The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

496 pages

English language

Published 2023 by HarperCollins.

ISBN:: 978-0-00-838134-9

(2 reviews)

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. …

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.

2 editions

Simon reviewed The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S. A. Chakraborty

Swashbuckling (of sorts) in a different part of the world, anchored in deep humanity.

4 stars

Another Hugo nominee.

It was lovely to read something set in a medieval fantasy setting that was not a western European one. Instead it is tales of adventure on the high seas of the Gulf of Aden and the Western shores of the Indian ocean. A multicultural world with just a touch of magic, and a lot of humanity

I liked the story and the way that it was told, but for some reason it didn't grip me. This may be more to do with my life at the moment than the book itself. I liked it, a lot, but I didn't love it. I'd recommend it to anybody who finds the above intruiging, but I won't be immediately seeking out everything the author has written.

Simon

rated it

May 26