I've never read the Arabian Nights tales, so though I am aware that this is a story based on that original, I'm not familiar enough with the original work to be able to say weather or not A Thousand Nights does it justice. So I'm basing my opinion of A Thousand Nights purely on its own merits. 
 The narration of this tale is beautiful. It's lyrical and it basks in the glory of its setting. The life of the pre-Islamic desert tribes was brought to life for me. The setting is unapologetically Middle Eastern: the characters are described as having varying shades of darker skin; all of the characters have dark coloured eyes and hair; the foods they eat are Middle Eastern; the clothing and customs referred to are region-appropriate. It brought the setting to life for me, and I felt like I was reading an author glorifying in the life of the Eastern world, rather than an author trying to transplant the Western into an Eastern setting. 
 The story, however, is slow-going. It meanders like a gentle mountain brook, rather than rushing from action-packed scene to action-packed scene like a roaring river. It drew me along, wrapped me up, and carried me through its pages. I didn't want to put it down. Rather than spinning fantastical tales to keep her death at bay, our main character here recalls stories from her past, sharing the wisdoms these events in her life taught her with the reader, and sometimes with other characters. 
 This is a love story. It's not about romantic love, but the love between sisters, the love between women. One sister sacrifices herself in order to save the other sister, and the other sister goes about essentially starting a religion centred around the one sister. Both sisters feel huge amounts of affection for each other, and are willing to put the other before themselves. It was inspiring. 
 This is also a story about the power of women. Only male characters are ever named, and even then relatively few of them. The female characters are referred to by their relation to the main character (my sister, my mother, my sister's mother), or by their status within the court (the seamstress, the maid, etc.). And yet, despite their namelessness, together these women present a formidable force. Each of them stands behind the main character and adds her own power to help resist the evil powers that have taken over the court. Even though they remained nameless, the women were the ones with the power. 
 A Thousand Nights really, truly is a beautiful story; one of the best I've read this year. I was enchanted by it.