An absolute fun read for this one. I love the enchanting Islamicate setting that was said to set a thousand years before the Daevabad trilogy, quite thrilling too for the first book in the series. The first few chapters already struck me with an amazement of how the author can combined a story of motherhood and one’s faith to an action-filled adventure; of pirates and nautical exploration, stories of bravery, magic, myth and an appealing historical references in between.

Meet captain Amina al-Sirafi; the smuggler, the pirate, the blasphemer that men of letters accused of serving up human hearts for her sea-beast husband and the sorceress. After a heart-breaking tragedy and years of raising her daughter in the secluded Salalah, an unexpected guest came asking her to sail again with a million dinars in return for finding and saving a young girl that has been kidnapped by a Frank who was obsessed with treasure hunts. Gathering back her troops were easy much but the outcome later tied our nakhudha to a binded mission that might taken her own life away. From Aden to Mogadishu and the island of Socotra with a series of revenge and a sea-monster fight— this tale was too breathtakingly thrilled, stirringly hectic yet so absorbingly crafted.

The subplots were intense and intriguing much to me— of family dynamics (love Amina’s way of showing her love to Marjana), admirable friendship (love Dalila a lot— she was so mysterious and wicked!), gender conflicts as well on dreams and hope. The characters exposition was detailed, and I like how the prose was so flawlessly narrated, dreamy and mellow yet grippingly unputdownable. Mainly love all the characters and the immersive worldbuilding, the action part was massive and epic— glad that it was not ended with a cliffhanger although I need to know more about Raksh (and Khayzur, that was unforeseen?).

A recommendation if you’re into a page-burning fantasy-action; a great catch of adventure worthy plot that highlighted a strong heroine character, of marid vs mortal with a charming backdrop on medieval history. Would go with 4.3 stars to this!

Thank you Times Reads for sending me this amazing copy to review!

This book is fast paced, eventful, very fun to read, and you can tell Shannon Chakraborty did a lot of research while writing this. And it feels so good when you read a book that is well written and well researched.
This was a perfect summer read, it's also perfect if you want to be entertained by an adventurous book laced with magic and mythology, all with intriguing and VERY badass characters.
The story didn't dwindle for a bit, there were no slow moments, but it didn't feel crammed with events either, every thing was right where it belonged.