Various anecdotes are coupled into a larger story cycle.

So what's next in this story cycle?

After six novels, it is his first collection of short stories, though described by the publisher as a "story cycle".

Instead, it is typically placed "...midway between the novel proper and the mere collection of stories," known as the short story cycle.

During the wait for the horse's return, narrative is born - a 10-day-long story cycle is repeated 36 times.

The story cycles around the considerations and feelings of this young man.

As a short story cycle, the book presents forty mutually exclusive stories staged in a wide variety of possible afterlives.

In other versions the story cycle ends here, and there is no further mention of Sinbad the Porter.

See short story cycle for further details.

The book can read either as a novel or collection of short stories, a short story cycle.