The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is an impeccable read. The audio narration is riveting, but the story is exquisite. I felt like a kid, wanting to hide and read so I could find out what happened next. This is brilliant storytelling.

3.75/5 Stars

Adventure! Swashbuckling pirates! Deals with a demon and mystical creatures on the high seas! I have never read a historically accurate pirate fantasy novel before, but wow what a way to start! This book was jam-packed with historical details, great characters, adventure, and plenty of action.

The cast of characters was varied and interesting. Each person was unique and I enjoyed their relationships with Amina, but I wish we had gotten more interactions with each other without Amina being the subject- though I know it's her book and that's why she gets the page time.

My only complaint was the slightly meandering plot. I do feel as if it could have been shorter or more concise and the whole story still be just as meaningful. Also, I wish the ending didn't feel quite so abrupt, even with the setup for another possible book.

Overall, it was a good story, good characters and a fun premise but got a little lost in the sauce at times.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this Audiobook, and as always my review will be genuine.

What an absolutely delightful story of everything I didn’t know I needed. I knew this was fantasy but wasn’t sure how far into the fantasy realm it was going to be. I was very pleasantly surprised.

Bad ass female pirate who balances being a mother with her own identity, wants and goals, monsters, supernatural beings, Oooh la la.

Amina makes for an excellent protagonist. You don’t love everything about her, but she is real, strong-willed, and is just out there trying to do her best. The mix of historical details paired with the normal delights of fantasy was decadent and delicious. There were a few points I wanted the pace to pick up, but ultimately I couldn’t stop listening. The audiobook expertly felt like I was sitting around a fire listening to Amina’s story which was another wonderful aspect that I’d highly recommend.

I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment and can’t wait to do a reread, a relisten and absorb even more know that I’m not desperately waiting to hear what happens next. 10/10 would recommend. But at this point I’ll read anything she writes even if it’s a menu.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for the advanced copy.

I’m going to make this short and sweet: get a copy of this book as soon as it comes out, especially if you’re in a reading rut. This book will reignite your passion for reading via Chakraborty’s sorry, not sorry, female pirate. I’m already recommending it to all my friends and colleagues (I work at a library) to share with everyone they know. I’m not one for pirates and sea battle stuff but now I’m all in? Yup, this book was THAT good.

I just finished listening to the 17-hours-long audiobook and am so excited about the potential for more stories in this universe! I absolutely loved the book! The main character, Amina, is just what I want from a female lead: she is a badass who does not suffer fools, but is also thoughtful, courageous, strong, daring, smart, and loving. I very much liked the interactions with her crew. No one in this story was perfect but the crew really cared for each other and was a lovely found family. The supernatural elements were fascinating! I also enjoyed the humor sprinkled throughout the book with the brief bits of dialogue between Amina and the scribe. These little interludes were used so effectively in the audiobook! I feel the audio format worked really well for these tales that were supposed to be told orally by Amina herself. I am interested to learn more about the sailors in this area and will definitely check out the historical references mentioned in the author’s note. I do very much hope there will be more books coming regarding Amina’s next adventures. I would love to come back and hear many more of her tales!

Thank you to HarperAudio and Netgally for this ARC.
Easily one of my favorite books I’ve read in 2023. This is a funny, magical, and exciting story of Amina al-Sirafi as she goes on a quest to rescue an former friend’s daughter from a Frank. Along the way she meets up with old friends and chaos ensues.
There were so many parts to love. Amina’s relationship with her daughter is so heartwarming. Her daughter is never far from her mind and she is determined to create a safe life for her. I found her relationship with her fourth husband to be entertaining and so interesting. The more I learned about his past, the more I enjoyed him. But the best part of this story may just be the friendships between Amina and her old shipmates. They felt like a family and treated each other with such love and respect.
I also loved the different aspects of religion and how they interacted within the story. Many on the characters were Muslim or Christian and all of the characters respected each other’s faith.
The different magic and magical creators and being kept the story enticing to read. I never knew what was going to happen next.
I loved the way the author handled the conversations with a trans character. I cried happy tears at the end because of this character, but I do not want to say too much in case of spoils.
Overall, I thought this was an incredibly entertaining fantasy with lovable characters and a exciting, inventive plot. I was able to listen to the audiobook arc and it was such a delight. The narrators do a fantastic job. I would highly recommend this book to people who enjoy fantasy and also to those wanting to start reading more adult fantasy.

A wonderful adventure with great characters and a diverse, unique, and fresh take on nautical fantasy. Really excited for the sequel!

*This audiobook was absolutely incredible, and the narrators brought the story to life in a way that immersed me in the story. Lameece Issaq, you stole my heart with your performance of Dalila (and of course, Amina). Kudos!

Chakraborty’s Daevabad trilogy is one of my favorite series of all time (have you read The City of Brass yet?), and when I heard that she was publishing something new, I was incredibly excited. While THE ADVENTURES OF AMINA AL-SARAFI is a sharp pivot in tone, atmosphere, and character, the journey is no less captivating; the world created no less magical.

Motherhood has deeply impacted who I am as a person—I even wrote about it in my annual review for work. Therefore, it’s no surprise that it has also altered the lens through which I view literature. This book is a love letter to motherhood and womanhood, but it is written in such a way that ensures widespread appeal. There were several passages that I highlighted because they perfectly captured the amalgam of feelings many women have as they struggle to balance who they are as a person in addition to who they are as a mother.

Unlike anything I've ever read before and filled with humor, heart, and wit, THE ADVENTURES OF AMINA AL-SARAFI will have a lasting place on my shelves. Additionally, the audiobook was phenomenal. I usually struggle to provide an audio recommendation when people ask for one, but no longer. The narrators did an INCREDIBLE job, and even though I was given an ALC, I will more than likely be purchasing a copy after publication because it’s just that good. A massive thank you to Harper Voyager and Harper Audio for the gifted copies in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

4.5 stars rounded up

A very promising start to a historical fantasy series! 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. But fate forces her back to sea in search of a missing young woman. And of course there are monsters, supernatural beings, an evil sorcerer, and magical artifacts! Not to mention the reappearance of the husband Amina hoped was dead. A husband who isn't human and doesn't know about their 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. And she's trying to be a better Muslim as well. With mixed success. I'm loving this mini-trend of writing older women and mothers as main characters in fantasy novels. It's an entertaining adventure that infuses a lot of real historical detail, plus we get a trans side character and I liked how it handled the issue of gender identity. (note that I'm not trans myself, so I will be looking to hear from trans reviewers on this)

There were parts of the book that dragged a little for me, and I think this is a bit more plot driven than what I prefer and more of a character reader. But overall I really enjoyed this and love the ship-board family Amina has cobbled together. I will certainly read on in the series. The audiobook is mostly quite good, also there are a handful of asides that are recorded in a way that makes them muffled and hard to hear. I think this was an artistic choice, but it could have been done better. I received an audio review copy of this book via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is the best audiobook I’ve listened to in a long time. Not only is the storytelling fantastic, but the narration blew me away! I typically have a tough time following an audiobook without my kindle or a physical copy to read along with, but I was easily able to keep up with this one! The book is delivered in a way where the reader is made aware that they’re being told a story of the great Amina and her adventures, with Amina opening chapters conversing with the scribe who is documenting. I found that to be so creative. The characters were fantastic, the story interesting, and you know Chakraborty did her research and is genuinely passionate about this time period. Despite being more than 16 hours, this book did not feel long at all and I found myself really bummed out when it ended because I just wasn’t ready to leave these characters and this world. With that said, the story ends in a satisfying manner with no annoying cliffhanger ending and is perfectly set up for the series to continue. Can’t wait! Highly recommend to all fans of adventure fantasy. Get ready to love this hilarious middle-aged heroine.

Amina al-Sirafi just wants to leave her crazy pirating days behind and live in peace with her family. But when she gets an offer she just can't refuse, she goes on one last adventure to hopefully set her family up for the rest of their lives. But of course, this straightforward assignment to find a lost granddaughter turns into much more than Amina bargained for. Along with old friends and flames, will Amina succeed in her quest, and will she find who she is along the way?

As a huge Chakraborty fan, I was so looking forward to getting my hands on this title. The Daevabad trilogy is some of the best storytelling in the last decade. This story had her tell-tale fun, engaging storytelling, and great dialogue. I did find my mind wandering a bit in this story, and honestly don't have a lot of recollection of most of the details of this book, though I just finished it. I will most likely re-read this to hopefully gain some of the nuance that I know Chakraborty put into it.

Magical, adventurous, hilariously funny. This was a damn good time and honestly I book I can see sharing with my own family in the future for a sense of adventure and the fantastical.

The audiobook is truly, TRULY spectacular. I highly recommend that as the reading medium or reading this immersively because it brings the story and characters truly off the page.

Full review to come.

I'll admit, I went in to this audiobook having expectations - Shannon Chakraborty wrote one of my favourite series a few years ago (the Daevabad Trilogy), and I've always found it easy to recommend to others. Well, this book also hooked me from the beginning - I loved the middle aged large woman protagonist, former/current pirate having to get the gang back together to do one more heist (aka, search and rescue mission to find the child of a former shipmate.)

I think Chakraborty does a lot in her books - but I also think she does them all extremely well. It's funny, playful, semi-educational, and told from a perspective that doesn't always get centred. I thought the struggle of being a working parent and feeling both the freedom from and longing for wasn't belaboured, but nicely expressed. I enjoyed the queer rep, the themes of defying gender norms, the magic and the mayhem. The whole story is just very fun and engaging, and I look forward to any future adventures of Amina al-Sirafi.

Specifically to the narration - I loved the performance of the interview asides, I really felt like I was in the moment with them. I did play this at 2x, but that's my normal audiobook speed. Thanks to the publisher HarperAudio and Netgally for the opportunity to review this title and enjoy it a bit early.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi features a bad-ass middle-aged female pirate! What more is there to say? Sign me up!

This is a fast paced, fun, and often quite hysterical take on the conventional pirate adventure book. Chakraborty creates a lush world and a wide array of secondary characters. I loved the witty dialogue and Amina is the female MC we all need.

If you enjoy a lot of action, smart writing and giant squid like sea creatures, all with the theme of F the Patriarchy, this is for you!

This audiobook is well produced- the main narrator does a great job of bringing Amina to life and playing with the humor. The second narrator creates a great counterpoint from the male (More historical) point of view that works well. I enjoyed listening.

This audiobook was incredible, a totally new experience that truly felt like you were being taken to this world through the audio narrative. The story was engaging and lush with strong themes.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is the start of a new series by Shannon Chakraborty who is well known for her Daevabad Trilogy. This story follows the tale of a legend…after her glory days have past. Everyone knows the stories of the pirate, Amina al-Sirafi but no one knows the truth. When a very rich woman offers Amina the chance to do one last mission in exchange for a huge amount of money, Amina has to choose between staying home where it’s safe or risking everything for one last chance at glory.

Two things about me-I hate books set at sea and I love being proved wrong. So when I saw this arc available for request, I decided to take a chance on it and I’m so glad I did. This is a book that would surprise me if it doesn’t make it into my top books of the year! The narration style of the story is fantastic and coupled with the audiobook, I laughed out loud several times. The hijinks in this book are great. While there are some scenes that take place in the sea, it never bogs the story down like other pirate books I have read.

This book was exactly the fun time I needed. I love a heist story and this one had some unique concepts that makes it different than other books I have read with similar plot elements.

This book does have some religious elements that didn’t bother me as I am not super well versed in the intricacies surrounding being a Muslim in the time period of this book so I don’t know how good the representation is. Hopefully it is fantastic but I do look forward to reading some own voices reviews to see what they think!

I am so glad I listened to the audiobook version of this book. I would have missed some of the funny bits if I didn't! I really enjoyed this immersive tale of piracy, magic, demons, high-seas adventures and, of course, the main character, Amina Al-Sirafi. So glad this is going to be a series! I can't wait to read the next book :)

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced audiobook of this!

THIS WAS AMAZING! Though, to be fair, I expected nothing less from Shannon Chakraborty. I loved Amina al-Sirafi and her movements between reluctance to get back into the world and the clear signs of her ambition. Though my favorite thing about Amina?? Our heroine is 40 years old with a daughter! I love YA as much as the next person, but even adult fantasy tends to cast their main characters around 20 years old and it was a joy to read about someone who has already lived their adventurous life and who has so much experience under their belt. Her love for her daughter was really the driving force of her story and her adventure home. She also happened to marry a demon, have his child, and is trying to shelter that knowledge from him as he is a tentative companion on her journey....does it sound messy? It is but it is gloriously messy and full of smart dialogue and high stakes and wonderful scholarship. This was masterful and I have a feeling I will be re-reading this one within the next year. The audiobook was also stunning with Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal adding such a wonderful narrative for this book.

This was a FANTASTIC audiobook. When I read the physical ARC a few weeks back, I was unsure how an audiobook would follow the “interview” format some of the early chapters have, but the production team did a stellar job and the narrator knocked it out of the park by making it seem as if she was talking to another person and having frequent asides to them, even if the reader couldn’t hear them. I also thought that having different narrators reading the compiled notes and interviews that are between the “real” chapters of the book was very smart — not only did it break up the main story nicely, since it can sometimes be hard to tell how much time or chapters have passed in an audiobook, but it makes the world feel very lived-in.

Will certainly be recommending the audio version to patrons at my workplace.

-BELOW IS A SUMMARY OF THE BOOK - NOT AUDIOBOOK SPECIFIC, TAKEN FROM MY REVIEW ON THE PHYSICAL ARC-

THE ADVENTURES OF AMINA AL-SIRAFI is a high-seas adventure following the exploits of the notorious pirate Amina al-Sirafi as she's dragged out of retirement to settle a threat against her family. This did <b>not</b> read like a pirate book, but that didn't bother me as much as I thought it might (given the way this book was advertised). Instead, this reads like a mashup of a heist book, adventure novel (à la TREASURE ISLAND), demon-hunting quest, break-up story, and historical account all in one.

THE CONS (of which there are few, but they were early enough in the book to almost turn me away from reading): This book was trying to be too many things at one time. For the first 90-120 pages, I was contemplating putting it down pretty frequently. Though having Amina's background was necessary to understand her motivations, I thought the plot dragged on far too long, from her first encounter with Salima--who sets in motion the course of events of this book--to getting the crew back together to finally getting a lead on the whereabouts of their quarry. This book is long, so 100 pages of not-so-good material isn't the end of the world (it clocked in at 682 pages on my e-reader), but it is still a <em>long</em> time to go without being fully immersed in the story.

So. What saved it?

I felt like my entire outlook of the book shifted during one specific scene, and I went from being extremely so-so to extremely excited to see what was in store for us. (I will leave it at <em>silver coins</em>, in an effort to keep at least a little mystery to this book). In no time at all, the story jumped into action and kept me turning page after page until the very end. I was completely drawn in to Amina's journey, her crew, her (supposed-to-be-dead) husband, and the mythology surrounding the artifact at the center of so much bloodshed. In fact, I had such a good time reading the rest of the book that I forgave it for anything I'd disliked about it before, and that's ... pretty rare for me, haha.

I haven't read any of S.A. Chakraborty's previous works, and I'm not sure I will (because if they're this long, and they're a trilogy, when will I find the time???), but I immensely enjoyed myself throughout (the majority of) this book.

And since I'm making a conscious effort to evaluate books less on the technical or nitty-gritty pet peeves they irk in me this year and more on my enjoyment overall, this gets a full 5 stars from me! The first of 2023! You go, Amina al-Sirafi!

As an end note, I also loved the commentary on how much of Amina's notoriety comes from the simple fact that she's a woman stepping out of the traditional role in the society that she lives in, and though I found the in-between chapters where people tell their accounts of her or her compatriots largely unnecessary, I think they paint a fun picture of the way her legend spread versus the woman we actually meet and follow in the present day of the story. And! Raksh's annoyance at being considered a demon when he is much older than the concept, and his true origins having been lost to time so people box him in when he's a lot larger and mythical than even that. Things I'm hoping continue to come up in the sequel!

Thank you so much to Harper Audio for this advance listening copy of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. I really wanted to challenge myself to read/listen to books that are outside of my normal plots/genres and this book did not disappoint. Not only was the book itself wonderfully written and full of life, but the narrators were also so incredible and kept you on the edge of your seat. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi brings back pirates in an epic fantasy full of mystery, magic, and strong female characters that you'll root for from beginning to end. Her ambition and call for adventure made Amina one of my new favorite characters of all time. I highly recommend this book, especially as an audiobook, for my pirate and high fantasy lovers. You will not regret it one bit.