Words From the Desert: A Review of A Thousand Nights

A Thousand Nights (2015)
Written By: E. K. Johnston
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Pages: 325 (Hardcover)
Series: A Thousand Nights Book 1
Publisher: Hyperion

Why I Chose It: I was browsing the young adult section of the library, and the cover and title of this struck me. I love when you can tell immediately what flavor of book you’re getting just from a title. I really love fairy tale retellings, and I haven’t read very many about Scheherazade.

Premise:

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

Very Minor Spoilers

Discussion: I’m starting to realize that archaeologists make the best fantasy authors. Between E.K. Johnston and Marie Brennan I am continually impressed — and increasingly tempted to pursue a childhood dream of excavating ruins. In this case, Johnston has created a vivid landscape enhanced by compelling cultures, religion, and magics. And she does it all with an incredibly simple and sparse writing style. There is nothing flowery or excessive about her words. Most of the characters — including the protagonist — don’t even have names. And yet I have no trouble picturing the desert, the palace, the sky. I think the beauty of Johnston’s work is in its elegant simplicity.

Even big themes like gender roles and the nature of bravery are treated with beautiful subtlety. I loved the way a woman’s work and a woman’s value were portrayed. Men were in charge. The laws that allowed Lo-Melkhin to prey on women were tolerated because, well, it was never the men who feared for their lives. But the strength of women held up the strength of men, through their work, through their keeping of the dead, and through the sacrifice of the girls given to Lo-Melkhin.

The protagonist’s strength comes from her bravery, which she acknowledges is simply an acceptance of her own helplessness, but also from the determined women she left behind. Her sister, her mother, and her sister’s mother. And as much as I loved the idea of bravery just being acceptance of the things you can’t change and persistence in the face of the things you can, I loved the idea of her power and its source even more. The protagonist’s magic comes from the prayers of women. They pour their strength and belief into her, giving her the power to resist Lo-Melkhin. Her words have the ability to change things. And in the end, she changes the world.

In conclusion: I can see some criticism of this book in that parts of it go very quickly while others seem to drag on, and there really are only three named characters in the whole thing. But I hardly noticed its faults. I was too busy admiring the scenery and being swept away by the deeper ideas behind what was going on. Beautifully done, Johnston, and I’m interested to see where the second book, Spindle, goes with the changes wrought at the end of this one.