S. A Chakraborty is a Fantasy author most known for the Daevabad Trilogy, Adventures of Amina is her latest novel.
“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.”
I started reading this book as part of my local town’s Waterstones Fantasy Book Club. It isn’t something I would normally pick up as I have too much to read to “experiment!”In this case, however, I am glad this book was on the list for the club as I got to read it. I am told you don’t need to have read the previous trilogy to read this, they are based in the same world from what I understand but are their own stories.
It does go to say that it is a bit of a slow burn for the first half of the book as the cast is brought together in readiness for the adventures to really kick off. I also struggled at the beginning as I do not know much about the culture but if you stick with this book this soon passes and is great for the story.
This is a book full of culture and rich world-building, as I was reading I felt I was learning more about the areas where this book is located. It did take me a while to guess the time period of when the book was based. I also found it a little jarring at the beginning when it was switching between the narrators. There was also a section where the narrator is talking to someone else narrating and this took me out of the story and isn’t something I like too much. But saying that it certainly didn’t detract from the amazing story. I really liked the character of Amina and I found her to be a strong woman who has had an interesting life and is looking for peace with her daughter and yet at the same time dreaming of being back out on the sea. I loved the character of Raksh and feel there is a lot more to tell of his tale, the interactions with Amina were fantastic. There is a bit of a found family feel to the beginning of the book as the gang is brought back together, but this is something I enjoyed. The fantasy element of the book comes later, but once they start the pace is great and the adventure pulls you along to the brilliant climax.
It is a really good book and an immersive story, if you read it please fight on if you are feeling its slow as it really kicks into gear about halfway through.
You can purchase The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi from your local Bookshop supporting indie bookshops is important and something I am very in favor of. I like nothing more than to browse physical books. Or if you want you can shop at your local Waterstones, or online at Amazon
