Set in 15th century China in the early days of the Ming Dynasty, The Ming Storytellers is a beautifully rendered tale of love and loss, hope and despair. While this novel features the stories of three incredible woman -- Min Li, an imperial concubine, Shahrzad, a Persian traveller, and Jun, a seamstress and storyteller -- it is Min Li who features most prominently and is the heart of this novel. But this is also a novel of Admiral Zheng He, one of China's greatest explorers.

Having little knowledge of Chinese imperial history prior to reading this book, I was fascinated by the history imparted throughout the story. Not only does The Ming Storytellers include key historical events such as the Ming Fleet's Sixth Expedition, but it also clearly conveys the politics, and ways of life and customs of the era. One of this novel's greatest strengths is Rahme's ability to seamlessly weave this history into the fabric of her narrative. As a result, even though there is a tremendous amount of historical detail found in this novel, it never feels as if it has just been dumped into the text. I particularly enjoyed learning about life within the Imperial Palace, which had a complex, hierarchical administration run by eunuchs, as well as of the Ming Fleet's expedition across the Indian Ocean.

Even though The Ming Storytellers is well over 600 pages, the book doesn't feel long. The story moves along quickly, and there are never any lulls. The narrative's focus shifts back and forth between the various principal characters, which I found helped to maintain my interest. Rahme's prose is lovely, and her descriptions eloquent, helping to create a vivid sense of place. While there are times when the reader might wonder how all the various story lines connect, Rahme brings them all together nicely in the end.

While I enjoyed The Ming Storytellers immensely, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that it contains some minor editorial and formatting issues -- at least my e-copy does. While not significant enough to take anything away from the story itself, they are noticeable. Those who frequently read electronic advance copies, which I've found often have similar issues, probably won't be all that bothered by this. But readers used to perfectly formatted e-books might be a little put off, at least initially. I hope readers don't let these minor issues put them off the book as I think The Ming Storytellers is a historical novel well worth reading.

Highly recommended to historical fiction fans interested in learning more about China during the Ming Dynasty.

Note: I received a copy of this novel from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. ( )

This is a good read, there is never a dull moment. This story has great characters that you either love, hate or abhor. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story about emporer's in the orient world. ( )

A strong four, often in five territory along the way. It has so much going for it.

I like big, ambitious books… my favourite historicals seem to be 600 pages lately, and deal in worlds. Which is the case here: a large cast and several major points of view give the Ming experience. I had a concern going in that there’d be too much of palace life and concubines for me, but the book is far more diverse than that. Its greatest strength, for me, without question, is its inclusion of the different ethnicities of Ming China – not to mention the wider world. The story hinges on the voyages of the Ming fleet, to India, Arabia, Africa – the seven ‘treasure voyages’ of great armadas that brought back giraffes and ambassadors. At home we spend much time in Yunnan, with its non-Han tribes and peoples, its indigenous religions and revolts. The Grand Admiral of the fleet, Zheng He, is a Hue or Muslim, captured as a boy in Ming’s conquest of Yunnan from the Mongols, and like other prisoners of war castrated.

Castration doesn’t prevent him being lead man in a love story. I liked how the novel gives not only the grisly surgeries, but the lifelong medical fallout and the human effects, of both castration and foot-binding, rife practices in Ming. It’s a historical cliché that eunuchs are a rot in the palace; Chinese historians from the times tend to be anti-eunuch (as civil officials are their rival faction in the novel) and even our historians have to struggle out of that inherited bias. It’s also easy to make them twisted creatures in fiction, so I liked this serious treatment of their mutilation, and Zheng He, in his seven-foot dignity, was the character I most attached to. The story follows his convergence with Min Li, the emperor’s concubine and spy – unhappily involved with the Ming secret police.

I greatly enjoyed the intricate storytelling. I’m a bit subject to boredom with a very linear story, so I appreciated the construction that went into this. I think it must be titled after storytellers from a devotion to storytelling arts, aside from those exemplars in the novel.

I’ve seen the author describe this as Ming Gothic. It certainly had a Gothic moment or two that cast me back into Melmoth the Wanderer or Ann Radclyffe. The Gothic means also that the plot can be less straight-reality-histfic than adventure style, with coincidences, and there are supernatural elements (that fit the culture). I love Gothic. The only beef I had was with the villains being too villainous – instead of, you know, dark and charismatic. One of them, a secret police guy, had hidden depths at first but he didn’t keep that up. This in part robbed the denouement of nail-biting for me (I was bug-eyed earlier, though).

To put my review in perspective: I’ve recently begun to look for medieval China in fiction. It’s early days I suppose, but this is one of the couple I’m glad I’ve found, that’s educational for me and that I have my heart in. I liked it significantly better than Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tang novel, for instance. I did feel a few roughnesses, that were my other inhibition from five stars. ( )

This is the story of the Ming Dynasty in China in the 13th century. The book is full of rich details such as the eunuchs (castration), foot binding, and the intrigue of life at the Imperial Palace both in Nanking and Beijing. I like the book with 2 very small complaints: the cast was large and the names were similar; hence sometimes it was confusing, but it didn't take long to figure it out. Secondly, the book was over 600 pages and the "end" probably only took 20 pages; I felt it was a hurried ending. But all in all, a delightful read! ( )