We Hunt the Flame

Sands of Arawiya, Book 1

By: Hafsah Faizal

Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham, Steve West

Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

A Bustle's Most Anticipated 2019 YA Release

A Barnes & Noble Top 2019 YA Fantasy Release

Paste Magazine's Top 10 Most Anticipated YA Novels of 2019

"Lyrical and spellbinding." (Marieke Njikamp, number-one New York Times best-selling author)

Set in a richly detailed world inspired by ancient Arabia, Hafsah Faizal's We Hunt the Flame - first in the Sands of Arawiya series - is a gripping debut of discovery, conquering fear, and taking identity into your own hands.

People lived because she killed. People died because he lived.

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the sultan. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. Both Zafira and Nasir are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya - but neither wants to be.

War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the sultan on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds - and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.

©2019 Hafsah Faizal (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Narrators Fiona Hardingham and Steve West lend their exceptional vocal skills to this fantasy novel...Both narrators deliver commanding performances steeped in drama and suspense, drawing out every ounce of emotion and intrigue: — AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

I love the story theme

Stumble upon the authors on Instagram by accidents, glad i tried reading/hearing it in Audible..
I love the slice of arabic cultures, the story’s mystery and characters developments..

Rough start narration/audio but worth getting past

The narrator obviously had recorded the main character’s name incorrectly but the sound engineer did a poor job with splicing in the fixes. It sounded like two separate female readers in the first part of the book. Listening in stereo gave me a headache because of the engineers sound placement. I endured because I have listened to this narrator before and enjoyed her reading and loved the story so I endured and it was well worth it.
This story is enchanting and is filled with twists of plot and emotion.

We Hunt the Flame

We Hunt the Flame kept my interest through out the book. It's not my favorite book I've listened to but I knew that it wasn't going to fall in love with it when I got it but I wanted to listen to it anyway. I'm glad I did.

Every Arabic word is mangled.

Excellent and fresh and interesting story. But the mangling of every Arabic word is very annoying and detracts from the listening. If there are no narrators who can pronounce Arabic can the narrators at least find out how the Arabic words are pronounced?

Liked it

The narrators were amazing👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 but Okay this audiobook was badly edited , Arabic is my first language so I really enjoyed the narration, I only wish it was better edited, I still don't have a clear opinion on this story, it was entertaining I can say that

great story!

beautiful imagry, great pace and character development, I just wish it hadn't ended so soon!!

Enjoyable but Predictable

Let me start by saying I really enjoyed this book! I love a lot of the tropes she used. But if you've read Ember in the Ashes or Shadow & Bone, you've seen the characters and plots before. The twists aren't too surprising and once the characters are introduced, you kind of know their role in the story. That's not necessarily bad if you like the tropes. The author delivers on the tropes pretty well...
... except for the Big Bad Guy. You never really find out what his motives are or why does the bad things he does. Maybe that's a book 2 thing? It was a bit frustrating not knowing that.
I liked the setting but sometimes I wished I had the physical book because I got confused by some of the (Arabic?) terms that got casually tossed around and were pronounced differently by the 2 narrators. I liked having them in the story, and for the most part, the context clues defined the terms. But I did get a bit lost at times.
As always, these 2 narrators were FANTASTIC! But there were some production issues where you could hear cuts and edits.

not quite there

full of good ingredients (if a little melodramatic), it's what bind them together at the end that fails. too much tell not much show, little character arc. Altair and Nasir's banter is definitely the best part of this book

Loved itttt

This was my first audiobook however i did read allow with the physical copy. This make the story so easy to follow along with and come on amazing narrations.

Es demasiado lento para mi gusto

La historia se centra en dos protagonistas. En primer lugar tenemos a Zafira, quien comienza un viaje para devolver la magia al mundo. Nuestra protagonista se viste de hombre para embarcarse en su aventura ya que las mujeres no son consideradas hábiles para pelear o siquiera defenderse. Por otro lado Nasir es el hijo de un rey totalmente inhumano, y necesita probarle a el, y a si mismo, que es capaz de alcanzar todo lo que su padre le pida, y lo que el rey quiere es el control de la magia.
Los dos son leyendas en el reino de Arawiya, pero ninguno de los dos quiere serlo en realidad, y ambos se verán enfrentados en busca de lo mismo, y deberán pelear para ver quien lo consigue.

Opinión personal:
Si les gustan los libros de fantasía llenos de acción, este no es el libro indicado. Los primeros y últimos 3 capítulos realmente tienen acción y te atrapan con los giros de trama, pero todo lo del medio me resultó muy aburrido. Realmente no pasa demasiado.
Es una historia super enfocada en los personajes, con personalidades muy diferentes pero un mismo objetivo terminan demostrándose que nada es lo que parece.
El libro tiene un romance que es extremadamente cliché, por lo que tampoco le he encontrado nada original.
El estilo de escritura es SUPER descriptivo, y encuentro que ese fue mi principal problema con la historia. Entiendo que quieran establecer el lugar y las personalidades de los personajes, pero cuando esto toma capítulos y capítulos simplemente hace que pierda el interés.
Me gusto mucho la ambientación en Arabia, ya que no he leído demasiados libros ahi, aunque la mezcla de nombres a veces se me hacía un poco confusa también.
Debo admitir que lo que más intrigada me dejó fue el final, quisiera saber que pasará en el siguiente, pero al no haberme gustado demasiado el ritmo del libro, no creo que realmente lo haga.
Si les gustan los libros con muchas descripciones del mundo, de los personajes y las intenciones de cada uno, sin duda se los recomiendo. Simplemente en este caso no fue para mi.