UNPOPULAR OPINION: The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty: Splendidly Written, Not Quite My Cup of Tea

Amina al-Sirafi gets her Circe moment. The craft is undeniable. The pacing, less so.

Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author Shannon Chakraborty sets sail into the second adventure of pirate Amina al-Sirafi as her quest to track down magical artifacts brings her to the island lair of a sorceress whose woven enchantments are impossible to flee.

Amina al-Sirafi thinks she’s struck gold. Tasked with hunting down arcane artifacts for the council of immortal peris, she can savor the occasional rollicking adventure on the high seas with her cherished criminal companions while still returning home to raise her beloved daughter, Marjana. But when Raksh, the spirit of discord with whom she is reluctantly wed, provokes the council’s wrath, Amina is charged with a seemingly impossible quest: steal a spindle capable of rewriting fate from a mysterious sorceress on an island no one can escape.

Forced to leave Marjana—who is increasingly frustrated at being peddled what are clearly lies about her mother’s life and her own past—Amina finds her mission almost immediately thrown into peril. But deadly storms, an erratic poison mistress, and old enemies are the least of her worries. For the peris’ story is unraveling, hinting at a far deadlier game whose rules Amina must swiftly puzzle out. A game that sets her against an adversary more cunning and powerful than she has ever faced.

A game that not everyone on her crew wants her to win.

Audiobook review

3 stars, and 5 for the narration. Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal did it again, bringing the larger-than-life, roguish Amina al-Sirafi and her scribe to life with everything they’ve got.

This is very much a Circe retelling. I don’t know if anyone else made that comparison, but reading this felt like stepping straight into the Odyssey, that particular corner of it.

For those unfamiliar with the myth: Amina, after a mad dash to retrieve a very traumatized Delilah from a bad decision, ends up stuck on an island with a cruel witch. Sent by the peri to Queen Lab’s island to recover a magical artifact, she and her crew are trapped, then separated. The Marawati is in terrible shape, the crew is put to work rebuilding it, and Amina and Delilah are kept close to the Queen. The object she’s meant to retrieve is a spindle rumored to change fates. The task is, predictably, not straightforward. A long time will be spent trying to accomplish it.

Shannon Chakraborty is one of my favorite authors, and she has more than proven she can tell a story. But The Tapestry of Fate had me wading through soup for a good portion of the book. Gone is the fast pace and the string of adventures I loved in The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. Gone too is the banter between crew members who felt like a second family. In their place: separation, resentment, bitterness, quarrels.

I understand the choice Shannon made. It fits the story she chose to tell. But it’s not my kind of story, and I won’t pretend otherwise.

What I can do is respect, and even admire, the craft.

Chakraborty builds a world that feels like a dream and a nightmare rolled into one. The magic is there, the fantastical beasts, the ugliest parts of human nature, the real price of revenge. The conflicting emotions weighing on the characters are handled with real skill. But there is also a miscommunication trope, or perhaps a guilt and distrust trope, running through most of the book that had me wanting to grab the protagonists by the shoulders and make them sit down and talk. Just talk .

Splendidly written, a genuinely good Circe retelling, and still not quite for me. But with that ending  and Chakraborty’s writing,  I can’t wait for book three. I just hope we get back some of that pace and banter from the first instalment.

Thanks for reading.

Sophie