Rebel of the Sands

Alwyn Hamilton is a fresh new face on the fantasy scene. Her character, Amani, is a strong female protagonist with a fascinating past. I don't want to write spoilers into this but the fantasy leans strongly on East Indian influences of Djinn, etc. The storyline is strong and the characters very much alive. It is one of those wonderful experiences when you pray for there to be more books.I was reviewing the second book in series for a local newspaper and decided to get the audiobook for this (which has a great narrator btw). I loved the story so much, I bought the ebook so I could read it faster. Fantasy fans out there need to read Alwyn Hamilton.There is no vulgar or adult language. The violence is mildly graphic but is vaguely described. The romance is mostly a few very strong kisses with hints at more but nothing graphic.

No spoilers in this review of Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton! I give it 4 stars. This is such a fun book! It is what I consider to be classic YA in its tone and pacing.The story is about Amani, a teenage girl itching to leave Dustwalk, her small desert village. She has lived with her aunt and uncle since her parents’ passing, and she wants to escape small town life to live in the city with an aunt she’s never met. Amani is a skilled sharpshooter, and she meets a mysterious young man named Jin in a local gun slinging contest. She quickly realizes he’s her ticket out of Dustwalk. As they travel, their exploits keep putting them in the path of the Sultan’s men, who are trying to snuff out rebellion in their area. And the pair slowly realizes they’ve both been keeping secrets from each other.Amani and Jin have an undeniable chemistry. Their banter is cute and is one of my favorite parts of the book. The unique setting also drew me in. I enjoyed reading about the desert culture, which is different than any I’ve read about recently. I also appreciated the magic and mythology Hamilton slowly weaves into the tale. The first half of the book pulled me along quickly, with one adventure and/or misstep after another. The second half of the book moved a little slower, but the pace picked back up again by the end.I definitely recommend this book! The Goodreads description of book 2, Traitor to the Throne, sounds great! It seems like it might be quite different than book 1, and I’m excited to see where Hamilton takes us next in this trilogy.View all of our rapid reviews at: [...]See our list of full book recaps at: [...]

“‘Here’s a tip for you.’ He was close to me now, close as he had been when he kissed me, or when I kissed him. ‘Don’t try to hit a man in the face when he’s looking you straight into your eyes. You’ve got traitor eyes, Bandit?’”I liked this book, especially all the banter between Jin and Amani. I will say I felt like we were introduced to the world and the fantasy elements in weird and confusing ways sometimes. And parts of it felt not quite fleshed out to me. I am interested in the story and the characters and I do feel like I will probably read the rest of the series at some point. I am hoping the things that bothered me were mostly because of it being a first in series book. I give this book 3 stars.

January 28, 2017 – Currently ReadingReview This was a fun read with a good story line. A little Arabian Nights, a little Wild, Wild West, and Djinni, who look human but possess magical powers, are all rolled into one story. Amani lives in the desert town of Dustwalk, where life drags on. She never knew her birth father and her mother is dead. Orphaned and living with her aunt, uncle, and many cousins feels like an outsider and desires a better life. Her mother Zahia, spoke often and longingly of leaving Dustwalk for Izman, the capital of Miraji, where another sister lived. Her goal was to get them to Izman, but with her mother dead, it's up to Amani to get herself there. Amani overhears her Uncle telling her Aunt Farrah that she is in need of husand because "a man could finally beat some sense into her." When Aunt Farrah points out that it is difficult enought to find husbands for their own daughters, Uncle Asid threatens to marry Amani himself.Upon hearing this, Amani realizes that her timetable to leave Dustwalk must be accelerated. The fifty fouzas that she has managed to save over the past three years is not nearly enough to get her there. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Amani can't remember a time when she didn't have a gun in her hand. She decides to sneak out that night and head over to Deadshot and enter the shooting competition. The prize purse is 1500 fouzas which would be more than enough to finance her escape to Izman. As its name implies, Deadshot is a wild and dangerous town filled with unsavory and shifty characters. Treachery abounds and there is no honor among those who frequent the haunts the town has to offer.Amani slips out and makes her way to Deadshot disguised as a boy. She is determined to win the competition. However, as her plans go awry, she meets a "foreigner" named Jin, and her life changes in ways she could have never imagined. Following Amani along her path to self-discovery, unlocking secrets of the past, finding a "family" and a place where she belongs is a delightful and entertaining read.

I really, really enjoyed this book. (And the whole series). Someone has mentioned this author on Twitter, so I got curious and looked her up here...and the first 3 chapters of the book were in the description …. I read them and was hooked. I immediately ordered the book for same delivery and finished it late that night.I really like that the obligatory romance did NOT over shadow the book, what-so-ever. It was really well done, I feel. Amani was a decently strong character, although I'm not sure some of her earlier choices made much sense.I'm not a good book reviewer, but I do like to read a good book, and all 3 of these kept me turning the pages. I felt this book ended on a satisfying note, but also with the need to read more. Definitely recommend and will be watching for more from this author!

I've been itching to get hold of this book and actually start reading it since it was announced because going by books I've previously enjoyed (Erin Bowman's 'Vengeance Road', E.K. Johnston's 'A Thousand Nights', Intisar Khanani's 'Sunbolt' and Roshani Chokshi's 'The Star-Touched Queen' to name but a few) the hot desert, Indian/Arabian folklore and sharp-shooting heroines are a clear favourite of mine and here I managed to find all three. Hamilton took the best of both worlds, mixing the harsh, action packed thrills of the wild west with the magic, legends and creatures from a tale that felt like it fell out of 'The Arabian Nights'. For that reason, I liked this book a lot. It had everything I'd been hoping for and has confirmed my suspicion that I will never get tired of this setting or situation.Hamilton did a really great job with so many things in this story. She built a colourful, danger-filled world that sucked me straight in with some of it's vivid descriptions and I liked learning about the Mythology it was built around specifically. Hamilton wrote some great characters too, and I have to say that I really did like Amani a lot. She was feisty, clever, quick-thinking and very much able to hold her own. It was a relief to find that Hamilton had chosen to make her MC a PoC too because I am always in favour of more diversity in the literary world and the whole thing felt a lot more authentic. Jin was also a great character, and I found myself growing very fond of him pretty early on in the book (I'm a sucker for a dash of charm and a sense of humour...).While I did like this book a lot, it didn't grab me in the way that some of the reads that I mentioned above did. At some points I felt like this could be because of the incredibly fast pace. While I enjoy a story that is persistent in it's action, Amani and Jin didn't really stay in each place long enough for me to get attached to anyone they met. I felt like things could definitely have been slowed down in order to make way for more character development and to let the twists in the story to sink in and have a bigger impact on me. Also, while I really liked Jin and Amani as a pair, their romance felt rushed and I would have liked some more time to explore that. The last third of this book with the 'secret den' felt kind of weird too, as if it was totally separate from everything else I'd read. There was definitely a lot of potential for this to become a really great series however, and I shall definitely be reading 'Traitor To The Throne' as soon as I can!

WOW!Definitely in my top 10 for this year, I Devoured this book within a day! So well written, I couldn’t put it down!The story was a brilliant blend of Action, Romance (although subtly done and far from the main story which i actually enjoyed more for it!) and magic, therefore combining all of my favourite elements in a story.The beginning of the story pulls you in straight away, dropping you into and fast paced scenario. Each situation has a surprising outcome, which is all the more impressive for the fact that this is not a long book.This Author has done something I wish that MORE would do, in using chapters as tools to transport us seamlessly from one action packed, fun filled scenario to the next without several involving much “is anything going to happen?!” Instead Alwyn has written this book in such a way as to keep the chapters fairly short, tell us everything we need to know, give rich details on situations, without droning on endlessly. This makes the chapters back a whallop, so that although they aren’t long chapters, you NEED to see what will happen next!I loved the individuals in the storyline, and there were several factors I didn’t guess along the way! The Main Character is believable, and the revelations fun and unpredictable. I enjoyed her Love interests Character, I won’t use names so I don’t spoil any of the fun.It was interesting how this developed through the story, with the pitfalls and games along the way. I laughed out loud several times at their antics!I can’t wait to grab the next instalment!

This book was incredible, and I am so so glad that Hamilton was at YALC 2016 or I probably never would have found it and what a tragedy that would have been!!! This book kept me up until 3am because I just could not put it down. I love finding new authors and I especially love finding new fantasy trilogies and this one is already one of my favourites of the year!As you are probably well aware of by now I am a MASSIVE fan of fantasy worlds and Hamilton does an incredible job of building hers. The history, the creatures, the myths, the magic, the places; it is all so beautifully woven into this incredible and totally believable world. The last book I read that was set in the middle of the desert was quite frankly terrible, but Hamilton brought life to this lifeless setting and fed all my craving for more of this wonderful world right up until the last page."She moved like a storm someone had given steel to."I loved Amani and Jin (such cool names). I loved their banter, I loved their friendship and I loved the slow build of a romance between them. You could say that we have read this story tons of times: Katniss and Peeta, Tris and Four, June and Day; but like each of those this one is special in its own way. Both characters are strong, in their own way, and the two really complimented each other well. The chemistry is always there between them, but they actually build a really great friendship first and I really think that this is what makes them such great characters and their eventual romance all the more real."Haven't you ever wanted something so bad that it becomes more than a want? I need to get out of this town. I need it like I need to breathe."Amani is totally kick ass. Just like Katniss she has an unbelievable skill (although with a gun and not a bow) and is always underestimated until people see her shoot. In a world were women are nothing Amani makes herself stand out with her bright blue eyes and her will to fight for what is fair and right.Jin is pretty mysterious for the majority of the book, I thought I knew where his storyline was going and all the clues we were given along the way were adding up, and then we got our reveal and I wasn't quite right, but I really liked the way that Hamilton had taken it and I can't wait to discover more about him as the series continues."It was damn hard to trust a boy with a smile like that. A smile that made me want to follow him straight to the places he’d told me about and made me sure I shouldn’t at the same time."There is a great base of secondary characters in this book and in a lot of books they get lost along the way, but Hamilton made sure that we remembered every single one of them. Sure, I got their names a little confused (but that's always going to happen when characters have weird and wonderful names that all start with the same letter!) but I knew who each character was and they really brought the story to life and added so much more and so many more mini storylines to the book which I am looking forward to seeing play out."But if knowledge was power, then the unknown was the greatest weakness of immortal things."Going into this book you can't be blamed for thinking it's going to be another fantasy story with a kick ass heroine and a epic rebellion. Well yes, it kind of is but why hate on them when they are always so good! And this one especially is very very good! The plot was so cleverly written and every time I thought I had figured it out Hamilton twisted the story in a completely different way which I loved every single time. I was impressed with how much to managed to fit into this book, with it being a normally 300 page size, but at no point did it feel rushed or crammed in.For her debut book Hamilton has done amazingly well and I am totally in awe of the world and the story that she has created for us. Every aspect of this book, in my opinion, has been done to perfection and it would be very difficult to find a bad word to say about it, except that we now have to wait for book 2!"The world makes things for each place. Fish for the sea, Rocs for the mountain skies, and girls with sun in their skin and perfect aim for a desert that doesn't let weakness live."

This is the first book in the Rebel of the Sands series, which is a YA fantasy-western-steampunk – I know that seems a lot! Amani lives in Dustwalk, but more than anything she wants to escape. With her mother dead, her uncle is looking to marry her off, or keep her himself. When a foreigner turns up and saves her life, Amani takes the chance to run. The desert is dangerous though, and the Sultan’s enemies are on the rise… This had a really interesting setting, but for me, I felt it was too jumbled. I’m not a big fan of westerns, so I think that detracted from my enjoyment. The writing was charming and mystical, weaving a rich mythology and religion. The characters became jumbled though, apart from the leads, Amani and Jin. I enjoyed the budding romance between those two, and I really liked Amani. She was strong, fearless, but still allowed herself to have emotions. I do feel like I’d seen this plot before, and it did feel a little same-y. That’s my personal taste though, and I’m not too sure if I’m going to continue the series.

I devoured this book in a couple of days, I simply couldn’t put it down. (Although the typeset is pretty big, so that helped). Hamilton weaves a unique story which draws heavily on Middle Eastern/Arabian and Indian mythology, but also includes more modern technology such as guns and trains. I loved that the mythology was an important part of the novel, interlinking with the semi-modern, but it never felt unbelievable or too stagnant for the pacing.And the pacing certainly is feverish. The plot is full of action, with well-placed, softer moments, and twists and turns that you don’t see coming. You wouldn’t quite believe this is Hamilton’s first novel. The plotting is slick, the language poetic, the characters well-rounded. The idea of a girl inadvertently joining a rebellion is a little cliché in YA, but Hamilton has crafted a whirlwind story with a strong (but not obnoxious) heroine. Once it gets going, it certainly doesn’t feel like a cliché YA novel.Amani is a master with a gun and has a smart mouth. At first, she is desperate to scrape money together and leave town for the capital, Izman, escaping the clutches of her creepy uncle and violent aunt. She’s a little selfish in this regard, leaving behind her crippled friend to escape on horseback with a stranger hunted by the Sultan’s army, but she clearly has her reasons. However, this leaves a lot of room for Amani to grow. She soon realises that there is more to life than stories, and her ferocious determination changes from selfish to selfless. She begrudges the world its views on women and I actually think this is a great feminist narrative. Amani’s world may think women inferior, but the women in the book, like Shazad and Hala, certainly carry their own weight. They’re confident, wild and certainly not helpless. Amani’s own mother even stands up to her oppressor, but the act inevitably leads to her execution.The stranger that Amani flees with is, of course, the love-interest Jin. Thankfully, it isn’t insta-love and we’re given the experience of watching the two grow closer, relying on each other to stay alive in the unforgiving desert. Jin is witty and determined, much like Amani, and the two complement each other. Their growing fondness is believable and fragile and I felt it tugging at my heart strings. However, the romance doesn’t overshadow the main story, which happens much too often in YA. Also, there’s no ridiculous love-triangle.My only (very small) gripe is the slightly rushed conclusion; everything seems to happen at once and suddenly it’s the end of the book. I would’ve liked a slightly longer climax to the story, but it’s not as if this is a stand-alone book, so there’ll be a lot more answers and action to come.I’m excited to see what happens next and, if you haven’t picked up a copy, definitely do so.