Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Shannon Hale's Book of a Thousand Days is positively fabulous. A reimagined Grimm brothers fairie tale, it is the journal of Dashti, a mucker girl who leaves behind all she knows and journeys to the city of Titor's Garden. There, she trains to become a maid to the gentry. When her training is complete, she goes to serve the Lady Saren, daughter of the highest house in Titor's Garden. All is not well, however, and she finds herself locked in a tower with her mistress because of Saren's refusal to marry a man who she does not love. Seven years she is destined to live in the tower, serving her lady day in and day out, unable to see the sky. Things in the tower soon turn ugly. Food is depleted, days range from sweltering to frigid, and Dashti and her lady are threatened by Saren's scorned suitor, the cruel Lord Khasar. As conditions spiral from uncomfortable to life-threatening, Dashti is forced to make the choices that will either save or destroy both herself and Saren, who she has sworn to protect.

A fan of Shannon Hale's prior to reading the book, I was not disappointed in the least. Beautifully written, Book of a Thousand Days has a fantastic setting based on medieval Mongolia. It not only has romance, magic, adventure, and a dash of mystery; it challenges the idea of basing one's self-worth on social constructs. Hooray for books with meaning! True, I was able to predict what was going to happen fairly easily...but that wasn't a problem. I rather liked where it was going. Also, it's way better than Maid Maleen (The story that it's based on). I mean, way better.

All in all, Book of a Thousand Days is awesome (To put my wonderfully broad vocabulary to good use...Heh). It's the kind of book that you want to keep reading. Dashti is a great character living in a vivid, believable world. Her story satisfies.

I give Book of a Thousand Days four out of five daggers.


Satisfied, Khan Tegus-adoring*, and quailing at the mere idea of spending seven years in a tower...


*Another awesome male character? Why yes, indeed. So read it.

Book of a Thousand days was amazing. The thing that struck me the most (besides, uh, the fact that it was a really good book) was the drawings that were interspersed throughout the pages. This seems to be a trend of late (perhaps due to the popularity of graphic novels?). Anyhow, the drawings were quite good, even if they weren't the same as how I pictured the main character. (That is a drawback... ack, pun NOT intended. At ALL.)

Also, we met Shannon Hale and she was MADE OF AWESOME. OH MY WORD.

I second Avery's dagger-number:

Reading manga, making puns (urgh), and yours,