Tapestry of Fate picks up shortly after the ending of the Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, and is deeply related to some of the happenings towards the end of the first book. So, there will be spoilers below for the Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi.
Amina has been granted super-human abilities and tasked with finding five Transgressions. Well, four after the Moon of Saba. We get a small glimpse at Amina, Dalila, Tinbu, and Majed’s adventure to collect the second Transgression early on in the book, but quickly move onto the story of third Transgression – a spindle that can change fates. Although, Khayzur tells Amina that the discovery and collection of the Spindle is of the utmost urgency and importance, there are a few minor (but impactful) side quests that need to be sorted out before the crew is well and truly on the path towards finding and destroying the Spindle.
This book is much less of a “romp” than the first, and I found it to be a bit more stressful. That is certainly not to say that this book isn’t good. It’s a great read and adds interesting depth to the series and the lore of the world rather than just repeating the tone and cadence of the first novel. Whereas many of the problems in the first adventure seemed to fall squarely into Amina’s wheelhouse – solutions mostly involved stabbing or trickery, this new adventure challenges Amina’s abilities with problems that cannot be easily stabbed into oblivion. Throughout the book, we accompany her as she navigates politically treacherous situations, engages in subterfuge and skullduggery, and tries to puzzle out the mysteries surrounding the Spindle. In many ways, we get a idea of how Amina would have fared had she been a contemporary of Nahri in the City of Brass, and well, let’s just say there is a reason why she’s a pirate and not a politician.
