Book two of Abdullah's "Sandsea Trilogy" (following LJ Best Book The Stardust Thief) begins right after book one concludes, with Loulie al-Nazari, the Midnight Merchant, and the banished prince Mazen bin Malik slipping into the world of the jinn, sheltered under the Sandsea. They are escaping the slaughter above, leaving behind Qadir, Loulie's jinn bodyguard, and Aisha bint Louas, once one of the fabled Forty Thieves. Separated, the story follows Loulie and Mazen as they navigate the warring jinn landscape, filled with magic they cannot begin to understand. Aisha is far from defeated and will not allow her friends to remain lost or her betrayer to remain victorious. Qadir, a jinn of great power and complicated story, is imperiled too, even as his history is revealed as the central engine of this disastrous plot, which has been manipulated since the four travelers first stepped onto the desert's sands. VERDICT Once again Abdullah deftly conjures magic. The middle book in Abdullah's adventure is no less thrilling or expansively conceived than the first.—Neal Wyatt