Quite simply this is one of the best books I've read in 2023. The aspect that captured my full interest right off the start was the fact that this book isn't about some 20-something year old woman having adventures in the prime of her life. This is a grown 40 year old woman who has lived and has had adventures and sets off to have another. It's refreshing to read about a character who is a bit older.

The book was funny, witty, and adventurous; all the things I was promised and looked forward to in reading. It was paced well, the plot was interesting, and the scenes the author painted made it feel like I was standing in the world with our characters.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is the swashbuckling tale of a middle-aged pirate who comes out of retirement for one last quest at the promise of unimaginable riches. This book has everything you want in a pirate adventure: fantastical monsters, magical treasures, and a delightful rag-tag crew. I had an absolute blast reading it and can’t wait for the next one!

I am still in the midst of reading this book and am currently 63% into it. I will update my review when I finish this book, but the thoughts and ratings I am giving it now are for the chunk I have read so far.

Amina is very hyped, and I was excited to jump onto the hype train with this book. I have previously read City of Brass by Shannon Chakraborty and I did struggle with it for the most part and put it down for years, but about a year ago, I picked it up again on audio and found that I enjoyed it. When seeing The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi on NetGalley, I decided to request it to see how this book may differ from her other books.

Amina has an amazing premise, and the character (Amina) is very mysterious and makes the reader want to know more about her. However, I felt like it was hard connecting with Amina and with how Amina narrates the story, it makes it hard to connect with the world since the writing feels more like telling than showing. It makes the writing feel really dry and makes it hard for one to become immersed with the story.

I found myself lacking a connection with Amina was because she is a one-dimensional character with bare minimum character development. This could be just because it is her telling the events of our story.

The books pacing was odd with it starting off slow, then picking up, and slowing down again. I feel like if the pacing did not lag a lot and it not being Amina telling the events of her story, then the stakes would be way higher and exciting.

Shannon Chakraborty writes very well and has a great pose, but due to the issues listed above it just made me feel indifferent to this book and making me not being super excited to pick up my book to finish it.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is well written and has a great premise, but it falls flat. In the words of Taylor Swift: "it isn't love, it isn't hate, it's just indifference."

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book. The main star is, of course, the protagonist Amina. Reading a fantasy story through the eyes of a middle-aged Muslim pirate, who is also a mother, was a very unique and enjoyable experience. Amina was a great, well-fleshed out character who was exciting to follow and felt incredibly real.

I have never read Chakraborty's other fantasy series, so I have nothing to compare this book to. However, The first half of this book was mainly set-up, and it felt a little boring until around the 45% mark where the actual adventure finally gets underway. An overall enjoyable read, but I feel like it could've been shorter and told at a faster pace to keep the reader's interest.

An absolute delight from start to finish. Yet another tale of a GROWN WOMAN doing cool shit; I am so here for it. The only fly in my champagne was that aside from a mention of the time period at the beginning, it could have taken place at any time in the “distant past.” As a Middle Eastern textiles historian, I kept looking for specifics about the 12th c., and didn’t find any. Eliminating that one reference would make this a perfect book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2023! I read the Daevabad trilogy last year and it quickly became one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. So it made me very happy to know that Chakraborty was writing another book plus within this book, there were small Easter eggs for the Daevabad trilogy.

This book had everything; pirates, an evil sorcerer, a strong female character, LGBTQ characters, adventure, magical creatures, found family, and the lore that I have come to expect for Chakraborty. Amina was very different from the Daevabad trilogy but no less enjoyable.

I will always recommend this authors books to people. You will not be disappointed.

This is one of those novels where I am glad there is a second novel coming! I feel as though every character that is in this novel is 100% necessary and that the climax and ending really did make me feel like they mattered and it wasn't "just because of main character syndrome" if you know what I mean. I think Amina's adventures are amazing and she gets herself into shit, but pulls herself out so so quickly. She is my top 5 favorite protagonists as she is just honest, funny and quick-witted. The world was so atmospheric and for this to have been my first SA Chakraborty novel, it has definitely set the bar high for her others. The pirates and the magical creatures and just everything that is encompassed in this novel just make my heart happy thinking about it again. Would 100% recommend this to anyone.

I love Chakraborty's Daevabad Trilogy, so I obviously leapt to read something new from her. I like this new direction she has taken, leaning less heavily into fantasy than she did in Daevabad, while still incorporating the fantastical.

Amina al-Sirafi is a great character. She is a no-nonsense ship's captain, who has retired to spend more time with her family (and avoid some parts of her past). A mysterious visitor pulls her back out onto the high seas for an adventure that does not go the direction she expects it to.

While Amina is a great character and narrator, there are no shortage of great characters in this book. Each one is so vibrantly written, with secondary and tertiary characters feeling as real as the Amina herself. Chakraborty has also created a amazing world for these characters to exist in, steeped in historical detail and peppered with fantasy. The latter is where she really shines in her writing, and I found those parts of the world to be more developed and more intersting.

I struggled a bit with the book in the first 1/4. I am not sure if it was my own disjointed reading or being launched into a completely new world. I think in part I needed a bit more world building, which is always hard with a first-person narration. Once I settled into the book, though, I was hooked and had a hard time setting it down.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing where the rest of the trilogy goes!

Realy enjoyed this book and I think it will have a good audience at my library. Definitely will be ordering.

this book was good! i loved the pirate aspects, and even though i haven't read shannon chakraborty's first works, i'm definitely excited to now because this book was full of adventure, mischief, and hilarity that i want in a book.

The best part of this book is the main character. She will be easy to sell. She's older, wiser, a mom and just unlike most heroes out there. This book is very different from the author's last series, but it has a lot of potential. This particular book was slow to get started for me, and if not for my great love for the author, I may have quit. I'm glad I stuck with it. About 70% in, the action picked up, I began to enjoy the characters more, and now I feel set up for the next adventure. I look forward to book two!

overall, this was a solid book. I enjoyed the characters and their histories and loved how dimensional each of the characters were. My main issue is that I didn’t love the storyline and the main cause for the adventure. I also don’t have the pull to continue the series. 3.5 stars rounded up

4.5 Stars rounded down, a unique tale of adventure in your third act featuring a middle-aged female adventurer

A great fun adventure romp, full of pirates, magic, evil sorcerers, exotic locations, romance, djinni, grudges, and a happily ever after(-ish). It's set in a medieval Indian Ocean, a melting pot of people and cultures. Amina al-Sirafi is a middle-aged mother of a cute ten-year-old, retired from a life as one of the most notorious pirates in the Indian Ocean. She's "invited" out for one last job by a rich woman from Aden, to rescue her granddaughter, kidnapped by a "Frank" (European). The plot then rattles along at a good pace, with events snowballing believeably into something far more complicated and dangerous than we first thought. The characters come across as real people, with their own personalities and in many cases a shared history that is often mentioned in passing, rather than through laborious exposition. The writing's good, with enough description to give good mental images of places, without getting bogged down. I liked that a lot of Chakraborty's storytelling choices are outside the typical range. The main character is a middle-aged woman who's competent but not invulnerable. The story is told from the point of view of the people of the western Indian Ocean, and celebtates their cosmopolitan makeup. The only European in the mix, Falco, is most definitely not a white saviour! One to read. It's a great ripping yarn, and I'm looking forward to the clearly-signposted next installments of the series.

This was SO good. I LOVED Amina Al-Sirafi, badass pirate and adventurer and also a 40-something-year-old mom. She wanted to stay home with her daughter and keep her safe, but she also craved adventure, and she spent a lot of the book trying to reconcile the two desires.

The characters were wonderful. Amina, of course, but also her chaos demon ex and her group of friends and former shipmates (deadly and interesting in their own rights) and the mysterious Jamal who is chronicling the story.

The adventure was rollicking and fantastical and of course every solution led Amina and her friends further from their safe lives and deeper into trouble.

I LOVED seeing through the eyes of a middle-aged Muslim mother -- who is also a pirate. It made everything new and fresh and enhanced the story so much. Because those aren't just descriptors - Amina's age and daughter and faith came into play in every decision she made. It's part of what made her feel so fleshed-out and real as a character.

The story is thick with magic and eventually you don't question it - you just go with it. I loved seeing all the magical creatures and beings and learning about them. One of my favorite things about reading diverse books is the exposure to legends and myths and magical creatures I am not familiar with.

I listened to the audiobook and it made everything even more magical and immersive. The narrators used different voices for each character and really made them come alive. I especially liked having one narrator for the story and one for the historical / chronicler sections.

I also really enjoyed how the narrator leaned away from the mic and muffled her voice when Amina was 'arguing' with Jamal about how the story should be told.

This is one I will definitely reread and I can't wait for a sequel!

*Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing an early copy for review.

Having never heard of this author before, I went into reading this book with zero expectations. To my delight, I was rewarded with a fantastic adventure tale full of pirates, djinn, sorcerers, and spectacular creatures. By far the best part was the heroine, a middle-aged woman with a sharp tongue who used to be a greatly feared pirate and is now finding a new place in the world.

I also loved the queer people represented in the story as well as the terrific descriptions of Muslim beliefs and Arab seafaring. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Lameece Isaaq and Amin El Gamal, who both did a wonderful job; Isaaq in particular brought Amina to life with plenty of emotion and depth to her delivery. If you do listen to the audiobook, the publisher has a pdf on their website with a glossary and bibliographic references.

The end of this book clearly sets up a sequel and I would be happy to read more. I would also be happy to read Chakraborty’s earlier trilogy.

I will read anything S. A. Chakraborty writes. Her worlds are so fully realized, so lush and rich with details, I never want to leave. Her characters are all well-developed and deeply interesting.

3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4. Overall I enjoyed this book, though I read it very casually. I wasn't as gripped as I expected to be for being a fantasy pirate adventure.
I always love a good strong female character though and thought it was well written with solid descriptions and great fantasy beasts.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi was an incredible ride! I loved her relationships with her daughter, mother, and crew. The banter and jokes had me laughing out loud at times. This story of a female pirate pulled out of retirement and away from her family kept me engaged from start to finish. High adventure, magic, pirates, magical creatures, high stakes, and LOVE. This was a great book, and I'm so happy to have read it. I will recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy and adventure. I new beforehand that Chakraborty has very clever characters and dialogue, which drew me to the book in the first place, and I'm so glad it did.

I LOVED this book! If you find yourself wanting to read a book with that "classic fantasy" vibe but set in a completely new and different setting, you will also LOVE this book! I found this book so refreshing and so easy to read. The world building was easy to jump right into. I did about half e-book and half audio and would HIGHLY recommend the audio. The narration is wonderful and the little fourth-wall breaks are so fun.

Chakraborty has created a diverse, deeply feminist historical fantasy that is heartfelt and passionate while celebrating motherhood, faith, and magic. But at its heart, this book is a fantastically enjoyable read with the most lovable mismatched crew.

Thank you SO much to Avon and Harper Voyager for the advanced copy! The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is OUT NOW!