Amina Al-Sirafi is a retired pirate of infamy who is called back into action to find the kidnapped daughter of a noble family. Her tale is full of exotic locales, mystical characters, enchanted artifacts, and mythical creatures, all of which she must navigate through on her search for young Dunya. The middle east of the 13th century presented in the early half of the book is rich and historically realistic, and I would have been happy to live out Amina’s adventures in that setting, but as she delves deeper into her quest she enters the magical realms of fantasy which detached me from the story a bit. The dialogue can get cheesy at times and Amina’s inner conflict between motherhood and adventure and fame never seems like an honest competition (she’s obviously meant for the high seas), but her exploits are both exciting and fun, if a little over the top the further along we go. It’s planned as book one of a series, but I think I would enjoy this story more as an HBO series. Fantasy fans will probably really enjoy it.