Title: The Stardust Thief
Author: Chelsea Abdullah
Date of publication: 17 May 2022
Genre / Themes: Fantasy / Jinns
My rating: 5 Stars
Blurb
Neither here nor there, but long ago…
Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land—at the cost of sacrificing all jinn.
With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the artifact. Aided by her bodyguard, who has secrets of his own, they must survive ghoul attacks, outwit a vengeful jinn queen, and confront a malicious killer from Loulie’s past. And, in a world where story is reality and illusion is truth, Loulie will discover that everything—her enemy, her magic, even her own past—is not what it seems, and she must decide who she will become in this new reality.
Review
This is a debut adult fantasy inspired by 1001 Nights stories that I enjoyed a lot. It's an engaging adventure story, fast paced, entertaining, full of magic - jinns and ifrits and magical relics
The world building is outstanding, it transports right into the desert in a very real and very magical way. The desert with all its secrets and magic was like a living character in the story. The magic system is not overly complicated, it made sense to make and was easy to follow which is not always the case in high fantasy.
We have a group of different, even opposite characters brought together by the circumstances together on a quest through the desert. Aisha stood out to me with her loyalty and revenge that fueled her action in the story. She starts a a jinn hunter with a single focus on her mission only to learn things are not always what they seem to be, there is more than loyalty and revenge. There is friendship and trust and tentative even if elusive happiness.
Mazen is a gentle, bookish second son of the sultan, carrying his mother's love of love of stories, dreaming of adventure but being completely ill-suited for it - he is shy, pampered and protected. He doesn't become a fearless warrior but he learns how to go for things he wants, he learns to act instead of always hiding. He suffers betrayal and loss but gains friends (sort of) that he wants to keep safe and protect.
Loulie - is everything - a force of nature unstoppable, independent but also vulnerable, we see her completely defeated and in despair only to find her strength again, not without the help of Qadir. Her resilience is formidable but it's her vulnerability that broke me. Her grief, her sense of loss, of her own self included, was heart-breaking.
Qadir is a very interesting character in this story - Loulie's sullen bodyguard for those who don't know them but in truth he is her most trusted friend, her guardian. Yet, he remains mysterious, secretive almost till the end. Theirs was really the most interesting relationship for me. They are very close, they are each other's destiny (not in a romantic sense). He needs her as much as she needs him.
The story plays a lot with lies and deception, the different personas the characters assume and I loved seeing that the world is not just black and white, it's all about nuance. People have many sides, they are always changing and growing.
Another central element in the story was the storytelling itself, the power of words to shape our world. I have always loved 1001 Nights for the magic of the stories Scheherazade tells, they create worlds and save lives. Mazen is Scheherazade's son and he carries her heritage as a storyteller.
There is no cliffhanger but the ending made me excited for the sequel. The desert has so many more stories to tell. Mazen and Loulie's adventure is far from over.
CW: parental death, patricide, violence, torture
