Rebel of the Sands

By: Alwyn Hamilton

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Sixteen-year-old sharpshooter Amani Al'Hiza never doubted she'd escape the miserable one-horse desert town where she was born. Getting out had always been the plan. But she never figured she'd wind up running for her life - with a boy wanted for treason.

When Amani enters a disastrous shooting contest against Jin, a rakish foreigner, she has no idea of his connection to the ongoing war between the ruthless Sultan of Miraji and his exiled son, the Rebel Prince. But soon the pair are fleeing across a desert crawling with vicious bandits, terrifying ghuls, and powerful djinni, and the sultan's army is getting closer every day.

When Amani and Jin stumble across the ruins of a town destroyed by an unearthly fire, it's clear the war's stakes are higher than either of them realized. The Rebel Prince has a secret weapon, and now he wants Amani to join his revolution.

All Amani ever wanted was to escape the desert and find adventure - but will the desert let her go?

©2016 Blue-Eyed Books (P)2016 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Narrator Soneela Nankani blends sass, longing, grit, and tenderness to make Amani and her fantastical world believable.... Nankani shifts easily as she presents adventure, rebel confrontations, humor, romance, and a huge cast of realistic and magical characters." (AudioFile)

Not sure what happened

This plot was all over the place! Old men trying to wed 17 year old nieces, train rides and caravans, cities blow up with magic nuclear bombs, jail breaks, genies, rebels, more disastrous train rides, and who knows what else.

Loved the whole series!

The narrator was fantastic. The story was a perfect mix of romance and adventure!

Hard to Believe this is YA!

I picked this book up on a whim because I'm always hungry for a book in a much less traveled setting like a desert. The world of fantasy also does not have enough cool gunslinging gals kicking butt and taking names!

I had no idea this was a YA book because that usually has a certain flavor to it where you have a lovestruck protagonist getting caught up in the romance of some mysterious new boy and sticking it to the authority. While all those famliar tropes appear in one form or another, I felt like there was plenty else going on to keep us interested. These plot points happened naturally rather than feeling forced like other YA stories I've experienced. One of the best elements of this book is also the fantastic Arabesque world of folklore and fairy tales mixed with a refreshing new take! I love the mythos Hamilton has built and expanded upon and look forward to more in the sequels.

Amani's quest to forge her own way in this fascinating world kept me invested and I love the fact that she's not altogether likable at times. She's brash, headstrong, and world-weary. I'm looking forward to seeing where her journey takes her in the sequels and how she develops as a heroine coming into her own!

Performance:
Soneela Nankani has a pleasant voice, though perhaps a bit flat and unemotoinal at times, which is why I ranked Performance 4/5. Not a bad performance at all, however, and I'm hoping perhaps I'll get more used to her for the sequel books!

Highly Recommeded

Pro's:
The writing was beautiful. The way that Hamilton describe things just made me want to highlight all the passages. Especially when listening to it because Soneela Nankani has a beautiful storyteller voice that brings the images more real.

The Dev’s Valley ran like a wound deep into the skin of the desert, a shallow river exposed vein at the bottom. -189

This book gripped me from the first because I loved how tough Amani is and how hard she worked to changing her life. She wasn’t going to be like all the other girls in her small town. Amani taught herself how to shoot and raised money to get out of her uncle’s thumb and I have to give her props for that. The smart mouth on Amani and how quick she is with her comments while having a smile on her face. From the first paragraph, I could tell that Amani is going to be a straight up badass and I was right.

“I’m looking for a man.”
“Funny, most men round here are looking for a woman.”-16%

"You stole it first. If you hadn’t set such a bad example, maybe I would’ve never stolen your broken compass.”-36%

The humor between Jin and Amani is so adorable. They both are quick with a comment and are sarcastic which I totally get behind.
“You’re too smart to play dumb, Bandit.”
“You’re mistaking my playing dumb for my thinking you’re an idiot for wanting a beat-up compass”-36%

“I don’t mean to worry you and all,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm, “but have you noticed that you’ve been shot?” “Ah.” Looking at him closer now, I could see he was clutching the counter to stay upright. “I’d almost forgotten about that.”-18%


I could predict Jin’s secret so when that was revealed I wasn’t surprise. Jin was supposed to be this mystery who’s that guy type of thing, but it didn’t really work on me. I loved though that he didn’t try to stop Amani from being herself.

However, when Amani twist came I was actual surprised. I probably should have seen it coming, but since I didn’t I had a bit of a shock. Plus, the tag on the cover that says she’ll always be more gunpower than girl. The desert has other plans. Is very true once you read the book.

Disliked:
Something I didn’t like about Amani is her breaking promises. She left her best friend to suffer and promises herself she won’t break another and does it anyway. Which came back to bite her as things like this usually happened. But then when she had the option to leave Jin after he is injured Amani stays with him.

Currently there is no love triangle which is a relief and how it carries onto the second book.
Which because there wasn’t a cliffhanger I can wait a bit before I pick up the next book. Not that I didn’t enjoy the ending, and that there isn’t question I need answered. I just have plenty of books to read currently first.

Standard YA fantasy

Fairly standard YA novel in a less standard setting. If you like non European fantasy you may enjoy it.

One of my favorite books; brilliant narration

I love this series. Our tough as nails protagonist with her mysteries and desperation to break free from the cesspit she was born into. The mythology and many-sided war is engrossing and interesting. It's a special bonus that it's not always easy to see who is "right."

The secondary characters are a delight, too. Each so vivid and fascinating.

Nankani has a beautiful voice and narrates this wonderful tale with brilliance.

none of the negative reviews even read this book

I read the book and all the criticism gets explained litterally 3 chapters in. spoilers: she is good at shooting because she practiced a lot and also is a half supernatural being.

Great Plot, Boring Writing Style

This series was on my radar for a while, I can see why people voted it best debut author, the idea is pretty great and I enjoyed the overall vibe of the book
The story is about Amani, she is from a dessert country called Miraji where there is a problem with the politics and there is a rightful heir to the throne who is hunted to be killed so his brothers claim the throne .. back to Amani, all she wants is to get out of this country and go to her aunt in Izman and maybe she will get a better life, so she tries to collect money by pretending to be a boy and going to shooting contests (did I mention that she is an excellent shot ? ) and there she meets a stranger and with a twist of fate this stranger finds out that she is a girl and he becomes her key to fleeing the country, but before she arrives to Izman Amani finds herself in the middle of a rebellion and she discovers a truth about herself she didn't expect at all
as I said, I did enjoy the overall plot of the book but the writing style was really boring for my taste I don't know if it was me or the writing failed to capture me, at some point I felt like I was watching Dune movie (which I absolutely hated !! ) .. I think Amani will be a great friend with Zafira from (We Hunt The Flame)
I want to be excited about the second book but that ending was really anticlimactic for some reason, hopefully the second book is better let's see

A Delight

I don't know why it took me so long to listen to this! This is the story I've been aching for for so long. This is not a story of the chosen one, a relief, but the story of a strong willed girl trying to do what's right.

Well executed, likeable and relatable characters, and an interesting setting and world. Absolutely recommend.

4 stars for narration. She did a good job, although I wish there had been more distinctive voices across the board. I may go back and physically read this one, that's how good it was.

So good!!

This has been sitting on my app for a while now and I can’t believe I just let it sit there!!!! This was so good, omg, I couldn’t believe it ended when it did. So now I’ve got to get the next two to feed my new addiction!!!!!!!