The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty

[rachelmanija]

In a magical version of the medieval Middle East, a middle-aged single mom, who was once the notorious pirate Amina al-Sirafi, is dragged out of retirement for one final job.

This book is a complete and utter delight from start to finish. It has all the pirate tropes you could possibly want - sea battles! sea monsters! quests for magical objects! loyal crews! tossed overboard! marooned! - and sly twists on others. It's got great characters. It's got hilarious dialogue and character interactions. The world is wonderfully detailed and varied, full of plausible historical details and with a lovely faux-historical feel. There are stories within stories. It's all marvelous.

As a child, I had a book called Muslim Saints and Mystics, which was a translation of parts of the Tazkirat al-Awliyā, a collection of stories about Muslim saints written around 1200. It was funny and magical, and some of the stories-within-stories in Amina al-Sirafi have a similar feel. The novel neatly toes the line between dialogue that feels fairly contemporary and a plausibly historical mindset. Amina is horny as hell, but a serious Muslim who believes in not having sex before marriage; as a result, she's had five husbands. There's a major trans character, in addition to several gay characters; Amina has come across people before who prefer to live as the other sex, and takes it in stride without resorting to Tumblr-esque labels or attitudes.

I loved every moment of this book, and was delighted that though it has a reasonable ending, it is the start of a trilogy. It's the first book I've read by Chakraborty, and I'm excited to read her City of Brass series.



I love the hallucinatory vividness of her stay on the island of the devas. It reminded me of the cartoon Scavengers Reign.

I love Raksh, all her interactions with Raksh, the beating heart around his neck, his bafflement by humans and their ways, and how he's not a jinn but something much stranger. I was literally howling with laughter at Amina's attempts to get a divorce.

I love that her whole crew made deals with Raksh!

[dramatic] "A washbasin."

Comments

[swan_tower]

Just to set expectations, I ended up leaving off the Daevabad Trilogy after two books because near the end of the second book, I laughed at a line of dialogue, then realized that was the first even vaguely amusing thing I recalled seeing in the entire book, and possibly the previous one as well. It does not have the energy and humor of this one; the characters are Very Serious about their Very Serious Situation basically all the time. (Me, I prefer stories that incorporate the ways people use humor to cope with bad stuff.)

[rachelmanija]

Darn! I loved how funny this book was.

[offcntr]

Yeah, that was me too. In fact, I bailed out earlier, about the time of the magical plague/genocide thingy. This one was way more fun.

[pauraque]

I can't wait for the sequel to this.

[rachelmanija]

Me neither!

[sabotabby]

God I need to read this.

[rachelmanija]

It's so good. You will love it.

[yuuago]

Whoo, this sounds awesome! I'm going to have to give it a try.

[sartorias]

This sounds great!

[landofnowhere]

Amina is horny as hell, but a serious Muslim who believes in not having sex before marriage; as a result, she's had five husbands.

... so basically she's the Muslim version of the Wife of Bath? :-D

[chestnut_pod]

Wasn't it so fun?? I was a little trepidatious about this one, because I had to give up on her prior trilogy at the second book due to Dullness, but there was SO MUCH buckle and swash! Amina is a fantastic character; I love her.

[rachelmanija]

I love her too.

I am dismayed that you're the second person here who DNF'd her earlier trilogy in book two.

[swan_tower]

We may hope she continues on more in this direction!

[chestnut_pod]

I am more than willing to give Amina Book 2 a second swing at it! I figure every author surely has some growing pains.

[rachelmanija]

I'm sure Amina 2 will be great. I was just really looking forward to her other books.

[swan_tower]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found the trilogy was getting just . . . grindy.

[chomiji]

I slogged through all three, but the series did not Spark Joy. I have never been tempted to re-read it.

[genarti]

Yessss, isn't it fun? I LOVED how much it felt like Amina inhabited a medieval world, and how it upended my sense of geography by having the sea as the center and everything inland of ports be a sort of hazy mystery land. And I LOVED that she's tall and strong and middle-aged and a single mother who lives with her own mom even though they clash sometimes. It's just such a romp!

[greenwoodside]

I enjoyed both Amina and the Daevabad trilogy, though they are pretty different in tone. The first Daevabad book felt as if it was leaning a bit too much into YA for my tastes, but I persevered and found it got more gripping and less YA as the trilogy went on.

Just want Amina Book 2 now...

[profiterole_reads]

I haven't had the chance to read it yet. So many books, so little time!

[marjorie1170]

I haven't read this author, but just to note that I have a few family members who appeared to love the City of Brass series and zipped right through them. So a success for some readers!

[schneefink]

I enjoyed this book a lot, and I really look forward to book 2! One of my favorite parts was her crew, they were great.

The Daevabad trilogy is very different in tone, and much less funny, but I enjoyed it too.

[cahn]

Oh yeaaah this was such a fun book!! I loved that the pirate was a middle-aged single mom! (Raksh, lol!)