★★★★☆ The best speculative fiction novel of 2023

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

Shannon Chakraborty

I of course have not read every science fiction novel published in 2023. However, I have read every 2024 Best Novel Hugo finalist*, and this is the one that would get my vote. In fact, this was the last one I read, and until I started it I was in despair, thinking that there was not a novel among the finalists that really deserved a Hugo award. But this one does.

Shannon Chakraborty's The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi is that very rare thing: a work of exacting scholarship, and simultaneously an exciting and readable novel. In her acknowledgements Chakraborty writes

I began writing The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi in March 2020, and if there is any book that took a village to complete, it would be this one. Balancing a pandemic, virtual elementary schooling, and a manuscript that required depths of research beyond anything I could have originally envisioned is an experience I hope never to repeat, and one I couldn’t have gotten through without the help of a great many people.

The story takes place on and around the Indian ocean in the twelfth century. The heroine, Amina Al-Sirafi, is a middle-aged Muslim pirate captain. The story begins when Amina, living in retired poverty with her mother and daughter, is visited by a wealthy elderly woman who wants to hire her to find her own daughter, Dunya. Amina reluctantly accepts the job.

There follows a series of travels and adventures in which Amina travels around the shores of the Indian Ocean, picking up old comrades. These adventures serve as a skillfully constructed introduction to Amina's crew. In addition, they introduce us gradually to Amina's complicated and adventurous past. These introductory episodes are followed by the adventure of the attempted rescue of Dunya. It's an excellent story, all the more so because of its air of authenticity. Chakraborty is a historian, and I have no doubt that she knows as well as anyone what life on the Indian Ocean in the twelfth century was like.

The story has a light frame. The narrator, Jamal, introduces himself early in the book. Jamal's voice reappears throughout the book, both as interjected chapters of background information and as conversations with Amina. Jamal becomes another character in the book.

Amina al-Sirafi is the first book in a planned series. It will be obvious to you by the end that we can expect five (at least) novels in the series, and what, in general terms, the sequels will be about. I certainly plan to read them.

*It's not quite true that I've read all the finalists. I skipped Translation State, by Ann Leckie, because I know from experience that I find Leckie unreadable. This is of course not a common opinion. If you think that Leckie is the bee's knees and the cat's pajamas wrapped in one convenient package, please adjust your faith in my judgment accordingly.

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