The "Rebel of the Sands" Trilogy: A Book Recommendation

TLDR: 5/5 stars, incredible desert fantasy novel. YA, but very well written.

I've recently began listening to audio books instead of reading physical books. The idea of audio books never appealed much to me before, because I could never keep my focus on them long enough not to miss entire plot points or dialogues. But this month, I've given them another go.

Outside of my own writing, I don't read many books (if any at all), so I was looking for a way to read that could be combined with something else, so that I don't lose any hours of my day holding a book (which, don't get me wrong, I love. It's just not that realistic for me to read for an hour a day because I have so many other things to do). And alas, I've found that combining an audio book with an activity that doesn't require any "word thinking", or something I need to use the thinking side of my brain for, works better than expected.

Now I listen to audio books while creating art, and I'm flying through books like I haven't done since I was a child, reading with a flashlight underneath my blanket.

One of the books (or, three) I've listened to was Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton.

This recommendation will not contain any spoilers.

I came across it while researching for my own desert fantasy novel that I'm writing (read more here), though mine is more a historical fiction because there is no magic in it. In this one, however, there is. But though there's magic, it's not done in an overtly YA way; it is actually done in a very interesting and a true to desert fantasy way.

Amani, the main character, is a girl from Dustwalk––a small village in the desert kingdom of Miraji. She lives with her abusive aunt and uncle, and an array of cousins. Her mother died by hanging because she killed Amani's father (for good reason, he was a drunk and an abuser), so ever since, she's lived with her aunt and uncle. She's very eager to escape the village, but she is trapped there with them, though she's not all alone in there, she has a best friend that she trusts like no other.

She gains the nickname of the "blue eyed bandit" from a pistol shooting contest, and she meets a boy who later turns out to be named Jin (or Jinn, I haven't read it, it listened to it). He's a foreign prince, and, as we find out as the story progresses, is the brother of the rebel prince Achmed. The rebellion seeks to overturn the Sultan, who is the father of the rebel prince.

The trilogy is about the rebellion and Amani's place in it, Genie magic (and the magic of their half blood children), strategy, romance, mythology, harems, sea faring, found family (and lost family), and it is done in a fantastic way. There is a train chase scene in the first book that was unexpected, but exactly what I liked. It stuck with me, because I'm writing both a historical desert novel and a mystery novel set in a train for a large part. A funny coincidence.

Though lengthy (the first one I listened to before I realized I could put the narration at quicker speeds), I finished each part of the trilogy in one sitting. I was entirely consumed by the world and its writing.

The character building and progression of the arcs is done amazingly, and though we lose a lot of people to death, their endings are well thought out and satisfying (for the most part, some I was very upset with, simply because I'd grown to like the character so much). Characters weren't one dimensional, nor put in a box. There were definitely some character types, but they transcended those when needed, and didn't become caricatures of characters.

The world building and magic system work very well both on their own and put together. They complement one another, and it feels like reading real mythology at times (I won't lie to you and say I didn't search for terms they mentioned any less than ten times throughout the stories, turns out the author even created names for things like face protection which in real life is called a shemagh for example, she named it sheema, which is very cool. Shemagh only started appearing as a term in modern times, so it wouldn't have existed in any form any time before that––so I can't use it in my semi-historical fiction type of desert story, but she can in her fantasy one––but the fact she took that and made sheema of it shows the thought and research she put into the world building).

Hidden agendas and manipulations were sometimes a bit predictable, but that doesn't mean they didn't hold meaning or value. Since it's YA, it should not be held to Agatha Christia levels of mystery. There were still moments that I did not see coming in the slightest, or moments I predicted wrong. To be fair, I was listening more closely than I would usually, because it was research of sorts for my own novel. Otherwise I most likely wouldn't have guessed half of the things I guessed based now on usual story progression.

The life lessons in this book were well picked for the sort of story it was. The dialogue was good and more than occasionally funny and clever. The emotional depth of the story ran deep, and backstories were very well done. The covers are beautiful, I wish they sat on my books. the conclusion was satisfying. I cried once.

Overall, I had a very good time listening to the three books. These will go down as one of my favorite trilogies in YA fantasy. Highly recommended.