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

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?

Audio Issues

I couldn't make it past the first few minutes because the audio was horrible. I sounded like the re-recorded sections and the quality wasn't the same, or it was a different narrator all together. I would rather give a standard copy of the book a go rather than listen to bad audio.

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.

Leaves much to be desired

I’ll start with the positive. The performance of the narrators was impeccable. It is honestly what kept me going and helped me finish the book. I actually looked up Steve West to see what other books he’s narrated. There I give it a 5/5 stars

I saw that this book received A LOT of positive reviews and I couldn’t wait to read it. Fantasy is my absolute favorite genre and trust me when I say I’ve read A LOT of fantasy books. But I’m sad to say I’m disappointed.

This book felt...VERY rushed. The creativity was there; the lore and the story were all there. But the execution leaves much to be desired. I didn’t feel immersed into the world but rather, I felt thrown into it. I felt that pieces of lore were just thrown at the reader for the sake of explaining what is going on rather than letting the reader actually experience it. It leaves a lot of questions. I’d love to give examples but I don’t want to spoil anything. If a new concept was introduced it was similar to “oh btw this thing is in the world, there is nothing that led to this information so I’m just going to tell you this exists and you need to accept it”. There is a lack of foreshadowing, world building, and character development that I couldn’t make heads or tails out of. The characters were not developed well neither. One moment we have a character act a certain way, and the next the same character acts in a complete opposite manner. It was more frustrating than anything. I couldn’t get attached to any of the characters.

The book is not for those who like their fantasy fleshed out and detailed as they progress through the story.

Confusing. Irritating. Horrible

I couldn’t get into this book. The relationships between characters felt too unnatural, forced. The story and source of the lost magic didn’t make any sense. There were several major twists that seemed wrong somehow & they led to me rolling my eyes instead of thing “oh wow, didn’t see that coming.”

Overall, I disliked it. Very much.

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

poor story, terrible audio

the story line is good, the narration is good, but the writings is terrible, so boring and redundant it drags, dont waste your time

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.

Spoilers: felt incomplete

I liked the setting and characters of this book but feel the story could’ve been better. My biggest problem with this book is I feel not enough time was given to build and detail the main plot. The first half of the book was spent dumping information about the characters lives that wasn’t relevant to the story. It could’ve been covered in a few chapters or referenced throughout the story. Then when the main plot gets going it feels rushed, poorly described with giant holes like Swiss cheese.

I was tired of hearing about their Inter personal relationships for the first half. For instance, it discusses both main characters previous love interests in great detail only for one to die as soon as the main plot started and the other finds out his love interest betrayed him/was a spy. Then suddenly after knowing each other 10 days the main characters “fall in love” completely disregarding the people they once cared for. I think if the info had been given in a different order it would have been more impactful. I didn’t think it was necessary to kill her friend that was in love with her bc his death didn’t really serve a purpose. It didn’t prevent her from falling for the main guy, it didn’t change her, and it didn’t make her reconsider the quest she was on really. It felt like a lazy way to get him out of the way. I think the plot would’ve been better served had he confessed his feelings, she agreed to marry him, and then he stayed in their village. That would’ve created some hesitation on her part not to fall for the main male character or at least some tension.

This book felt like things were pulled out of no where to move the plot instead of the plot being moved naturally in a way that made sense. There were things that happened that were never alluded to or built in a way that seemed planned. These points specifically bothered me:

- how the magical witch made the forest disappear so they could go on their quest. Yet the forest is supposed to be super deadly and magical, yet poof it’s gone to move the plot. This made the threats seem not very intense so why even go on the quest? Why can’t witch lady just keep the forest away??
-how a magic immortal man (Ben) showed up in the desert with all the answers only to be killed once his useful info expired. He was a great character but I feel like he could’ve been mentioned at least before he showed up.
-how once they found what they were looking for after wandering the desert for weeks they suddenly escape right to a ship that knew exactly where they were. Because witch powers??? Idk
-also they FORGOT Altair when they escaped. How?? He’s the most loud mouthed character. There were only 4 of you. How do you not know he’s missing?
-how the main bad guy never explained his plans which gave no weight to the story. He just wants magic.
-how not enough time was spent discussing the main bad guy as legendary as he was supposed to be but we had literal chapters of her whining about her crazy mom.
-how the most powerful witch alive turned out to be one of the ancient magical sisters and then also turned out to be the male characters dead mother, even though she’d been near him for years watching him be beat and abused but never revealing herself.. but she’s also “good”???
-how the one quirky fun character in the book (Altair) seemed to have undying patience for the male main characters bs but then you find out they are suddenly brothers with zero foreshadowing to this. It didn’t even seem like they started talking to each other until they were sent on this mission despite also being around each other for years.
- then the witch just leave Altair on the island with the main bad guy, even tho he’s her son too. He was just completely forgotten, which feels unbelievable.
- then we find out the main bad guy is Altair’s father… ok.

I guess for me there were too many twists that weren’t really twists because there was no foreshadowing. Therefore it just felt like things were written in to move the plot regardless of how it made the reader feel. I really didn’t think making them brothers was necessary or making the witch their mom was necessary but it’s not my book so….. I just wish subtle hints had been dropped for the reader so it didn’t feel like all these huge things came out of nowhere. I’m all for a twist but it just felt over the top for the amount of info given.

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.

Embarrassing to hear

I have many qualms about the plot, characterization and world building. But it all pales next to the horrific narration. If it were any other book, I’m sure the narrators would’ve done a great job. Not for this book though. If an Arabic speaker doesn’t understand a single Arabic word they pronounce, I believe that means they failed miserably in narrating a book that contains so many Arabic words and names. I hope Audible makes sure they hire narrators with a suitable background to the books here.

Very poor

I didn’t enjoy the audio for this book at all. Many of the words, especially the characters names, sounded pre recorded which made the narration falter every time. Mid way through one narrator changed the way the name Altair was pronounced while the other didn’t and both kept using different pronunciations at different time. All in all - although the story was not particularly original- I think the narration did a great disservice to the novel which is a pity.

Good book, God-Awful voice acting.

I absolutely loved the story, all the characters and the interesting world that the story takes place. BUT oh my gosh the female voice actor was so shite. For some reason whenever she said characters names it sounded like the clip was from somewhere else and had been pasted in and it was SO distracting. The dude was alright though and he made the characters sound interesting so he gets two 1/2 stars and the woman gets 1/2 a star for her ability to read.

I would recommend this book but i would not buy it as an audiobook here for the full price. hope that helped besties xoxo

AI narration ?

You know this is probably one of the best titles I have ever encountered.
The story is rich with plot and well scripted characters, I like the lore too.

****The narration is so disappointing and a massive put off. A few times I thought it might be an AI reading it, the “narrators” both seem to struggle pronouncing names and places and sometimes it sounds as though the names and places are pre recorded and Inserted. Terrible narration consistently. What a shame to do such a dishonour to a grand story.****

Overall I’ve really enjoyed it and will definitely be having another listen soon to see what makes more sense a second time round.

Can recommend it .

Female narrator makes a lot of errors

This book is amazing. I did already read it once before listening to the audio book. West's performance is good, but Hardingham's is embarrassingly full of errors. Saying the wrong words and such. The audio feels chopped and edited in some places; they probably had to go back to repair her errors, but still missed quite a few. I don't know. Disappointing performance for such an amazing book; it deserves better. I also wish the narrators spoke Arabic, so that we could get true pronunciation of the Arabic words in this book, as opposed to the English-ification we're getting. It kind of ruins the bilingual, multicultural vibe of this book, that I love so much. Oh well. Guess that'd be too much to ask for...

Great story - not so great audio

The story is really compelling and interesting, but the edits of lines being reread out loud are very obvious, and distract from truly being submerged into the story.

GRACEFUL THEME

Pros:

-Very lovable characters
-Great character development
-Really enjoyed descriptions of emotions (very poetic)

Improvements:

-I often found it difficult to place myself in the story. for example understanding where certain conversations are happening and would love more of a description of where on Shah they were.

-I didn't understand the destruction and darkness (being a good thing) theme all that well. (maybe this just me)

Conclusion:

Really great read! would definitely recommend this to a friend. But needs better scene descriptions (general description was great, would just get lost sometimes)

Brilliant

I absolutely loved this story!

Audio : I don't really get the reviews about the audio being bad. I really liked the audio (same guy who narrated Strange the Dreamer) and although it always takes adjusting listening to different narrators when you change books, I have heard much, much worse. Sometimes it was a little confusing whether someone was thinking something or saying it, but otherwise I thought they did a great job and I'd say I'm quite fussy about audiobook narrators.

The actual Review: The book itself is amazing. The story telling, the plot, the characters. I laughed and I cried and I listened to it in one day.

The only upsetting thing for me was that I couldn't listen to the second straight away! I ordered the physical book 2 immediately (as apparently Faizal doesn't prep the reader about the first book in the second book) , but I'm just in one of those reading funks where I need to lie back and listen to an audiobook. I know other countries have it... so please Audible - bring it to the UK soon!

Loved it but at some points the narration faltered

Nothing super revolutionary in terms of plot points, but I was really engrossed in this story. A solid YA book with good world building and I loved the mixed language elements. A great book to escape in during lockdown. It was just what I was looking for.

What let it down was at some points was the narration seemed rerecorded, or the levels weren't mixed correctly as it was loud then a bit quieter. At one point, I wondered if Zafira had a different speaking voice actor to the narrator of her chapters in the beginning. Nope, just poor sound mixing. But it was fine after the beginning of the book. Also, Altair's name pronunciation at the end changed for some reason during Zafira's chapters. Even within the chapter it would be pronounced two ways, and I briefly considered if I had missed a character. Again, nope... same guy. But honestly, the story was compelling, so the narration inconsistencies weren't the end of the world for me. The Nasir's narration was great throughout, and I really did like Zafira's narrator's voice- it was just at times an inconsistent performance.

Sort of Spoiler:
The only part of the story that really irked me was the character Dean. Dean was a pointless character. I enjoyed the ice cream moment but that could have just as easily been Lana or Jasmine. Or maybe I wouldn't have minded him if he had stayed home. I get he's going to be a plot motivation/ driver for whatever happens in the next book in the series, but he just felt forced, bland and flat as a character and wholly unnecessary to the plot of this book.

Enthralling story

The story is fantastic, very immersive and the world building is phenomenal. At times hard to follow - had to rewind several times - would work better as a book rather than audio book. The different recordings for the Arabic words was initially annoying (one of the other reviews that made me wary of purchasing) but Y did not detract from enjoyment as you quickly get used to it.