The Orphan's Tales
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In the Night Garden, In the Cities of Coin and Spice
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| Author | Catherynne M. Valente |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, mythpunk |
| Publisher | Bantam Spectra |
| Published | 2006-2007 |
| Preceded by | The Grass-Cutting Sword |
| Followed by | Palimpsest |
The Orphan's Tales is a fantasy series by Catherynne M. Valente with illustrations by Michael Kaluta. The two novels of the series, In the Night Garden and In the Cities of Coin and Spice, are in turn split into four books. While three of these four books begin with a story told by the same young woman, her stories branch out into other stories, often narrated by a completely different character.
The series won the 2008 Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature, and In the Night Garden was nominated for both the 2006 James Tiptree, Jr. Award and the 2007 World Fantasy Award.
Because of the strange tattoos around her eyes, a girl lives alone in the Sultan's gardens until the young prince dares to speak to her. When he visits, she tells him the stories that are inked on her skin.
The novel is split into two books, which revolve around two different casts of characters who inhabit the same world. Some characters appear in both books - as well as in the sequel, In the Cities of Coin and Spice; for example, the myths of the Stars run through numerous stories.
Book of the Steppe: Prince Leander escapes his castle in search of adventure. Once he's on the road, he kills a goose for food and is accosted by a witch who accuses him of murdering her daughter. As he tries to redeem himself, he learns about the witch's life on the steppe, quests for the skin of a beast, and discovers the truth of his family's history.
Book of the Sea: In the bitter cold of an icy country, to pass the time as they work, Sigrid the Netweaver tells a girl called Snow how she got her name: When she was young, she joined a group of monks traveling back to their temple and eventually entered into a temple of her own. Desperate to see the story to its conclusion, Snow convinces Sigrid to continue her quest to find the original Saint Sigrid.
The friendship between the girl and the prince strengthens as she begins to tell him the stories inked on her second eye. While in the first volume the children had the garden almost completely to themselves, now the marriage of the prince's sister Dinazade threatens their sanctuary. The stories grow similarly darker, revolving around the two titular cities: one where coins are made from bones of the children who work at the mint, and the second, an exotic city that homes a variety of fantastic creatures such a firebird, a clockwork woman, and sirens.
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