Customer Reviews

The Storyteller's Daughter

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Storyteller's Daughter" is the story of Shahrazad, the daughter of a vizier and a storyteller who saves her country. It is the frame story from the Arabian Nights in which a woman tells stories each night and never finishes them before dawn in hopes of living another day. For if she doesn't give her husband, the king, a reason to extend her life, she will be executed at dawn. The next night she finishes the story from the previous night and then begins another.

In Dokey's version of the story, Shahrazad is blind and brave. She has learned to see with her heart and knows that the king has been deeply wounded by his first wife who betrayed him. As she helps the king heal through her stories, they both learn how to forgive, trust, and love each other. However, other forces are also seeking to destroy them and gain the throne. How the story ends is different from the original tale, but should prove satisfying to most readers. The romance in the story is not heavy-handed nor the only theme of the book. This should appeal to those who love a romance or simply a historical adventure.

This paperback appears to be the first in a series of fairy tale retellings with a "Once Upon a Time" theme. "Storyteller's Daughter" is the first, soon to be followed by "Beauty Sleep," also by Cameron Dokey. Then "Snow" by Tracy Lynn will follow later.

Another great book to read as a companion to this one is "Shadow Spinner" by Susan Fletcher.

This magical story was the inspired by the folktale Arabian Nights. King Shahrayar, a just and loved king, turns his own heart to stone when betrayed by his queen. His people's love turns to hate when he makes a terrible procliamaiton: every night of the full moon, he will take a new wife-- only to kill her the next morning. Shahrazad, the wise blind seventeen-year-old daughter of the the blind storyteller, Maju, and the king's vizier, plans to complete her destiny and reach the king's heart. After telling her tales, a bond of love forms between Shahrazad and Shahrayar that neither can deny or admit. But in order to break the former queen's dying curse, Shahrazad must learn to surrender her heart, and Shahrayar to let his free. This is a truly amazing tale whose magic lingers long after the book is finished.

Once upon a time there was a King who's wife betrayed him, and when sentenced to death, her dying curse killed his ability to love and trust women from that day forth. So he decides on a new way to be happy. He shall take a new wife every day, and keep her for one night only, in the morning, she shall die. This is what he plans on doing, until one young woman, Shahrazad, the Storyteller's Daughter changes his mind. With words, and stories alone, Shahrazad plans on restoring the King's heart, so he shall be able to love and trust once more. But before she knows it, a bond has been created between Shahrazad and the King. One that will link them forever.

This is a fantastic re-telling of the novel "The Arabian Nights." The stories in THE STORYTELLER'S DAUGHTER are intricate and entertaining. Stories that will haunt you forever. A fantastic start to the "Once Upon A Time..." series.

Erika Sorocco

i thought this book awsome! i loved all the actual story and the stories that were told within it. i just loved it!

and i thought it was really cool how it ended.

READ IT!!

I thought that this book was a good book. I agree with one review that the author could have done better on the romantic part of the book. This book was supposed to be about the romance that "evolved". But the author kind of lost the whole romantic idea towards the middle of the book. I think that the author got too involved in writing the different stories. I did like how the author had Shahrazad tell one story to save her life. That was the best part of the book.

This magical story was the inspired by the folktale Arabian Nights. King Shahrayar, a just and loved king, turns his own heart to stone when betrayed by his queen. His people's love turns to hate when he makes a terrible procliamaiton: every night of the full moon, he will take a new wife-- only to kill her the next morning. Shahrazad, the wise blind seventeen-year-old daughter of the the blind storyteller, Maju, and the king's vizier, plans to complete her destiny by reaching the king's heart. Each night her would begin a story, that would not be finished by morning. There are three stories within this story, all with important morals and lessons to be learned. After telling her tales, a bond of love forms between Shahrazad and Shahrayar that neither can deny or admit. But in order to break the former queen's dying curse, Shahrazad must learn to surrender her heart, and for Shahrayar to let his free. This is a truly amazing tale whose magic lingers long after the book is finished.

This was a wonderful book I enjoyed it alot. I'd heard the story of Shahrazad before but this was a great inside book told from her pov it was a very sweet fairytale but I probably wouldn't have anyone under 10 read it because it'a a little bit violent and some of the details of the story might be disturbing to them. But all in all it's a great book and I definently recomend it especially for girls.

A king, an enchantment, and a story. All these make up Shahrazad's life.This story also has a great message.It's what's in the heart that counts.
When The king's wife curses him as she is killing herself, the king has to cast all love and trust from his heart. Shahrazad decides to step forward and try to make the king see love agin, But when the king decides to kill each bride in the morning she has to do some quick thinking.
I really liked this book because the women were the smart ones that saved everybody. It shows that women are really smart and can use their brains to get out of tricky situations. This book was exciting and suspenseful. I loved reading this book. Girls of all ages will really enjoy this book.

Once there was a kingdom ruled by a wise and benevolent king who had two sons, Shahrayar and Shazaman. Upon his death his sons decide to rule in kind instead of conflict, splitting the vast kingdom between them; Shahrayar taking for himself the lands of India and Indochina while giving his younger brother the city of Samarkand and all of the trade routes. With the palace came the courts of his father, including the wise council of his father's beloved vizier Nur al-Din, a man blessed with two daughter's of two different wives at the time of the King's death. Both daughter's are different, Dinarzad is his second daughter, an impressionable, precocious daughter aged ten at the time of the king's passing, and then there is Shahrazad, daughter of Maju a blind drabardi (storyteller mastered in the arts of cloth reading). When Shahrazad was just a girl Maju died and with her the art of the drabardi, that is until Nur al-Din realized that the art of the drabardi was passed along to Shahrazad at the moment of her mother's death, that and the curse of blindness that goes along with it.

So passes along ten years time, and in that Nur al-Din's family is peaceful and content. Likewise, the same can not be said for the two kings. Shazaman married a woman whom he loved dearly, but when she betrays him his heart turns to stone and he flees to his brother's kingdom for solace. Shahrayar has also married a woman he loves, but Shazaman encourages him to be wary of romantic love, because it may conceal hidden plots. One night, to Shahrayar's dismay, the two brothers learn this to be true. Following the death of his queen and her lover Shahrayar goes into a melancholy state that cannot be lifted, though he knows that for the sake of the kingdom he must wed his heart rails at the thought. Finally, he comes up with a compromise and vows to take a bride every month of the new moon for only one night, the next morning will prove to be her last as she is sacrificed. The only way this can be reversed is if a maiden comes willingly to the king of her own free heart and sacrifices herself so that others following her might live in the quiet protection of the palace. The Kingdom is expectedly horrified at this prospect and thinks their once loved king mad in his desires. All refuse to believe he would spare a woman until one steps up to meet the challenge, the vizier's own daughter Shahrazad, who believes that she has concocted a scheme that might allow her enough time to change the King's mind.

Naturally, her father and her sister are despaired when she asks this boon of them, but seeing how her will is set to this task her father cannot help but comply, and in doing so feels he seals his beloved daughter's doom. Much to his unknowing the King, Shahrayar, has always been an admirer of Shahrazad and of her art and so when she requests on the night of their wedding that she might be allowed to tell her sister a final story he grants her this wish, only to be intrigued by her story to such a degree that he cannot bear to sacrifice her on the dawn as he said he would. Instead he proclaims that he will grant her respite until the completion of her story, however long it might take. In this, she is allotted the time it takes to melt his frozen heart and see if he is a man worthy of her affections.

The core story is intriguing, naturally, coming from the tales of Arabian Nights. I found that the short stories that Shahrazad wove were distracting from the overall plot, even though I realize they were meant to be morality plays and character assessments more than anything else. I almost would have preferred if the stories were non-existent and the plot between the King and the conspirators plotting to kill him (brothers of his former wife) was a tad more fleshed out, as this bit felt rushed and unimportant by the time we were at the climax of that story arc.. Although this plot obviously took over at the end as it was supposed to. Still, that whole plotline just felt so unnecessary, and that was perhaps due to the fact that it was only briefly mentioned in the book because so much of it was devoted to the tales that Shahrazad was telling. Now, I realize that is the plot of Arabian Nights, but for a retelling I would have preferred if certain elements were fleshed out a touch more. Also a bit underdone was the development of the romance between Shahrayar and Shahrazad... and I do realize that he fell in love with her through the storytelling and the time they spent in this fashion, however because of how the elements were construed in this particular retelling it felt as if suddenly he was overwhelmingly in love with her, and that felt a bit, well, sudden, to say the least.

I guess I didn't get into this one as much as I did the other "Once Upon a Time" series books that I have read so far (this makes my sixth), but it still makes for a worthy addition to the series. I certainly don't regret reading it, just the few things that would have made it a five star book instead of a four star book.

I was disappointed in what the author did with Shahrazad. Originally, Shahrazad saved her own life, and thereby the lives of many other women by being clever enough to make up so many stories and to stay clever in a time of crisis. In this book, the author made the storytelling a magical power instead of giving credit to the wit and creativity of the character. Then she made her blind! She took a strong, smart, witty character and turned her into something much less. I did like the stories in the book, however, so I would say that the book is worth reading.