Pimpin' Post!
Oct. 14th, 2009 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
Yay for new finds! ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
permetaform pimped this Korean manga last week, so some of you will now have seen this rec twice - well, that means, if you didn't look the first time, what are you waiting for? Mangafox have called it Night of a Thousand Dreams, but the official licenced version, (which is available to buy from Amazon, 'cos I just did) calls it One Thousand and One Nights.
Yes, this is a twist on the classic tale of the crazy sultan who sleeps with a different girl every night and then has her killed in the morning, so that no woman can ever betray him again. When Sehara's younger sister is called to the Sultan's palace, he dresses in her veils and goes in her place. He is quickly discovered and jailed, but his talents as a story-teller eventually bring him to a position as the sultan's bard.
1001 Nights is a story of the Crusades, of casual murder and vengeance begetting vengeance. Set against this endless cycle of killing, one teenaged boy is determined to save his sultan from himself, and in so doing, to save his people from their sultan.
This manga has something of everything. It has het relationships and gay relationships, friendship and unshakeable enmity, and more than its share of violence. It has flawed, changing characters and a plot that takes sudden left turns, leaving you floundering along behind them, shredding your pre-conceived ideas. It has some really lovely artwork, whether in full colour or black and white.
If the manga has a weakness, I'd say a couple of the early volumes spend too much time on Sehara's tales that are already familiar (Turandot, anyone?). But really, I don't have a whole lot to complain about.
Eight volumes so far in English, and more on the way.
permetaform pimped this Korean manga last week, so some of you will now have seen this rec twice - well, that means, if you didn't look the first time, what are you waiting for? Mangafox have called it Night of a Thousand Dreams, but the official licenced version, (which is available to buy from Amazon, 'cos I just did) calls it One Thousand and One Nights. Yes, this is a twist on the classic tale of the crazy sultan who sleeps with a different girl every night and then has her killed in the morning, so that no woman can ever betray him again. When Sehara's younger sister is called to the Sultan's palace, he dresses in her veils and goes in her place. He is quickly discovered and jailed, but his talents as a story-teller eventually bring him to a position as the sultan's bard.
1001 Nights is a story of the Crusades, of casual murder and vengeance begetting vengeance. Set against this endless cycle of killing, one teenaged boy is determined to save his sultan from himself, and in so doing, to save his people from their sultan.
This manga has something of everything. It has het relationships and gay relationships, friendship and unshakeable enmity, and more than its share of violence. It has flawed, changing characters and a plot that takes sudden left turns, leaving you floundering along behind them, shredding your pre-conceived ideas. It has some really lovely artwork, whether in full colour or black and white.
If the manga has a weakness, I'd say a couple of the early volumes spend too much time on Sehara's tales that are already familiar (Turandot, anyone?). But really, I don't have a whole lot to complain about.
Eight volumes so far in English, and more on the way.
