teacher, and so on, tales within tales like the layers of an onion.
You will recognize the skeletons of some fairy tales beneath Valente's rich layering of interpretation. Others are obscure (the woman has done her homework) or obscured to the point of being completely fresh. There is a feminist twist to the tales, but not the kind of heavy-handed moralizing that frequently burden such retellings. Instead, the layered tales take you deeper and deeper into an amazing world that you really regret leaving upon turning the last page. The one consolation is realizing that this is but the first of four books and you will be able to find your way back to the Orphan and her tales again when the next book is published.
The writing itself is a confection of imagery, rich and sumptuous. It's a book to luxuriate in.
I can't think of a better Christmas present for someone who loves fantasy, particularly since it is illustrated with gorgeous drawings as well.
Go now. Buy. You'll thank me.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
