nathandouglasdavis

On the surface, this is very similar to the Arabian Nights set-up, but there are a few important differences. First of all, there's none of that stories within stories within stories that Arabian Nights is famous for. But more importantly, there is an element of destiny in this one and the stories being told were real events and not made up. The girl with the mole near feir mouth and the man with the butterfly birthmark are destined lovers, who've met each other over and over in many lives only to die tragic deaths with their loves somehow unreciprocated or yet unfulfilled. Farasha has dream-memories of these past lives and when fe recounts them to the insomniac king Rasheed, they are able to lull fem to sleep. The birthmark doesn't look very good--too grainy or something. I also don't care for the eyes, especially Farasha's sad-girl look. There's some good-looking background and clothing designs though. I found the characters pretty boring and cliched, but I did very much enjoy the three bedtime stories we get and the tragic endings to them. The overarching story was also pretty decent. There's an extra chapter at the end--an origin story for how this cycle of rebirths first started--that was alright, but probably the weakest of the bunch.

In the first story, a character just casually throw out the idea that there are both good and bad aspects of slavery, with the good aspect presumably being the fact that it's possible for slaves to be treated decently (with kind masters and with enforced regulations). Ri~ight, 'cause that totally offsets the slaves' inability to quit if they want to or to receive wages that they can autonomously spend on what they want. And I know that the author wasn't trying to delve into ethics and stuff, but there are some topics where a shallow take just comes across as unthoughtful in an almost pathetic way. Slavery isn't just a difference in culture that can be poo-poo'd away like you would a difference in food choice or something; there are serious ethical problems that must be considered within any system of slavery, and those problems likely make any such system ethical unviable.