The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi: The epic first book in a swashbuckling new fantasy series from the bestselling author of THE CITY OF BRASS (Amina al-Sirafi, 1)

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All the cons, tricks, and poisons in this book are pulled from history: there’s actually a thirteenth century charlatan’s guide (recently translated into English by the Library of Arabic Literature) which discusses both the three cups game still used to swindle gullible tourists today and the numerous knock-out drugs Dalila employs. That behemoth feeling in the deep that this is a tale that's more real than fiction, more muchness than just a fable told to mimic the 1100s Indian Ocean tales for a 2020s audience.

The second book is still in the early draft stages but I’m aiming for something that feels like a cross between a ghost story and a murder mystery, and one that plunges even deeper into the malleability of the past and who gets to determine what history truly is. If the first half was about gathering the band back together, the second half was about executing the mission and navigating all the chaos that came from it. The Adventures of Amina Al-Sarafi reads like one of those real-world myths that creep up on your slowly. On our site, you can find not only book reviews but author interviews, cover reveals, excerpts from books, acquisition announcements, guest posts by your favourite authors, and so much more.It's the characters that shine for me, and the fun plot, and the spot on and often hilarious voice of the main character. As the story progressed, more magical elements were introduced and I definitely found it enchanting. The largest pearl in the world; a miniature moon said to have been snatched from the sky by a lovelorn fairy and gifted to Queen Bilqis, who made it the centerpiece of her crown. As another incentive to find Dunya, her father was one of Amina’s old crew, and he abandoned his family to go travelling.

The writing and story telling was excellent, the writing was so descriptive and the characters were crafted so well. The found family trope was evident in the narrative, but other than Amina herself, the other supporting characters did not feel developed enough for me to remember them distinctly.Enter Salima, a wealthy Adeni woman who offers Amina money beyond her wildest dreams to track down her missing granddaughter, Dunya. I wanted to have adventures, to be a hero, to have my tales told in courtyards and street fairs, where perhaps kids who’d grown up like me, with more imagination than means, might be inspired to dream. An erstwhile Crusader, Falco Palemenestra, a Frank (local speak for European) with a profound lust for magical objects, appears to have made off with young Salima’s greatest treasure, 16yo Dunya. Amina learns that Dunya is leading Falco to the Moon of Saba, a pearl rumored to have magical powers.

A rich widow, Salima, the mother of Asif, a crewman of Amina’s who had been lost, wants to hire her to retrieve her granddaughter, 16yo Dunya, Asif’s daughter. Amina is a great character- she is brash and irreverent, but also a mother doing her best to keep her daughter safe and coming to terms with how that new piece of her identity has changed her priorities. One who learned the hard way that if there was magic in this world, it could be as brutal and cunning as the worst monsters out of a fairy tale. It's one of the best I have ever listened to and bc of the way the story is told I would highly recommend you go this route!the Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi draws on the real history of the Middle East and follows a notorious female captain and smuggler who is now a middle-aged mother trying to keep her daughter safe. I’d grown up feeling terribly unusual; out of place and never at peace with the fate afforded young girls. A note about religion : so often in Fantasy, when authors take inspiration from a real, historical setting, they strip it of religion (or make every MC Christian, because of course 🙄), and I really dislike that. The figure of the scoundrel who wonders why God made them so good at sinning can be a contrived creation, a trope designed to inject moral complication into a story, but Amina’s religiosity feels intimate and lived-in.

Between her and her mission are superpowered mercenaries, huge sea monsters and Amina’s regrets for her past sins. I can't say much bc it's a giveaway but the interactions he has with AMINA are my favorite parts of the book. Amina al-Sirafi, while not at the height of her previous powers (due to the whole “retirement” thing), is still a force to be reckoned with, and the crew she assembles are each memorable as well as unique. A review by Chris Kluwe in Lightspeed notes that the novel feels "like a heist movie à la Ocean’s Eleven or The Italian Job.

There is always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, and Amina and her shipmates will face a new kind of danger in their mission. Yet it doesn’t feel big and expansive, because the author keeps you close to the main cast of characters, so that you can’t help but fall in love with them even though each one is more unscrupulous than the last. i did not enjoy the banter between the scribe and amina and felt it was distracting, unnecessary, and weak. Amina's character development was great, I loved watching her grown and become such a caring person.