{"id":30245,"date":"2016-05-06T22:41:22","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T02:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=30245"},"modified":"2016-05-06T22:41:22","modified_gmt":"2016-05-07T02:41:22","slug":"review-of-rebel-of-the-sands-by-alwyn-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=30245","title":{"rendered":"Review of Rebel of the Sands, by Alwyn Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rebel_of_the_sands_large\"<\/a>Rebel of the Sands<\/em><\/p>\n

by Alwyn Hamilton<\/p>\n

Viking, 2016. 314 pages.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a debut fantasy novel about finding one\u2019s identity and place in the world.<\/p>\n

This is wonderful fantasy, but not your traditional medieval European world \u2013 this one involves Djinns, Ghouls, Skinwalkers, Nightmares, and other desert beings. We\u2019ve got an oppressive regime and unjust society, and we start by focusing on someone caught in that injustice.<\/p>\n

Amani is an orphan living with her uncle in a world where girls have no rights. Everything she has belongs to her uncle \u2013 and will belong to her husband after he marries her off. That event is looking harder and harder to avoid, and Amani is desperate to escape.<\/p>\n

When the book opens, Amani is risking all the money she has managed to scrape together over the past three years to enter a shooting contest in Deadshot. If she can win the prize, she\u2019ll be able to buy train passage to the capital city.<\/p>\n

Amani has the shooting ability to win \u2013 but not the ability to overcome the way the contest is rigged. But during the contest she meets a mysterious foreigner who is also a skilled shooter, and she becomes part of a brawl that sets the whole place on fire.<\/p>\n

So the next day, she\u2019s back home in Dustwalk, tending her uncle\u2019s shop, hoping no one recognizes her as the blue-eyed boy at the shoot-out. And who should run into her shop but the foreigner from the night before? And he\u2019s followed by a group of soldiers, but Amani lets him hide behind the counter and covers for him. After all, he saved her life the night before. Then when it turns out he\u2019s been shot, she returns the favor.<\/p>\n

But while she\u2019s tending his wounds, she hears the bells that mean a Buraqi has been sighted \u2013 a desert horse, made of desert sands. When the horse is captured and forced to stay materialized with iron shoes, the Buraqi provides a way out of Dustwalk for Amani \u2013 and the foreigner along with her.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s only the beginning of the saga. She continues in an adventure across the desert. The soldiers are looking for her because she\u2019s been seen with the foreigner. And it turns out, he\u2019s involved with the Rebel Prince, who some say is the rightful ruler of Miraji and wouldn\u2019t give their country over to the Gallans.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Amani meets others in the rebellion and learns startling things about who she is and where she belongs.<\/p>\n

This is a very satisfying fantasy adventure novel. It ends at a good place, finishing one segment of the story, with no cliffhangers (which is how I like it), but still leaves you hoping to hear more about these people and this world. It\u2019s a debut novel, and is a wonderfully propitious start. I hope there will be many more books about Amani and Jin and desert magic and the struggle for the Rebel Prince.<\/p>\n

penguin.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/rebel_of_the_sands.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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