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.
With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the artefact. 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.
This is the latest in a trend which sees a partial return (has it ever gone away?) to Arabian Nights type stories. I’m also thinking Bradley Beaulieu’s Twelve Kings (which I loved), S. A. Chakraborty’s Daevabad series, Tasha Suri’s Books of Ambha trilogy… not to mention the classics. It is a world of hot climes, desert sand, searing winds, manipulative sultans and villainous princes, not to mention a healthy dollop of magic and jinns.
This one hits the ground running. It’s, in essence, a quest story, with magician-thief Loulie and her jinn companion Qadir being forced into a seemingly impossible search for an ancient magical artefact. At the same time, there’s political shenanigans and power struggles, not to mention the return of a repressed magical group to keep our main characters busy.
This sort of story wins or loses on the strengths of its characters and here Chelsea’s do not disappoint. Loulie is by turns likeable, annoying, naïve and endearing, and this is emphasised by the friendly, bickering buddy-relationship she has with the ever-loyal Qadir. In addition, and as a counterpoint, we have the conflicted Prince Mazen, who has been sent with Loulie and Qadir to find the ancient relic, and Aisha, the young assassin-thief dedicated to protecting Mazen on his arduous assignment. The villains are appropriately villainous, and the different means of magic are imaginative, although not too dominant that their use devalues everything else. The romance therein is not wincingly gauche, nor too much for readers wanting adventure.
And then to all this we have ancient palaces, decrepit yet colourful markets, sandstorms, oppressive heat and vast deserts which creates an endearing setting. For those wanting a story that hearkens back to tales of Aladdin and Sinbad, this one dips deep into that rich seam of storytelling narrative of times long ago. This is deliberate – and emphasised by the point that we have tales within the storyline – that storyteller Mazen tells to good effect.
The story itself is fairly straightforward. Its young protagonists will be appreciated by those looking for a YA type tale, and the plot can be followed without too much twisting and turning. With a focus on the characters, the worldbuilding is not especially detailed beyond the main protagonists, but there’s enough there to give the reader the impression that they’re in an Arabian Nights kind of story. The bigger picture, of the relationship between humans, gods and jinns, is an interesting one, and a major plot spoiler (so I won’t mention it too much here.)
At times the author’s enthusiasm slightly derails the progress – reading that characters say things like “No sh*t” dented my sense of disbelief a little – but generally this is a book that overall makes the reader want it to succeed.
Whilst in the end the conclusion is not anything revolutionary – and a huge cliffhanger ready for the next book – the journey we take to get there is a lot of fun. This page-turner demanded I kept reading as much as I could until it was done.
The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
Published by Orbit, June 2022
ISBN: 978-0356517438
480 pages
Review by Mark Yon
