The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi ♦ Shannon Chakraborty | Review

I must honestly say that I had never heard of author Shannon Chakraborty before reading this book. Her well-known book series The Daevabad Trilogy also completely passed me by. But meanwhile it was allowed to move into my shelf. The reason for this is The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi which I got in an Exclusive Edition by FairyLoot.



The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi ♦ Shannon Chakraborty

Opinion

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty is an adventurous and entertaining high-seas journey with courageous lady pirates, demon husbands, poisoners, some magic, sea monsters, and a cast of endearing characters. The author conjured up such a breathtaking historical and mythical setting, that it didn’t take me long to be drawn into the story.

I loved how strong, but also with flaws the main character Amina al-Sirafi came around. She sure was a pirate and definitely a good one once. It could feel her struggles to go on another adventures but leaving her little girl behind. I enjoyed how she reunited with her most trusted inner circle of her crew and stormed out onto the wide-open sea to save another young woman from her biggest mistake.

While reading, I often had the feeling I’m actually living in this adventure on the broad seas, I could feel salty wind in my hair. The dark fantasy elements, such as demons and sea monsters, in a somewhat medieval Indian Ocean setting combined with diverse characters and multiple religious backgrounds made me devour the book. I could never tell what the next twist and uncovered mystery would bring and to where this group of adventurers would set sail to.

As much as I enjoyed the plot in its whole, I had a bot of a hard time with the last quarter of the book. The weird magic and discovered sea monsters seemed a bit forced to get a bit more tension in the action. Especially the weird feathered creatures were too much for me. I think a different explanation of how Amina could have survived would have irritated me less.

Conclusion

But the overall package of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi was terrific, and the book was able to carry me away and inspire me. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for the next volume because I am sure Amina and her crew still have some fantastic adventures ahead of them.


This review was first published at The Art of Reading. ( )

A light-hearted romp, which reads a bit as if Mary Read (or Ann Bonney) took the lead role in a Harryhausen-inspired version of Sinbad.

The eponymous heroine is a Yemeni smuggler retired from the sea who is blackmailed by a rich woman into recovering her grand-daughter. Her father just happened to be part of Amina's crew before his death, and Amina felt guilty enough at his death to accept the job (the money for doing so didn't hurt either). Based on the Indian ocean trade routes, the story rattled along, and was reasonably historically accurate.

I liked this much better than The City of Brass (which disappointed me enough and so far has not inspired me to read the others in the series).

Light, but recommended.

This is a fun read. I appreciated the authenticity of the setting, it was unusual to read something deliberately set about 1200 years ago. There is a ton of action and fascinating magic to this and the main character is engaging and interesting. While this is essentially a standard fantasy story, there were a lot of unique elements and flavor. ( )

the rumors were true. Passed the 50% mark and was consumed. I love this crew and this lush world so, so much. ( )

Reason read: I read this one for a fantasy read.
The story is of pirates, motherhood, magic, religion, etc
Its a mix of stuff and does have "bases covered" basically skillfully into the story but not fully and the story would have been just as good if not better without trying to dot i's and cross ts. Overall the story is of a young mother, former pirate that is bribed into searching for a grandmother's missing granddaughter. And then the adventure begins. It is engaging and it reads as if this is just one of a series. probably 5 books if I were to guess. Would I read more. No probably not. Not because the stories wasn't engaging but because I don't lean toward series but I the book fits the moment, I might. Rating 3.4 ( )