Dreams of the Compass Rose

A gorgeous, lush, exotic cycle of 14 short stories, beginning and ending with the city of Aramantea: In "Amarantea" Grandmother tells her grandchildren about this ruined city and in "The Story of Time" we see what exactly happened to it and to the Compass Rose. The other stories do not follow chronologically in a straight line, but we do meet recurring characters. We read of a vast desert; an unsinkable ship and her woman captain, Lero; death and the thief who stole her "shimmering" scythe; the Lord of Illusion, trapped in the body of a translucent horse; a girl who becomes a spring of water, a never-empty cup, a city of gold. In "The City of No-Sleep" only an assassination of its ruler will stop the city from changing each day. This show more happens each night while the mad king sleeps, so the inhabitants try to keep awake too.

There are villains but some figures arouse our sympathy: Nadir, the black man, Lirheas, the somber prince, Yaro, the servant girl, and "the queen with no eyes", builder of the Compass Rose. All the stories are oneiric and surreal. They have an Oriental flavor.

I feel this collection is destined to be a fantasy classic someday. Most highly recommended. show less

“All stories have a curious and even dangerous power. They are manifestations of truth—yours and mine. And truth is all at once the most wonderful yet terrifying thing in the world, which makes it nearly impossible to handle. It is such a great responsibility that it’s best not to tell a story at all unless you know you can do it right. You must be very careful, or without knowing it you can change the world.” The words of Nazarian's character reveal a profound truth about the storyteller's art. Nazarian is a storyteller. She is a weaver of words and in this book she weaves together the words of her different stories to form a tapestry that offers the reader deep insights into our own views of the world. The book is composed of show more a series of vignettes. The characters change in each vignette, overlap, and interact as the stories intersect. All of this revolves around the Compass Rose – a dream, a state of mind, a place to which we go when we sleep. The world of the Compass Rose is inhabited by gods and thieves, female warriors and men of honor, death and demons – it is reminiscent of the world of the Arabian nights. At the center of this world is Ris, a warrior queen who has been raised to god-hood, or perhaps a grandmother who nurtures her grandchildren and safeguards them from harm, or perhaps a bartender in a remote village or a ship sailing the seas. Nazarian leaves room for the reader to occupy this story and to find their own meaning in the metaphors and illustrative designs of her poetic prose.

She skillfully brings all of the characters together, allowing their paths to intersect and intertwine like threads, creating a pleasing whole at the conclusion of the weaving. Yet each story gives us pause to reflect and at the same time leaves us seeking more. And again quoting from her character, "in each telling the story itself changes a little, changes direction, and that in turn changes you and me. More often than you realize it, the world is shaped by two things—stories told and the memories they leave behind.”

Nazarian leaves us with a memory of a vivid world, filled with characters that have shape and form and evoke our sympathy and draw us into their story changing us. And in the end, there is still the Compass Rose, the navigator that leads us into our dreams. show less

Dreams of the Compass Rose by Vera Nazarian is a wonderful collection of intertwined stories that explore humanity, godhood, what is right, and what is illusion. It drew me in with a strong storytelling voice, sometimes using an overt narrator and sometimes just the tale unfolding.

In a way, the style reminds me of the older fantastical fiction like Tales of the Arabian Nights, at least in the beginning. This isn’t a modern fantasy where the magic has its own physics, and yet much of it follows conventions and laws within its own world, whether it’s demonstrating the dangers of acting on too little information so though your intent is good the results are bad, or the risks of letting arrogance make you believe yourself smarter than show more gods. It’s a world where horrible acts have consequences, and horrible suffering sometimes offers a faint reward.

At the start, the characters are all strangers, but as the book progresses, some of those strangers become familiar, even welcome. The narrative style changes too from an account of distant times brought to life by a storyteller to a tale unfolding before your eyes through the lens of a first person actor within the events. The choices made are ripe with conflict and often not what the character deserves, and yet as the stories come full circle, it works out. Things make sense, and even offer elements of happiness.

This is a skillful, complex world peopled with compelling, three-dimensional characters that offer their dreams and nightmares in the hope that you, the reader, will walk away changed. My only regret is that it took me so long after getting the book to read it. show less

Dreams of the Compass Rose is old fashioned storytelling in the grand style of Arabian Nights or Catherynne M. Valente's "Orphan's Tales". There are tales within tales that overlap and create a rich tapestry defining not just the story, but the history of a world. Each "dream" is told as a separate story, and can stand alone, but they are much richer when taken into consideration with the surrounding stories. The overarching tale is that of the creation of the goddess known as "Risei" and her subsequent dealings with humanity, but there are also the stories of the king who took an eyeless woman to be his queen; of an unsinkable ship and its peerless captain; of the thief of Death's scythe; of a city of no sleep, where dreams of a mad show more king alter reality; of desert and sea journeys; and of a young man's life as it is intertwined with the strange nobles, a goddess, Illusion and the lessons of servitude, truth and blindness.

The storytelling is a bit like a spirograph - you think you've seen the last of a character and they pop up again, and you learn more each time as the circles twine and build. There are lessons in each, like fables, and the lessons instruct morally, but also add a layer to the view of their world. The language is slightly stilted, and occasionally a bit too flowery for my tastes, but this is in keeping with the narrative form the author chose, and doesn't obscure the tales. If anything, it may lend them a cadence that mimics that of a spoken story. Characters are illuminated, and explored, but kept in a manner of legends - intimate thoughts are only exposed where necessary to propel the story and its lesson, leaving space for the reader's imagination.

I really loved this. I'd recommend it for readers who enjoy storytelling in layers and told with the feel of those normally given in an oral tradition. The price for this is a little steep for an e-book, but the author delivers a whole world, complete with peoples, legends, history and oral traditions.

Overall: 4.5 or 5 stars
Review copy supplied by the author as part of LibraryThing's Member Giveaway program. show less

This book took me a long time to get through. But in the hiatuses of reading it, the stories still resonated with me and were very memorable. As I advanced through the book and the intertwined character threads became apparent, I became much more immersed. The author crafts vivid imagery and a rich, well-developed world with equally well-developed characters. Her writing is beautiful and mesmerizing. The intersection of the characters’ stories throughout the different episodes are well done and made for an enjoyable and engaging read. A copy of the eBook was supplied by the author through a LibraryThing member giveaway.

The book is a collection of stories set in a world with reminiscences of our own but with its own mythological feeling. Although each tale is a story on its own, they are all connected and they contribute to build a world only hinted in each one. The intertwining of the stories goes beyond the plot as many characters appear in more than one story and sometimes a character with a brief appearance in one is the main one in a subsequent one.

The narrative has a dream-like quality that at times reminds me of Lord Dunsany's tales. Although it never attains the same level of marvel and strangeness that I find in Dunsany's books, they are certainly evocative and vivid.

Despite the book has all that I find appealing, I never get immersed in it as show more I would have liked. I put the blame mainly on myself for reading it just after a horror book and when I am mostly reading rather violent books. I will read it again, when I am done with this period, because I know that I can enjoy it much more. show less

This review was written for LibraryThing Members giveaway.

Lush, lyrical (at the beginning almost overly so, and partly the reason why I waited so long to pick the book, waiting for the right mood), sometime cruel interlinked tales set in a world reminiscent of Tanith Lee's Flat Earth, or some a-historical Middle East of the Thousand and One Nights.

There are several recurring characters, whose successive stories progressively define the world of the Compass Rose and the events that shaped the most central one, the mortal then goddess Ris, whose ascension and interactions with a few mortals closest to her frame those fascinating fragments.