This one offers brief but clever nods to such classic tales from One Thousand and One Nights as “Aladdin,” “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” and the framing tale of Scheherazade, but then charts its own thrilling territory. Several recent Middle Eastern fantasies have explored the complex and bloody relationship between human and jinn (with obvious relevance to contemporary sociopolitics), each in a gloriously unique way. Burdened with secrets, this unlikely quartet encounter many perils while learning new and deadly things about the nature of jinn and of themselves. Aisha also has her own mission from Omar, which she cannot share. Except that the prince on this journey is actually Omar’s younger brother Prince Mazen, a softhearted and sheltered storyteller whom Omar has blackmailed into taking his place with a magical disguise. Along with Qadir, her designated companions are the sultan’s cruel older son, Prince Omar, who rules the deadly band of jinn hunters known as the Forty Thieves, and Omar’s most trusted thief, Aisha. But now the sultan of Madinne has found her out and is forcing her to go on a dangerous desert quest to find the most ancient relic of them all-a lamp imprisoning an enslaved but incredibly powerful jinn-which he intends to use to commit jinn genocide. Today, Loulie hides behind the identity of the Midnight Merchant, locating and selling illegal magical relics. Years ago, assassins in black murdered all of Loulie al-Nazari’s tribe unaccountably, a wandering jinn named Qadir took her under his protection, posing as her human bodyguard. This debut quest fantasy is the first of a trilogy concerning the revival of an ancient struggle between humans and jinn.

The stardust thief by chelsea abdullah