The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
4.5 out of 5 stars

After an adventurous life at sea, full of pirates, fights, multiple husbands, and encounter with a demon, Amina al-Sirafi enjoys her early retirement. She leads a simple existence, raising her bellowed daughter and staying out of trouble. Until she is tracked down by a wealthy woman looking for the best crew to retrieve her kidnapped granddaughter. Reluctant at first, Amina agrees and starts to assemble her old team. Soon, she realises that the task might be beyond her incredible skills, but it is too late to refuse, as her daughter's life is in danger now...

This novel is a fast-paced narrative full of action, fights, magic and surprising creatures. S. A. Chakraborty takes her readers on an adventure that soon speeds out of control. There is everything in this novel: fights, pirates, magic, mysteries, poisons, old friends, old enemies, strong female characters, bloody rituals, demons and other supernatural creatures. The fact that it all makes sense proves Chakraborty’s skills as a storyteller. Her novel is a light and captivating read. It made me laugh, and it made me emotional at times. I could not stop reading it and recommend it to all fantasy novel fans, especially those happening at sea.

Thank you, NetGalley and publisher, for providing the arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Before starting this book, I had been thinking to myself how long it has been since I’d got so engrossed in the action of a story that I just wanted to keep going at the end of each chapter, and not stop to analyse it. Then, I met Amina al-Sirafi and I was immediately transported to her shack in the mountains of 12th Century Salalah, then aboard the Marawati feeling the sea breeze on my face as it rocked over the waves of the Indian Ocean.

Similarly to the Daevabad series, I loved the rich detail and atmosphere created by Shannon Chakraborty’s trademark masterful worldbuilding. It is undoubtedly my favourite element of her writing and the reason why I rushed to request an Advance Reader Copy of this book as soon as it became available. As I read it, I was once again left wondering how much time she must have spent on research! The book spans several regions: starting in what is now Oman on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula, it moves down to Yemen and then across the Gulf of Aden to Mogadishu. The fact that this book is set at a time when cities like Mogadishu and Aden are centres of trade and civilisation rather than just associated with perpetual war and famine as they are now was a beautiful reminder of the cycles of civilisation and the rise and fall of nations; history is much longer than the last couple of hundred years! Chakraborty successfully does this all without entirely romanticising them too. Her choice of Socotra as the setting of the more fantastical elements of this book makes perfect sense and I was practically waiting for her to incorporate it as soon as I discovered the region where the story took place! I also enjoyed the insight into the life at sea at that time portrayed in this book; the small details of day-to-day life, the relationships between shipmates, the acute understanding of nature, especially the stars, as an essential skill, and more.

As the title suggests, this book is centred around Amina al-Sirafi, a retired pirate who is forced to return to her seafaring ways to save a missing woman and the world along the way! Knowing Chakraborty’s unreserved (but balanced as a Muslim writer) approach to the gritty aspects of human beings and life, I thought this type of character was perfect for her to write and she didn’t disappoint. She created a well-rounded, rough around the edges, sarcastically funny but deeply compassionate character who made perfect sense in her context as a woman leader in a male-dominated field after a long career tackling the challenges of life at sea. However, while Amina al-Sirafi has a very dominant personality, necessary for her position, Chakraborty doesn’t disparage women who live more traditional lives or have different personalities and indeed portrays them with tenderness and respect – where they deserved it, at least!

To talk about Chakraborty’s inclusion of Islam and Muslims is complicated, as is real life. She is Muslim and clearly wants it to be very present in this book in a positive, lived way, even more than her previous works, I feel. There are abundant references to du’a and praying and repentance and avoiding major sin. It is frustratingly rare to find the co-existence of deep flaws and heartfelt repentance in Muslim characters in modern Western literature, so seeing these characteristics in Amina was very exciting for me as this is exactly what I always hope for in the portrayal of complete and multi-faceted Muslim characters. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by her apparent condoning of same-sex relationships and her eagerness to change the pronouns used with a potentially transgender character, which do not represent the Islamic view of these issues, although I understand that Amina’s perspective may well be accurate for some in her position. The reference to “pronouns” also very quickly took me out of the historical setting that had been so carefully crafted. Surely there must be a way for Muslim writers to explore these questions in a way that is authentic to the characters and our Islamic faith. For now, I am still waiting for that book. This relatively minor plot point aside, I felt like Chakraborty had thought very carefully about how someone living Amina’s life might have practised Islam. In the afterword, Chakraborty mentions that her research showed a prevalence of “magic” and superstition in that time and place so that is accurate too. How do you balance accuracy and not condoning sin? In this case, Amina didn’t personally commit any of the sins mentioned above; she just didn’t stop others doing them. I suspect this was how Chakraborty decided to approach this challenge and through this preserve the authenticity of her characters’ real lives and experiences.

An additional dimension to Amina al-Sirafi’s character is her role as a mother. Although a book is ultimately up to the reader individually to interpret, sometimes it’s nice when the writer emphasises or guides you towards a certain aspect of the story that they would like you to notice. In the case of this book, that is certainly the case and the focus is on motherhood and the sacrifices that mothers make and the different ways they try to find a balance.

I must confess that fantasy is not one of my favourite genres, so it’s unlikely I enjoyed those parts of the story as much as other readers. However, compared to the Daevabad series, this book contained less fantastical scenes, so it wasn’t such an issue for me. Again like that series, though, my biggest discomfort, perhaps, was with the creative license used to mix fantasy with the story of Prophet Sulayman, peace be upon him, and the Queen of Saba (Sheba) as well as elements of the Unseen (Ghaib غيب), which I feel should be kept to what Allah has directly told us. In my opinion, delving into this and creating our own theories about it can lead to the blurring of the boundaries between fact and fiction in the mind of the reader. I also discussed this issue in my podcast episode about City of Brass, for those interested in exploring it further. I should also note that there are numerous instances of swearing and intimacy in this book, but I feel that Chakraborty navigates the latter delicately to avoid falling into gratuitousness.

To conclude, while I had some reservations about the book which somewhat disturbed my enjoyment of it, I generally found it an excellent work of literature and an exciting and captivating adventure! The quality of Chakraborty’s writing never disappoints and I love that she chooses to set her stories in the rich cultures of the Muslim world, encouraging Muslim (and non-Muslim) readers to perhaps explore the immense historical – and therefore contemporary – importance of these regions. Her characters are always very entertaining and the value of Chakraborty’s willingness to put in the work to portray complete, flawed Muslims should not be understated. Will I read the sequel? Although my taste does not incline me towards fantasy, I think it is very likely that I will jump at it when it comes out too, in sha Allah!

There are no words to describe just how excited I was to get my hands on this book. I read an ARC of City of Brass way back just before it was published, and fell head over heels in love with Shannon Chakraborty’s phenomenal fantasy world and characters in her Daevabad series. It is without a doubt my favourite fantasy series of all time, so I was ecstatic to get into a new series from her. I really wish I had loved this one as much as I love Daevabad… but I had mixed feelings about this one.

First off, I would like to say that I listened to the audiobook of this one and I kind of feel like that may have affected my enjoyment of it a little. The narrator did a fantastic job of bringing the characters and this world to life, but there were a few moments where the character is talking to her scribe and the sound drops out a little, which made it very difficult to hear. I didn’t really think that was a great choice for the audiobook… but the rest of it was good.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi is very, VERY different to Shannon Chakraborty’s Daevabad series. The Daevabad series is very rich in magic and fantastical elements surrounding the Djinn… and while there are magical moments in this book they take a while to get to. It is very much focused more on adventure than magic… which is awesome, but after the Daevabad series I did go into this one expecting some high fantasy elements and was very surprised to not really see them until well over the 50% mark.

This book is hilarious. I kind of loved the humour vibes that we had throughout the book. Not to keep comparing it, but Daevabad was a very serious fantasy book so I was surprised to get all of this humour and hilarity happening very soon in the book. But I loved that! I absolutely adored Amina. She is hard as nails, super tough but she is just so comical and I loved her narration of her story. One thing I absolutely loved about this book is almost every character is aged 40+. I feel like in so many fantasy books, even adult fantasy the characters are super young, usually late teens or in their 20s. I loved that we had this adventure happening with characters a little later in life, with more life experience. I loved that Amina was a Mum, and everything she was doing was for her child. I think that gives this book such an edge over other books like it.

My main issue with this book was the pacing. It was really off for me. The first half of the book is super slow. It’s building up a lot of the backstory of Amina and her crew, and journeying to bring the crew back together and while I did enjoy that… I got a little bored. I was dying for some swashbucking action and everytime I would lose focus on the audiobook there’d be something exciting to draw me back in… but then it slowed down again. There is a lot of action and plot in this book, but for me it took far too long to get there. I needed it to happen a lot sooner than it did, but I do believe if I re-read this later in the series, I might appreciate that build up and the backstory more than I currently do now.

Once we got the introduction of the ‘demon husband’ I loved it. Once the magical elements came into it, I was thrown back into Shannon Chakraborty’s phenomenal fantasy worlds and I was so happy that we got that. There is even a nod to Daevabad that made me fangirl like crazy. The last 40% of the book was stunning, and I loved every moment of that 40%. I just wish I’d felt like that before that point. I am super excited to read the next book. After that ending it’s all just so exciting and magical and it has set everything up perfectly for such an exciting adventure. I will re-read Amina Al-Sirafi, as I do feel like choosing the audiobook wasn’t right for me and I may have loved it so much more physically reading it. Shannon Chakraborty is a genius and is still my favourite fantasy author. So definitely pick this one up but be prepared for a slow start.

While I enjoyed the authors City of Brass when it first came out, I never much felt inclined to continue on with the series. However when I heard that she was writing an adult fantasy I knew I had to give that a try. And I think I was right to as I feel the story and characters work better for me than her young adult story.

That is not to say that I had an easy time with this book. Especially the start felt somewhat drawn out and it took me a while to start liking Amina as a character to follow. And noticeably I started having a better time with this book once she had her crew together. The interactions and relationship between these characters was right on for a family feel. You can really feel the love there. Though I am still a bit unsure on our lady poison. But she'd like that best.

What I like best about this book is that these characters are older. They are experienced and have had a whole life together but also without each other. Which means that they also have to get to know each other a little again. But that basic bond is still there.

I enjoyed the plot a lot more also when the father of Amina's father came into play. Of course it was obious that he was going to be apart of this story from the start and sometimes it felt that was what they were all waiting on. For him to appear. I think that made the pacing a little off in places.

But other than that I found it a rather enjoyable story. I can't wait to see what other adventures Amina goes on and when he finds out about his daughter. Because isn't that what we are all waiting on?

Chakraborty has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I loved the Deavabad series and eagerly dived into this new series!

Amina al-Sirafi is a notorious pirate now retired with her daughter, leading a quiet life. One day someone with a tie to her past comes knocking and Amina is forced to leave her retirement and daughter to search for a missing person. As she gathers a gang to complete this mission, she begins to find that her employer wasn’t telling the full truth about the missing person and what dark magic may be surrounding them.

There is so much to say about this book, but I don’t want to spoil anything more. Please read this book if you love pirates, found family, magic, and morally grey characters!

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi really does feel like classic adventure: a band of distinctive characters, a mysterious location with mystical significance, and a lot of trouble along the way. It really shines in its points of difference, focusing on Middle Eastern nautical history and a slightly older female protagonist balancing ambition and family. Some nicely casual queer rep and some wacky magic elements also stand out. However, this is so classic a narrative that the beats are so familiar, and there is nothing really radical about the story itself, so this was a read I didn't power through. Ultimately it was a comforting pirate tale with some modern sensibilities, and that's nice enough.

I really wanted to enjoy "The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi", but the plot and characters just didn't work for me. The story was too over the top for my liking, I didn't like the frequent mentions of religion, and I definitely enjoyed "The City of Brass" a lot more.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi just came along at the right time for me. I fell in love with the World and the story following an older, strong female MC with a badass attitude who also happens to be tall! As a tall girly I LOVED this! No maiden staring up into the man’s eyes from many stories but an intimidating female pirate who commands the room. YES!

It is such an interesting story starting with the infamous Amina retired and looking after her family in a secluded lifestyle hiding from her past enemies. Until someone finds her with a proposition too good to turn away. It slowly builds adding more characters with heist themes, lots of wit throughout, mystery, love, magic, plot shocks... It’s the first pirate story I think I’ve read and I’m looking forward to seeing where it is going to go.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this in advance in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely love Shannon Chakraborty’s writing in this book! It was such a fun adventure full of fantasy, action, and some romance! I loved the main character.. She was fierce and a little bit older than the typical main character! Shannon’s books have been some of my favorites, and I cannot wait to read more from this other!

God I love this book. The characters, the setting, the atmosphere, it's all gorgeous. I am obsessed with the concept of a middle aged female pirate and Amina is just so authentic and loveable. I'll definitely be seeking out more of Chakraborty's books.

Loved this so much and can not wait to spend more time with Amine, her crew and the world. I loved the twist at the end relating to the scribe - OMG. This was different from The Daeverbad Series however similar in the way that the story has been told - I need the next one now

I have rarely been so excited to be approved for a title on NetGalley and I started reading in good time but for some reason struggled with the beginning? No idea why. I put it down for a few days that turned into weeks, then picked it back up a couple of days ago and couldn't put it down! I loved it every bit as much as I had hoped, having previously devoured the Daevabad trilogy. A thrilling combination of loveable criminals, magic and magical creatures, danger, adventure and high stakes cons! Historically the most successful pirates were women so I'm delighted we've finally been given a fictional pirate queen to live vicariously through! I'll be waiting impatiently for the further advantures of Amina Al-Sirafi and the Marawati!

WOW! What an adventure this book was! our FMC is Amina. Famous pirate who is notorious but alas she's in retirement to raise her daughter and give her stability. While Amina's daughter gets older and she misses her past life she springs on an opportunity to get the time together for one more adventure. A little disclaimer from me: I've never read anything by SA so this was my first intro to her world and flow of writing. The beginning was foundation building and was kind of slow. We get a lot of background and told how badass the FMC is but once the adventure begins the action doesn't stop! I not only liked the MC but the side characters were amazing! I want a novella on a few of her crew members and some of their past adventures! I also liked how Amina isn't portrayed as young and tough. She's in her 40's, has a teenager of her own and is very much a modern Muslim portrayal!

This book has it all: a strong FMC, an amazing crew of side characters, an adventure, some magical beings (mostly demons) and Pirates led by the strong FMC!

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperVoyager UK for providing me with this ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for this honest review.

Shannon Chakraborty, yet again, proves herself to be one of the strongest in the fantasy genres, if not the strongest in the historical fantasy sub genre. I dove into this enchanting read with incredibly high expectations, having read and adored Chakraborty’s works before, and left it feeling like it had given me more than I had dared dream of.

Each character were phenomenal. They had their own ambitions and things in their pasts, both things that fueled their motivations and things they had to overcome. Even with the amount of great characters, Amina and her crew shone the brightest, especially a certain scribe narrating the story, who proved to play a vital role. The reveal of his identity towards the end almost had me in tears, as Chakraborty, yet again, managed to create one of the best characters I’ve read. Furthermore, it must be stated that the Muslim representation is well written and the religion so intimately tied with the story, it would not be able to exist without it. Chakraborty’s talent for seamlessly weaving history and religion together with elements of fantasy is unmatched.

Truly a spectacular read and I’m already certain this will be one of my top reads of the year.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty is a delightful and engaging book set in the ancient Middle East. The story follows the young Amina Al-Sirafi, the daughter of a famous trader, as she sets out on a journey to prove herself worthy of joining her father's trading caravan.

Throughout the book, Amina encounters a variety of obstacles and challenges, from thieves and bandits to sandstorms and dangerous animals. However, with her wits, courage, and determination, Amina always manages to find a way to overcome these obstacles and continue on her journey.

One of the strengths of The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi is its vivid and colourful descriptions of the setting and the characters. The book paints a rich and detailed picture of life in the ancient Middle East, and readers will find themselves transported to a different time and place as they follow Amina on her journey.

Another strength of the book is its focus on strong female characters. Amina is a brave and resourceful protagonist, and she is joined by a cast of other strong and capable women, including her mother and grandmother. This is an important message for young readers, particularly young girls, who will be inspired by these characters to pursue their own dreams and goals.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

I’m going to cut right to the chase and say I adored this book so much that I stopped 20% in and ordered a special signed edition so I could savour it even more.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi hooked me right from the start. I mean, a story about a fierce middle-aged female ex-pirate captain being forced to go out on one last adventure? This book was exactly what I needed to read right now.

I loved Amina, I loved her crew and apparently I just love me a swashbuckling adventure.

At first I wasn’t sure about the interview style elements to the narration, but got used to it quickly and ultimately it didn’t change how much I loved it. I absolutely have to check out more by this author, it was just 100% my kind of fantasy.

Amina is a great character and so is the supporting cast. I really enjoyed and was invested for the most part. It was a bit of a slog in the middle and I really didn’t feel the stakes and was pretty bored but the end got better. this was an enjoyable, easy and engaging read, and makes me wonder if I should try her other books...

A retired pirate, a chaos spirit and a young girl walk onto a ship... The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is as wild as it is vast, a stunning portrait of a world filled with magic and possibility told through the eyes of the morally questionable. Ultyimately about family, both real and found, Amina surprised me with her tenacity and I can't wait to see how the rest of her adventures unfurl.

The Adventures of Anima al-Sirafi is the beginning of a series following a retired pirate's journey back out to the waters. After being offered a job she can not refuse, Amina rounds up her crew to rescue the daughter of a former crewman. As Amina adventures more, she discovers there is a lot more to this job than she anticipated.

There is a good array of characters in Amina's crew. My personal favourite was Reshk, Anima's demon (maybe ex) husband. He is a sassy, self-preserving coward who I found fun to read about. It has good world-building, based around Africa and Asia with a lot of folklore I was unfamiliar with.

On Amina's adventure, as a reader, you will learn, 'the first law of seafaring is that if something can go wrong, it will.'

Overall, I really enjoyed The Adventures of Anima al-Sirafi. If you like stories about pirates, magical artefacts, and other worlds, this is a book for you.

Amina Al-Sirafi is head hunted by an elderly woman who asks her to find her kidnapped Grandaughter Dunya. The woman has ties to Amina's old crew member and Amina feeling guilty over the death of her son reluctantly agrees to come out of her retirement to find Dunya. Setting off Amina gathers her old crew and ship, for what she hopes will be one final adventure. Things however don't go very smoothly and Amina soon finds that the man whom is suspect for kidnapping Dunya named Falco has also been searching for Amina, Falco's old associate reveals that Dunya's disappearance is not as straightforward as she had been lead to believe and that Dunya is working with Falco.

When Amina runs into her (ex-?) husband, who happens to also be a demon that she married accidentally the mission starts to go wayward.

This is another solid book from Shannon Chakraborty, the woman has created a fantastic world and produces another book filled with wonderful characters. The author writes Characters that wish you love, you also hate and it brings some nice realism into the storyline as they are all equally flawed in one way or another. This book was a solid 5 stars for me. I would recommend checking out the City of Brass series before reading this book as you are likely to get more out of the story line and the crossovers that occur. This will also help those who find the book a little confusing towards the end of the book as 'City of Brass' has a back story to the Daevas, history and explains the magic structure. Reading City of brass however is not necessary to understand the story line of this book.

This book is essentially told as a story, so at the beginning you have a mysterious narrator who we learn very little from and introduces Amina to tell her story. Occasionally get glimpses into conversation that Amina has to the 'offscreen' narrator, but you only ever see her response to questions that she asks the narrator, but it becomes clear that this individual is somehow involved in the story. I liked this as it added a certain mysterious element to the book.

I loved the character of Amina and how she is portrayed as a more mature adult with responsibilities and a daughter, but also someone who has had quite an adventurous past. Amina is not afraid to bend the rules to suit and in my eyes she is quite a strong female character. I loved the diverse crew and the interactions between the characters are down right hilarious. Whilst these characters are a little older than characters in books I typically read, I didn't mind as the story wasn't any less enjoyable and there were even jokes made toward some of the characters ailing bodies! This book was filled with plenty of action and was set at a pace that was fast, even if jokingly some of the characters weren't.

The book is clearly part of a series and there is more to be told in Amina's journey, however the book didn't end on a cliff hanger which I loved. There are questions still left unanswered at the end of the book, but the plot isn't left dangling in the air which is rare for books published nowadays. Overall I'd highly recommend this book, as its just so good!!