Storyteller is a book by Amy Thomson

Amy Thomson

Amy Thomson is an American science fiction author. In 1994 she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Most of her work is considered hard science fiction and contains feminist and environmental themes.- Novels :* Virtual Girl...

 published in 2003 by Ace Books

Ace Books

Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...

. The book follows the story of an orphan who is adopted by a storyteller, a member of the Storytelling Guild who travels the stars in a historian like capacity. In contrast to her earlier books which were very hard science fiction

Hard science fiction

Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Islands of Space in Astounding Science...

Storyteller was much more romantic, the novel focuses on themes such as longevity and environmentalism ignoring technological focus. One reviewer wrote "Some readers will find this book immensely touching. However, readers who prefer a harder edge are liable be put off by sentimentality, weak conflict and a too-readily resolved plot that smacks of wish fulfillment".