Title: The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi (#1)
Author: Shannon Chakraborty
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: 2023
Format: Hardcover Print
Length: 483 pages

Rating:

Shannon Chakraborty is a master of fantasy. She creates such epically intricate worlds with fantastic and loveable characters, and I’m convinced she can’t write a bad book. I just finished the Daevabad trilogy this year, so when I heard that she had a new book coming in 2023, it didn’t matter to me what it was about, I knew I absolutely had to read it. It lived up to every expectation I had and then some.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi was an absolute ride. It’s set in a range of ports on the medieval Indian Ocean, with a cast of diverse characters from all walks of life, many of whom are grasping at what may be their last adventures as seasoned, middle-aged pirates. Amina herself is a refreshingly authentic character as both an aging retiree and mother, bringing a depth of life experience and emotion to her role that I find is sometimes lacking in fantasy novels focused on younger heroines. The book was exquisitely written, infused with far more humour and wit than I expected, and the dense plot moved quickly.

I simply cannot say enough good things about this book. It’s easily one of my favourite books of the year so far, with one of my favourite heroines of all time.

Fair warning: spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn’t read this book.

The Book: The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi begins with a scribe named Jamal who is introducing Amina Al-Sirafi as a pirate of great renown and legend. While Jamal beings by setting the scene through the fantastic stories of Amina’s past, the narrative shifts throughout the story between Amina narrating herself, and the scribe providing relevant historical and/or other accounts to provide greater context to the events.

After establishing Amina as an epic nakhudha, or sea captain, the story then shifts to Amina’s perspective, where she provides a different interpretation of the swash-buckling pirate that people see her as. Now a middle-aged mother who is ten years retired from life at sea, Amina is not particularly focused on those glory days; instead, she’s entrenched in the more universal issues that we all face as we age: aches and pains from past injuries, concern over whether or not she’s made enough to be able to maintain retirement and provide for her family, and reflecting on the mistakes and missteps of her past. While her legend may be great, and Amina herself can admit to many an adventure, they seem to be long gone from her day-to-day. Her focus is now more directly on ensuring that her past transgressions don’t endanger her family and that her daughter has enough stability to thrive.

Despite Amina’s retirement, her legend is enough to attract the attention of a wealthy senior citizen named Salima from the metropolis of Aden. Salima arrives at Amina’s house (which is a closely guarded secret, making her arrival very disconcerting) unannounced to ask that she undertake one last job: finding her kidnapped granddaughter, Dunya. While the woman initially attempts to sway Amina through adventure alone, Amina doesn’t bite and she quickly turns to blackmail, telling her that if she does not assist, she will ensure every enemy she has ever made will know exactly where to find her family. She offers Amina a small fortune to take on the task, enough that Amina and her family would be secure for generations, but gives her no room to refuse. While Amina is exceptionally angry and disturbed that Salima, a woman of wealth, has this level of control over her, she is nonetheless a little excited about the prospect that she may get one final adventure. She reluctantly agrees, giving Salima four months worth of her time to find her granddaughter. After that, she vows she will return to her family regardless of the results.

When Amina leaves to begin her quest to find Dunya, she first assembles her old crew from their various retirements. As she’s collecting her friends, it becomes clear that their departure from each other occurred after a particularly devastating adventure that resulted in the death of a companion. While it’s unclear how he died, it is evident that Amina feels guilt about the loss, putting much blame on her most recent ex-husband, Raksh. Her retirement had been a means of escaping the events of that fateful night, but as she reunites with her former crew, she begins to realize that not everyone had wished to cut ties and make a clean break the way that she had. In fact, her friends had missed her a great deal, and while they’d begrudgingly accepted retirement, they are as keen for an adventure as she is.

Once assembled, Amina and her misfit crew embark on an epic adventure that will see them face the seas, the supernatural, a murderous Frank, and a whole host of magical creatures and objects. If Amina Al-Sirafi was a legend before, it is nothing compared to what she will become as they encounter stuff of pure mythology. Their quest will require them to face their murky pasts head-on and much more than simple pirate skills if they wish to save Dunya and escape with their lives.

The Review

I loved everything about this book, beginning with the epic setting and dense plot. I don’t know that I’ve ever actually read a book about pirates before, but Chakraborty did such a beautiful job of weaving together the melting pot of cultures and customs that one would find in such a setting, and really made the life and adventures of these people feel real. There was seldom a long stretch without something exciting happening, and the narrative became more and more intricate as the novel went on without losing speed.

I loved how magic was represented and incorporated, it was so balanced and logical. There was also a lot of humour woven into the narrative, which I had not been expecting, but I really enjoyed. Humour isn’t something I would have characterized in Chakraborty’s writing before, but it was so present here in such a witty, clever way that there were times when I was smiling to myself or even found myself laughing out loud.

Beyond being an action-packed pirate and magic-filled ride, the Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi was also a beautiful exploration of what it means to be a middle-aged woman and mother. Amina is fierce and cunning and wickedly ambitious, and watching her attempt to balance this very non-traditional approach to her life with what is expected of her, with her responsibilities to her family, felt so timeless and authentic. She’s refreshingly real for a fantasy heroine, with flaws and human emotions and weaknesses. She’s probably one of my favourite female leads of all time. The way she embodied power without losing her softness was invigorating, I constantly cheered her on.

Amina was also an excellent vehicle for demonstrating how women are often perceived in history, and how their stories can be rewritten or misinterpreted to fit whatever mold we deem more appropriate. She showed the power the storyteller or historian has over our perceptions, especially if those controlling the narrative were men or people of means or, worst of all, both. At one point, this is really starkly demonstrated through a powerful exchange between Amina and Salima. Salima was willing to destroy Amina and everyone she loved, willing to use the rumours and stories that she’d only heard second or third-hand, to ensure Amina did her bidding. It didn’t matter that Amina didn’t want any involvement, that she only wanted to support her family in honest ways, and that she wasn’t the monster of legend (at least not in the most dramatic of scopes). Her ability to control her own life was inherently limited by her gender and status. The rage she felt during the exchange is palpable, it made my heart beat faster because I was outraged for her, yet despite all her strength and power, she still was forced to submit. But, despite this, she does work to choose her own terms, to carve her own path forward, and I appreciated her resilience and her willingness to do what she had to do to protect those she loved. Amina as a character broke through boundaries and stereotypes of what a typical Muslim woman of the time was expected to be, of what any woman of the time was expected to be, and she persevered through whatever circumstances were thrown her way. I loved that she was who she was without apology until the very end.

I also LOVED that there was a Daevabad tie-in. I won’t say anything specific because I don’t want to be responsible for too significant of a spoiler but am I ever happy Chakraborty decided to revisit the character that she did. I had always felt like there could be so much more to it’s story and I’m so excited to see where it goes from here.

This was just such a fantastic book for me. Chakraborty can do no wrong, and I am SO excited to see where this series goes from here. There was so much potential, and so much set-up for an epic continuation, I’m only sad that we’ll likely need to wait a while to see it.