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kivt's review against another edition
4.0
Slow start but it picks up & goes some really great places.
revellee's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed the general story. I love a pioneer/origin story.
I thought the writing and details of the story were mostly too juvenile that I thought this was meant to be a children’s book until the sudden fuck words thrown in and the random sexcapades.
I loved that the main characters are an old woman and a gay kid. It’s refreshing to have something other than a white male coming of age story. However, I don’t know anything about being gay or coming of age as a gay person to know if this part of the story was done right. It did seem a little stereotyped to me.
The ending with Abeha-offspring/Abeha-Teller-continuing-entity cheapened all the grief Teller and Samad went through. Let them die. I thought the harsels and the world was beautifully alien until that “rare” ending with the harsel who can keep memories more than alive inside him. It was just too convenient and perfect in a world that is already too perfect because it’s secret overlord is somewhat of a control freak. I really wish it would have ended with Samad leaving for Jump Pilot school and leaving Thelassa to the Thelassans and the Hars. A better epilogue would have been him coming back hundreds of years later and seeing what Thelassa would become without Teller’s constant influence.
I thought the writing and details of the story were mostly too juvenile that I thought this was meant to be a children’s book until the sudden fuck words thrown in and the random sexcapades.
I loved that the main characters are an old woman and a gay kid. It’s refreshing to have something other than a white male coming of age story. However, I don’t know anything about being gay or coming of age as a gay person to know if this part of the story was done right. It did seem a little stereotyped to me.
The ending with Abeha-offspring/Abeha-Teller-continuing-entity cheapened all the grief Teller and Samad went through. Let them die. I thought the harsels and the world was beautifully alien until that “rare” ending with the harsel who can keep memories more than alive inside him. It was just too convenient and perfect in a world that is already too perfect because it’s secret overlord is somewhat of a control freak. I really wish it would have ended with Samad leaving for Jump Pilot school and leaving Thelassa to the Thelassans and the Hars. A better epilogue would have been him coming back hundreds of years later and seeing what Thelassa would become without Teller’s constant influence.
cjdavey's review against another edition
3.0
At heart, Storyteller is a gentle coming-of-age story, set against a richly imagined background of Mediterranean origin. The weakness, though, is the stories themselves. Not only do they give away too much too soon (ironically, something Florio warns the young Samad against early in his own career), but they also lack the cadence, rhythms and idioms of an oral tradition. They're little more than simplified reductions of Thomaon's prose style. Without credibility here, the structures around which the book is constructed begin to creak a little.
carolined314's review
2.0
I wanted to like this book. It features a strong female lead, the power of changing a narrative, sea creatures with wit and telepathy, and non-traditional protagonists.
It unfolds like a fairy tale, with light, generous touches and strong characters.
The plot is a bare thread, supported only by the characters. This is where it started to lose me, as the two main characters (and their whale friend) are elevated above all other characters in terms of longevity, caring, and their own relationship to one another. It feels, in the end, like the story supports a benevolent dictatorship. Having the right intentions is always rewarded.
Fairy tales work because they inspire fear and have a grounding in emotional reality. Although there are emotions aplenty in this book, the characters live in a benevolent, caring world full of support systems and generosity. This is a light, fluffy tale with good writing and some pieces I'll remember.
Yet it felt too easy, and the world too dreamy. In the end, that made me pull away in disbelief and frustration.
The depiction of gay men was also stereotyped and distant, frustratingly ungrounded in humanity.
It unfolds like a fairy tale, with light, generous touches and strong characters.
The plot is a bare thread, supported only by the characters. This is where it started to lose me, as the two main characters (and their whale friend) are elevated above all other characters in terms of longevity, caring, and their own relationship to one another. It feels, in the end, like the story supports a benevolent dictatorship. Having the right intentions is always rewarded.
Fairy tales work because they inspire fear and have a grounding in emotional reality. Although there are emotions aplenty in this book, the characters live in a benevolent, caring world full of support systems and generosity. This is a light, fluffy tale with good writing and some pieces I'll remember.
Yet it felt too easy, and the world too dreamy. In the end, that made me pull away in disbelief and frustration.
The depiction of gay men was also stereotyped and distant, frustratingly ungrounded in humanity.
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