Novel: The Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton | Goodreads
Release Date: March 18, 2016
Publisher: Viking
Format: Hardcover
Source: BookDepository
Synopsis
Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mythical beasts still roam the wild and remote areas, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinn still perform their magic. For humans, it’s an unforgiving place, especially if you’re poor, orphaned, or female.
Amani Al’Hiza is all three. She’s a gifted gunslinger with perfect aim, but she can’t shoot her way out of Dustwalk, the back-country town where she’s destined to wind up wed or dead.
Then she meets Jin, a rakish foreigner, in a shooting contest, and sees him as the perfect escape route. But though she’s spent years dreaming of leaving Dustwalk, she never imagined she’d gallop away on mythical horse—or that it would take a foreign fugitive to show her the heart of the desert she thought she knew.
Review
I initially read Rebel of the Sands in 2016 when it was first released. I really enjoyed it, and reviewed it on Goodreads. However, I distinctly remember my frustration with the very abrupt ending. I picked up the rest of the series this spring when book three was published. My plan was to re-read Rebel (truthfully my memory isn’t too great these days), then marathon the remainder of the series. I finally got around to rereading Rebel of the Sands last month, so I thought I would throw up a quick review since my intent is to review the rest of the series.
Alwyn Hamilton created a world that stunned me. The magic that she created based in folklore fascinated me. It was such a rich backdrop for this story. Both in my initial read and my re-read, the timeline annoyed me. Amani and Jin are walking through the desert for something like six months, and yet we barely see their interactions during this time. Perhaps Hamilton was trying to avoid the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows issue of 37 unnecessary chapters of the characters camping. Unfortunately, I thought it was a missed opportunity to really develop the relationship between Jin and Amani.
Consequently, the relationships that Amani has with the various members of the Rebellion seem rushed. It felt odd how “connected” she was with the rebels. It seemed like she had only met a couple of days before. This rushed feeling continued all the way to the end of the book. The ending felt abrupt and a weird choice for a stopping point. This wasn’t the “why did you stop at a cliffhanger” frustration that I tend to have with series. Instead, I sort of went, “Wait, that’s all? Did they leave out the last couple of chapters in the book?”
Ultimately, what I fell in love with and what made me pick the series back up (aside from the gorgeous cover art) was the beautiful world that Hamilton created. The tales of Djinni and the interplay of technology, magic, and religion reeled me in. I took a break from the world but knew that I would need to return to it eventually. I could not say no to the promise of more countries, a deeper understanding of this world, and to find out more about what created Amani.
