Rebel of the Sands

If you decided to throw a mix of ingredients in a blender, such as the Wild West, mythology & magic, and the key spark needed that's found in our most predominately popular heroines in the YA genre, you would find yourself with the deliciousness that is Rebel of the Sands before you. Amani is a strong, and very feisty, female protagonist that will rouse readers to her side, whether young or old, or female or male. Amani's voice will resonate within you the wander lust that she so desperately suffers from, because I can definitely attest to that.From the small town of Dustwalk, Amani is a young girl who knows her away around a gun and some tough crowds. We first see her entering a shooting contest in the pistol Pit in Deadshot under the guise of a boy. Like with history, women are frowned upon when they partake in male-dominated spheres of life in Amani's world. Her dream is to go to Izman and find her aunt. In the midst of the contest, she meets a foreigner that goes by the name of Jin, who we later found out is a wanted criminal who the Gallan Army is searching for. The place gets burned down which sets our 2 characters down a whirlwind of action packed fight scenes, identitity revelations, and you guessed it, some romance as well.Alwyn Hamilton pens her story with great purpose. She mixes real life elements with mythological fantasies. The Buraqi, the Demdji, the Roc, and the Djinn are what drive our story forward. Hamilton moves all her pieces in her book like a fantastic chess player, easily progressing each piece, each element and character coexisting, blending it all until our climactic end.What I found most refreshing was the budding romance between Amani and Jin, it felt organic and never forced. Many authors feel like their protagnist have to have a full blown relationship, when that's definitely not the case. Amani is a tough girl and doesn't succumb to her feminine wiles so easily, and Jin isn't completely smitten from the first moment he laid eyes on her. While he's intrigued by her tenacity, he is after all cautious because of his criminal status. And Amani sees Jin as her ticket out of Dustwalk, that urge to be with him was stronger in that regard that it was about romantic feelings. True intimacy never transpired between the two, and for once I was greatful for that. It felt true both to the world that Hamilton built, and to the characters she so brilliantly created.Rebel of the Sands is a book that blends the sparks of revolution, gender equality, mythology, and one's true identity which produces a rare jewel of a book. Readers should go out and buy Alwyn Hamilton's book if they are intrigued with any of the elements I've mentioned above.Happy Reading!

Alwyn Hamilton’s debut Rebel of the Sands was quite the fantastical read! It’s filled with excitement, adventure, romance, magic, mythology, and lots of good action too! It’s got all you need for an enjoyable read! I am definitely going to be looking forward to more of this series.Amani is a sixteen year old girl, in a world where women have no rights. Odd to think this is a fantasy world! She disguises herself as a boy and enters a shooting contest in hopes to win enough money to escape a life where she’ll be forced to marry her uncle, because no one else would want her. Incest, apparently, wasn’t an issue in this time either. Which is a whole other topic for a different day! Unfortunately, the competition was rigged and she was forced to go home empty-handed and far poorer than she began.She soon meets a wanted man named Jin and after helping him escape, decides to join him on his journey because she longs for escape that much. Her plans are to find her mother’s sister and hope that life with an unknown aunt is better than what she currently has. And this is where the adventure truly begins!The desert is a dangerous place filled with monsters. Night is the worse time to travel and naturally, a lot of traveling happens on Amani’s part at this time. Amani and Jin have their rough go of things but when they finally decide to trust one another, things start to go a little more smoothly for them. But not by much, for there are soldiers tracking them and let’s just say the outcome won’t be pretty if they get caught.There’s a lot of history and myth to this story. At times, I found it a little hard to keep up because there were so many names being dropped left and right. It didn’t help that this unknown Sultan has so many children, both legitimate and not and having too many wives and having children just everywhere! It made it a mite hard to figure out who’s related and not. But for the most part, I had the general idea and that was enough. While this caused me a little bit of a bump in the road of reading, it wasn’t enough to fully detract from my enjoyment.Mythology wise, I really enjoyed learning about the Djinn in this new way. Some traits I’ve seen from previous books show up as well, but there’s always something new to learn and I love that authors make creatures and characters their own! That’s why I never tire of vampire reads, because I see them all as totally different and individual reads! I think where I was tripped up again, a little, were all the different kinds of Djinn, or other magical beings that were in here. There’s more name dropping, but I tribute the different names to the specific power each magical person has. That’s what I gathered at least. There’s a type name and then character name, so we’re back to a lot of name dropping!I really enjoyed the relationship between Amani and Jin. It’s no surprise that these two start having sparks fly between them. And while it may seem like insta-love, I think it was more of an insta-attraction and then the feelings and love just start to develop along the way. But like with any YA novel, just because there’s early love doesn’t mean there’s going to be all sunshine and rainbows. There are secrets going about! And while I want to say I saw some of them coming, I can’t quite do that. I may have surmised a one or two of the ideas, but I had so many speculations for the characters it was hard to commit to a certain idea! LOL!I really enjoyed the cast of side characters too! Bahi and Shazad were among my favorites! Bahi is a little bit of a romantic, but he’s hilarious. Shazad is your go-to tough girl with an attitude and the kickbutt-ness the back it all up! And these two’s interactions together were pure gold!The feels I had for this book were pretty much all over the place! And that’s what I expect of all my reads pretty much! Going through all those emotions really just proves to me how wonderfully talented the author is!I’m not 100% sure where this series is headed, it’s ending, while satisfying by a lack of cliffhanger, you are left with that little bit of wondering. Wondering, exactly, what’s next for everyone! And with that, only time will tell, as always! Wretched time!If you’re looking for a fantasy to blow you away with its magic, mythology, action, and a wonderful cast of characters, than I highly recommend reading Rebel of the Sands! It was phenomenal!Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars

Libro en idioma ingles, presentación en pasta blanda sin solapa.Edición ⭐⭐⭐⭐Historia ⭐⭐⭐Presenta un mundo de fantasía amplio y aparentemente lleno de seres interesantes; sin embargo es un recurso desaprovechado. Los personajes son interesantes, no abordan mucho su trasfondo o personalidad. El desarrollo es lento, tiene secciones con acción, pero con una narrativa que le resta emoción al momento y lo convierte en algo lento y extenso.Es un libro con clichés y sumamente predecible, pero es entretenido por momentos.

Sei que só li esse livro muito depois de várias pessoas já terem lido, então talvez a minha resenha nem seja lá muito relevante. Eu estava com um pouco de medo de não gostar desse livro, tanto que só comprei o primeiro da trilogia. Confesso que esperava que ele fosse um pouco mais fútil ou forçado, então ele foi, durante uma boa parte, uma surpresa ótima. Mas não é tão simples assim falar dele.Vamos por partes? Para mim, senti uma divisão um pouco forte entre a primeira parte e a segunda do livro. A primeira tem um toque meio faroeste que me agradou, mas que nem sempre fez sentido. Na hora de encaixar com uma ambientação mais árabe, acho que deixou um pouco a desejar. Foi uma combinação meio desconfortável, então acho válido ignorar tudo que tem de faroeste que não encaixa tão bem. Teria sido ainda melhor se a própria autora tivesse focado mais nas suas inspirações árabes ou se pelo menos tivesse só servido de inspiração mesmo e expandido para algo novo (principalmente porque algumas coisas acabaram pesando para estereótipos).Também acho que faltou um pouco de uma ambientação que me fizesse sentir que estava em um mundo mágico, com criaturas fantásticas. Sei que os personagens estão acostumados com elas, mas para uma cidade no fim do mundo onde nada de novo acontecia, as criaturas e a magia devia ser mais impressionante, mais bonitas também, sabe? Elas foram tratadas de um jeito tão corriqueiro, que ficou difícil sentir que eram fantásticas. Talvez só fossem fáceis para eu visualizar porque não era minha primeira vez lendo sobre esse tipo de fantasia.Teve coisa que eu gostei também. Gostei da escrita da autora, que é super fácil de ler, dá para terminar o livro em um dia. Apesar de ele ter me frustrado às vezes, mais por nunca saber exatamente o que ele pensava, gostei do Jin de cara. Não consegui ficar com raiva dele por ter feito o que fez, acho bem válido ele ser uma pessoa que nem sempre toma decisões altruístas, só acho que poderia ter levado a consequências um pouco mais difíceis de serem resolvidas depois. Também gostei de ver como Amani queria sair de sua cidade, mas preferia que tivesse vivenciado ao lado dela alguns dos problemas para sentir mais a vontade de fugir. Eu teria ficado mais desesperada como ela para sair dali.A parte "na estrada" foi a mais rápida e corrida, infelizmente. Sei que seria bem difícil demorar mais nela sem que se tornasse entediante, mas era uma oportunidade perfeita para desenvolver a Amani e o Jin. Depois de semanas viajando no deserto juntos, é impossível você ter a mesma relação com uma pessoa que tinha no começo, só que eu não sabia o que esperar dos dois por não ter visto essa relação se desenvolvendo e o que eles podiam ter começado a pensar sobre o outro. Acho que precisava ter algumas cenas mais introspectivas e com o único intuito de desenvolver os dois durante essa parte. Teria enriquecido bem mais o que eles significam um para o outro.Da estrada até chegar na segunda parte do livro, acho que foi bom, teve cenas tensas e reviravoltas, teve atitudes da protagonista que me fizeram querer bater nela, mas que eu entendia, teve uma encaminhação bacana para o que estava por vir. Mesmo assim, quando a segunda parte do livro começou, e fica bem claro quando é, senti que a história deu um salto grande demais do nada.Confesso que amei a revelação que teve, apesar da capa da minha edição já contar o spoiler antes (e contar errado!), de como a revelação se conecta com o que aconteceu antes e com detalhes que a autora tinha deixado pela história desde o começo. Mas ainda acho que esse corte das duas partes foi muito abrupto e precisava pelo menos que ela tivesse indicado com algo grande, com um PARTE DOIS no mínimo, para ele não ser tão repentino.A partir da segunda parte, o livro acaba se semelhando bastante com outros de fantasia, mas eu gosto de livros assim, então estava bem entretida. Fiquei levemente decepcionada pela relação da Amani e do Jin ter perdido um pouco de desenvolvimento, já que eles mal tinham antes, mas gostei dessa parte em que a palavra "rebelde" do título se faz justificada. Também gostei do final e fiquei com vontade de ler os próximos.Só acho que esse livro teria se beneficiado demais de uma escrita mais intimista e aprofundada, com personagens mais trabalhados e com um livro maior. Para tanto conteúdo, ficou curto demais. Já espero gostar dos próximos, mas ainda tenho a impressão de que o maior foco serão os acontecimentos, e não os sentimentos e e questionamentos pessoais da Amani. Posso estar errada, espero estar, espero que a autora decida tirar um tempo para desenvolver as relações humanas, que não pule cenas, meses e etapas. Mas agora estou feliz de ter dado uma chance à história e vou ler a trilogia toda assim que puder!

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After months of reading the nihilistic, post-humanist depressions prescribed by my professors it is a great relief and joy to finally have time to finish Rebel of the Sands. Alwyn has written a great escape, full of hope and heart that can inspire anyone. I can't wait to find out what happens next to Amani, Jin and the rebellion.

That book was sooooo good ! Maybe a bit slow at the beginning but you have to get going if you want to see the best of it !It keeps getting better and better and I cannot wait to read the next one