The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice

I thought I knew Catherynne M. Valente when I read her wonderful Fairyland series, but I realized after beginning “In the Night Garden” that this work was something different entirely. Here we had stories couched in stories nestled in stories, seeming like they’d never connect until all of a sudden they did, in subtle, offhanded ways. And, of course, ridiculously beautiful language. As wonderful as “Night Garden” is, it ends a little abruptly, leaving plenty of room for “In the Cities of Coin and Spice to step in and fill the gap. It may not be as extraordinary as its predecessor, but this sequel fills the gap left for it admirably.I won’t even try to trace all the stories found in this volume, though I do remember a few: coins made out of bones, stars bearing children, a city inhabited almost entirely by artists, a young woman made out of tea leaves. All of this eventually ties into the story of the Sultan’s son and the girl with the dark-lidded eyes (their relationship grows nicely over the course of “Cities,” by the way, not to mention the development of the boy’s sister Dinarzad).However, I wish this book wasn’t just more of the same. For as much as I loved the first book, more of the same should be a godsend, but somehow the stories in this volume took longer to grab me. I got confused more easily, wished more often to return to characters I liked rather than listen to yet another story. (But that was mostly in the first half; the second was an improvement.) And after all this intricate storytelling, the conclusion of the frame story felt a little unsatisfactory. It made sense, but it just seemed too simple . . .But I won’t spoil the rest for you, because this book is worth a read. Most people seem to like it as well as they liked the first, so maybe I’m just crazy for preferring “Night Garden.” Ah, well. It’s worth it anyway.

This book is less a sequel than a continuation of The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden, together they make one continuous story. Of course, that one meta-story is composed of many (and I mean, *many*) smaller tales. The overall conceit is that a girl is cast out of the royal court because she is born with darkness like kohl around her eyes that in fact is incredibly small writing on her eyelids. People fear she is a demon so cast her out, but don't know for certain (she could be an angel, a goddess) so don't kill her. She's left to fend for herself in the semi-wild of the royal palace gardens. She is befriended by one of the princes, and tells him the stories written on her eyelids. The book is composed of alternating interludes of the overall story of the girl and the prince, and then the individual stories written on her lids. But wait, there's more! The individual stories you gradually realize are related, and ultimately you come to see how they all also relate to the girl.The book is marvelous. Valente's writing is superb, at times beautiful, moving, and shocking, and her stories are endlessly inventive. She takes common conceits -- orphan girl meets prince, or tales of quests and monsters -- but gives them such fresh and unique twists that they are completely new and utterly captivating. It's not an "easy" read if you truly try to track how everything is interrelating -- at times I forgot who was who as I went down the rabbit hole of some of the story-within-a-story-within-a-story -- but it's so entertaining and incredibly well written I couldn't recommend it highly enough. Knowing how it ends, I want to go back and re-read both books. highly recommended!

I picked this book up due to my love of S.J Tucker's songs inspired from this book. And I'm so glad I did. The imagery and stories invoked and told are so beautiful and fantastical. Throughout this book, I just kept wanting to draw another scene that would come to mind. I would describe this as a fairy tale for teens and adults, but I'm sure those who are younger would appreciate them as well. I love how the stories intertwined, how questions were answered, and how how stories hundreds of pages away could be connected. This book took me on fantastic journeys, and I'm sure I'll be reading it again. Some of my favorite stories were the stories in the book of Scald, as I really loved the city of Spice and all its wonders, and in the second book I found I loved qlmost all the stories, the Djinn, Agrafena, Solace and the fire bird, but I also loved the City of Marrow and the imagery of it, and the story of Hadil and Hind.This is one of the most enthralling reads I've enjoyed in a long time, the descriptions and the messages and fantastical lands were so amazing to read, I very much enjoyed this book.

Just as lushly written as the first book, I was initially so excited to see what would become, not only of the tattoo-eyed girl and sultan-prince boy, but also more of the lavish world that her tales created. I immediately bought it on the Kindle, and I think that something was lost in the digital translation. The drawings that were so intricate in the first one were blurry and hard to decipher on the screen (excluding the smaller drawings - those were blown up and actually easier to see) and there was just something missing... I am not, of course, entirely sure if that feeling is due entirely to the nature of sequels or due to the nature of digitization, but I do suspect it is the latter. Either way, this is a darker collection of tales and while it does include a nice conclusion, I do still have lingering curiosities and questions. Regardless, this was all in all, a wonderful and mythical addition to the tradition of fairy tales and one that I genuinely enjoyed reading. I will keep an eye out for the print version, too and keep my fingers crossed that an audio version will some day be produced.

Christmas gift. Recipient enjoyed it.

love it

If you like mythology read this series of books (this is the second). Well written and engrossing. you won't regret it.