Review – The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, Book 1) by Shannon Chakraborty (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 493 pages
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release Date: February 28, 2023
ASIN: B0B3XQBGPS
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Amina al-Sirafi series
Source: eBook Borrowed from Library
Rating: 5/5 stars
“Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.
But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.
Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Amina al-Sirafi series. I borrowed a copy on ebook from my library.
Thoughts: I was looking back and I did read the first 60% of “The City of Brass” and ended up not finishing it. I kept hearing great things about this book but kept putting off reading it because of my dislike for “The City of Brass”. I am happy I finally picked this up. The characters in this book were way more entertaining and the pace a lot faster than “The City of Brass”. This ended up being a very well done and entertaining read. It is pretty long and it did take me a while to get through, but I was engaged and entertained the whole time.
This story is apparently set in the same world as “The City of Brass” but a thousand years earlier. Being that I didn’t finish “The City of Brass” I don’t really know how this book ties in with that one. This story follows Amina al-Sirafi, a retired pirate who is trying to live a quiet life with her daughter. That is until an old woman, up who is the mother of one of her former crewmen, shows up. The woman offers Amina a huge sum of money to find her kidnapped daughter. Of course, the story isn’t that simple. Suddenly Amina is finding herself blackmailed into more of an adventure than she ever wanted, although she kind of enjoys it. She is back with her old crew and facing off against supernatural powers beyond her wildest imaginings.
This was very well written and easy to read. The story is fast-paced with fun characters, lots of action, and some intriguing twists and turns along the way. I adored Amina and her crew and enjoyed that all the characters were older than you typically see in adventure fantasies. They all had families and other responsibilities that they needed to balance with their crazy adventures. The magical aspects around the spirits, gods, and celestial magic were very well done and intriguing too.
I think my only complaint is that it felt like so much happened in this book, I couldn’t help wondering if it would have been better as two shorter books. However, I really loved it and plan to pick up the next Amina al-Sirafi book.
My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this book. It was a fun and fast-paced fantasy adventure with entertaining characters that are a bit older than your typical adventuring type. I enjoyed the magic and the world as well. The story was engaging with some excellent twists and turns, and the characters were unique and likable. I plan on reading the next book in this series when it releases and would recommend this to those who enjoy adventure fantasy.
