Book of a Thousand Days

I did not like the book. Some of it was to far fetched. I didn't like the beginning, middle, end. I would not have purchased the book except our book club read it. Some liked the story. To much like Cinderella but cruel. Who stands naked in front of troops ? To over the top. Will give my book away. Not something my grandkids need to read. Surprised a Utah writer would write such a strange tale.

(This review is spoiler free. I don't even mention the plot.) I have read quite a few good reviews of Book of a Thousand Days, by the wonderful Shannon Hale so I was expecting good thing. It was better than I could have ever hoped for. It was perfect. It was a story that made you forget every story you have ever read before. I had no idea what was going to happen with the characters--I was reading something new and raw, with no expectations. I read as if it were the only book that existed in the world. Why? Because of Dashti. Dashti is the author of the book. The book is her journal. I usually end up understanding characters, relating to them, and liking them. I loved Dashti. I loved her as if she were my best friend, as if she were my sister. As if she were real. I've read many books and stories where the characters are real, but I haven't loved them as I have loved Dashti. I loved Lady Saren as Dashti loved her. I knew these people and I became a part of their world. The setting was magnificent. Gone with the Western norm, this was set in a world based off of Asia. Gone was the cliched magic of fantasy books. It was Shannon Hale magic in its best: subtle, gentle, feminine, beautiful. The voice and tone were Dashti. The words were so different from what many books are, but the newness and rawness of the words became part of me. There was beauty, and there was deep, deep sadness in the book. I have never read a book that so adequately portrayed the sadness of life and war--it could have been real. This never seemed like a word of fiction, ever, it was real. Instead of pretty heroines with feisty attitudes, the book offered something heartfelt, real, and full of inner beauty. I love Book of a Thousand Days. Wow. Wow. Wow. Please read it. It isn't an enjoyable, fun read. It isn't something that you laugh through and are entertained. You do laugh, but it is the deep laugh that comes from sadness. You cry, but it is because you are happy. You see these characters and you join them and can weep for them, laugh with them, and rejoice with them. This book is what any book should aspire to be.

The second I finished this book, I wanted to TELL someone how good it is, so here I am! Main character Dashti's voice is what makes this tale come alive, and in broader terms, Shannon Hale's prose sings. Pun intended--one lovely component of the book are the healing songs Dashti sings to her mistress Lady Saren and others. As the story progresses, it becomes increasingly apparent, in an understated way, that the songs really are magic. I like the fact that the words of the small songs both do and do not seem to relate to the pains Dashti heals with them. These fragments of folk song and folk magic, tiny pieces of poetry, evoke images from the life Dashti remembers growing up on the steppes. Which reminds me--what a wonderful and unique setting for this story! Medieval Mongolia with a dash of folk magic makes for a refreshing change of venue in today's crowded fantasy market. Another thing I like about Book of a Thousand Days is that Dashti's evolution as a person who comes to believe she is as valuable as the gentry she reveres is so unforced that it doesn't seem like a device or jar with the culture Hale describes. Plot-wise, the early build-up might seem a little slow, but the oddity of the girls' being locked in a tower for years and the ways in which Dashti handles her imprisonment, not to mention the visitors (good and evil), make the first half of the book compelling in its own right. The legal dilemmas at the end of the story form quite a tangle, but their solution is kindly as well as sensible, giving poor beleaguered Lady Saren a chance to finally come into her own. Saren is a strange character, but an intriguing one. It's nice to see her gradually emerging from her seemingly endless state of terror. Her relationship with Dashti also raises interesting questions about the sometimes uneven nature of friendship. Despite its fairy tale roots, the romance in this story reads with such ordinary happiness that it, too, sings. The growing friendship between Tegus and Dashti is all the more sweet because she is so determined to ignore it (it's inappropriate!) and because their appreciation of each other is refreshingly real. Tegus is appealing because he's a person, not a stereotypical handsome prince. I haven't even touched on how Dashti handles the big villain of the piece, but that's a great subplot, too. One last thing--I love the names of these tiny kingdoms, and the way they allude to a rich religious culture which ends up playing a subtle part in the plot. Shannon Hale got off to a promising with Goose Girl, and she just seems to get better with every book!

The first time I read Book of a Thousand Days, I wasn't entirely sure that I liked it more than The Goose Girl. After my second reading, I know for sure that Book of a Thousand Days is my favorite book of all times. Based on the Grimm's fairy tale Maid Maleen, Book of a Thousand Days transports readers to the Eight Realms, a world inspired by Mongolia. After her mother dies, teenager Dashti receives the position of lady's maid to Lady Saren. Lady Saren, however, refuses to marry the man her father has betrothed her to, claiming that she is betrothed to another, and her punishment is to be locked up in a tower for seven years. Dashti chooses to accompany her mistress and records their imprisonment and their adventures in her journal. Book of a Thousand Days starts slowly but very quickly builds up pace until it becomes hard to put down. The first time I read it, I read it slowly, savoring every word, but I still finished it in one night. Dashti's voice is very clear, and she is such an amazing character. Unlike many fantasy heroines, Dashti is only a maid and staunchly believes that she is inferior to the gentry. Shannon Hale is also such an amazing writer, and in just this three hundred page book Shannon Hale has created an entire, detailed world. I can picture the Eight Realms perfectly. Book of a Thousand Days had the fairy tale quality of The Goose Girl, the darkness of Enna Burning, and the humor of River Secrets. The healing songs, too, were reminiscent of the quarry songs of Princess Academy, making Book of a Thousand Days into a beautiful combination of Shannon Hale's previous works while still remaining its own beautiful story and creative retelling of a little-known fairy tale. All in all, an absolutely amazing book, one that I will read again and again.