Michael Barnes
Before reading this I recommend reading The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi first, it covers the story of our protagonist Amina al-Sirafi retired pirate legend dragged out of her quiet life by the promise of a big payday and a sense of old loyalty (there is also some blackmailing at play). Reassembling her old crew: Dalila, the unnerving Mistress of Poisons; Tinbu, her devoted first mate; and Majed, her sharp-eyed navigator. The book ends with Amina having traded one retirement for a new, stranger kind of life, sailing the seas on Peri (sort of gods of the air) business collecting 5 artifacts that are too dangerous for the world and destroying them. Amina seems to have actually found a decent rhythm. She gets to sail, do the occasional dangerous errand for the Peris and still come home to her daughter Marjana. It's not exactly the peaceful retirement she'd imagined, but it's manageable.
Then after Raksh, the spirit of discord she is unhappily magically bound to in marriage, goes and causes a scene with the peri council. The results in her next tasks on an inescapable island with a reality altering spindle possessed by a tyrannical embodied spirit if vengeance
The heart of this story is the friendship between Amina and Dalila. TDalila is someone we've always seen as composed, sharp, slightly terrifying with all cool efficiency and deadly competence. In The Tapestry of Fate, Shannon peels back those layers and shows us who Dalila actually is underneath all of that armor. Her past, her vulnerabilities, her deep and complicated love for Amina.
Another fabulous Mideastern adventure with a final line hooking me in to find out what happens in the next book.
Before reading this I recommend reading The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi first, it covers the story of our protagonist Amina al-Sirafi retired pirate legend dragged out of her quiet life by the promise of a big payday and a sense of old loyalty (there is also some blackmailing at play). Reassembling her old crew: Dalila, the unnerving Mistress of Poisons; Tinbu, her devoted first mate; and Majed, her sharp-eyed navigator. The book ends with Amina having traded one retirement for a new, stranger kind of life, sailing the seas on Peri (sort of gods of the air) business collecting 5 artifacts that are too dangerous for the world and destroying them. Amina seems to have actually found a decent rhythm. She gets to sail, do the occasional dangerous errand for the Peris and still come home to her daughter Marjana. It's not exactly the peaceful retirement she'd imagined, but it's manageable.
Then after Raksh, the spirit of discord she is unhappily magically bound to in marriage, goes and causes a scene with the peri council. The results in her next tasks on an inescapable island with a reality altering spindle possessed by a tyrannical embodied spirit if vengeance
The heart of this story is the friendship between Amina and Dalila. TDalila is someone we've always seen as composed, sharp, slightly terrifying with all cool efficiency and deadly competence. In The Tapestry of Fate, Shannon peels back those layers and shows us who Dalila actually is underneath all of that armor. Her past, her vulnerabilities, her deep and complicated love for Amina.
Another fabulous Mideastern adventure with a final line hooking me in to find out what happens in the next book.