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Rebel of the Sands #1-2
Traitor to the Throne
Rebel of the Sands Trilogy Alwyn Hamilton Collection 2 Books Bundle with Gift Journal includes titles in this collection :- Rebel of the Sands, Traitor to the Throne. Rebel of the Sands (Rebel of the Sands Trilogy 1) This phenomenal novel is the first in a trilogy packed with shooting contests, train robberies, festivals under the stars, powerful Djinni magic and an electrifying love story. "Tell me that and we'll go. Right now. Save ourselves and leave this place to burn. Tell me that's how you want your story to go and we'll write it straight across the sand." Dustwalk is Amani's home. The desert sand is in her bones. But she wants to escape. More than a want. A need. Then a foreigner with no name turns up to save her life, and with him the chance to run. But to where? The desert plains are full of danger. Sand and blood are swirling, and the Sultan's enemies are on the rise. Traitor to the Throne (Rebel of the Sands Trilogy 2) Nearly a year has passed since Amani and the rebels won their epic battle at Fahali. Amani has come into both her powers and her reputation as the Blue-Eyed Bandit, and the Rebel Prince's message has spread across the desert - and some might say out of control. But when a surprise encounter turns into a brutal kidnapping, Amani finds herself betrayed in the cruellest manner possible. Stripped of her powers and her identity, and torn from the man she loves, Amani must return to her desert-girl's instinct for survival. For the Sultan's palace is a dangerous one, and the harem is a viper's nest of suspicion, fear and intrigue. Just the right place for a spy to thrive... But spying is a dangerous game, and when ghosts from Amani's past emerge to haunt her, she begins to wonder if she can trust her own treacherous heart.
- GenresFantasy
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 8, 2023
I remember being so starved of any ounce of positive representation I thought this was the best thing ever as a 13 year old. Now at 19 I look back and I think ‘wow…’
Random stuff I remember and thought ‘oookayy that’s a little strange’
- blue eyes are so unbelievably unique so much so it’s an identifier of jinn. So many Arabs and south Asian people have an insane diversity of genetics, one person will have dark skin and dark eyes and their sibling will have blond hair and blue eyes and yet both will be 100% Arab or south Asian. You can see this a lot in the levant countries, north Africa and even countries like Afghanistan.
All of the characters seemed to have the similar ‘dark skin and eyes’ which is nice… but nope we are not all a copy and paste of the same character.
-the Disney move of ‘let’s just mush a whole bunch of cultures together’.
Throughout the book I remember feeling weird about the fact that the people in the book had a strange mixture of irl cultures. This isn’t anything new, many raised this point when Aladdin came out. Now, I’m not saying this has to be 100% authentic and accurate to real life because this is a fantasy, but at the same time it just comes across as a little lazy.
A comic artist who is surrounding her works around middle eastern and Muslim countries on insta is called @nero_arts.2 and she does this very well by having each group or tribe be inspired by real cultures (e.g. the protagonists tribe is inspired by the Ottoman Empire). These characters are *inspired* and not 100% representing the cultures but you feel the individuality and authenticity. Another example, Avatar: the last air bender with each nation inspired by the history, quality and cultures of Chinese, Inuit etc people.
I’m in no way saying that a white author cannot write stories about different cultures and such, and it was lovely to see this at 13 be an attempt at my culture in a positive original way, but it’s such a huge shame that a lot of it just fell into your generic YA fantasy type with a mix and match blended group of people. This is why ALOT of people recommend interviewing people or engaging in conversations with people that are knowledgeable in their cultures like Husseini does.
- the half brother turned crazy religious leader had me cry laughing. Mighty military soldier —> crazy overly religious priest that will kill anyone unworthy. If it wasn’t a stereotype in every book I would have humoured it a little more.
- for the love of god please these 1000 wife harems has to be stopped please please. I know polygamy is thing in our religion and culture but it’s really not that big of a thing 😭
-the whole your souls are tied in marriage when you have sex so if one is killed by a jinn another is also killed. I got whiplash just remembering it. Speaking of which I know marketing needs some romance but a sex scene the night before battle was just so weird
-to add to the cultures point, I loved the Easter eggs in the names like ‘shahrazad’ but that also got me very confused. Some names were Arabic, some Persian and others I’m not sure. It was a little weird hearing a mix of names from different languages yet all of them speak the same language and are of the same culture.
- not necessarily a criticism I just remembered this so here’s a fun fact: In the book there are half jinns that have fun superpowers and this is a fun concept I’m not gonna trash on it but a little not so fun fact is that it is believed that actual half jinns are called ‘NusNus’ which means ‘half half’ and they are horrifically deformed hybrids that have half of what a normal human has such as one leg and one arm (not sure whether this is pre-islamic folklore or not I’ll have to read up on it).
-I said I wasn’t going to trash on the concept but it baffles me a little that the jinn are considered gods in the book whereas irl they are very very similar to humans though they are from a different world and should not ideally enter ours. They are capable of free will and do have incredible abilities humans do not. They’re typically not worshipped but rather used for witchcraft and black magic so yeah…
Will add more when I remember.
Random stuff I remember and thought ‘oookayy that’s a little strange’
- blue eyes are so unbelievably unique so much so it’s an identifier of jinn. So many Arabs and south Asian people have an insane diversity of genetics, one person will have dark skin and dark eyes and their sibling will have blond hair and blue eyes and yet both will be 100% Arab or south Asian. You can see this a lot in the levant countries, north Africa and even countries like Afghanistan.
All of the characters seemed to have the similar ‘dark skin and eyes’ which is nice… but nope we are not all a copy and paste of the same character.
-the Disney move of ‘let’s just mush a whole bunch of cultures together’.
Throughout the book I remember feeling weird about the fact that the people in the book had a strange mixture of irl cultures. This isn’t anything new, many raised this point when Aladdin came out. Now, I’m not saying this has to be 100% authentic and accurate to real life because this is a fantasy, but at the same time it just comes across as a little lazy.
A comic artist who is surrounding her works around middle eastern and Muslim countries on insta is called @nero_arts.2 and she does this very well by having each group or tribe be inspired by real cultures (e.g. the protagonists tribe is inspired by the Ottoman Empire). These characters are *inspired* and not 100% representing the cultures but you feel the individuality and authenticity. Another example, Avatar: the last air bender with each nation inspired by the history, quality and cultures of Chinese, Inuit etc people.
I’m in no way saying that a white author cannot write stories about different cultures and such, and it was lovely to see this at 13 be an attempt at my culture in a positive original way, but it’s such a huge shame that a lot of it just fell into your generic YA fantasy type with a mix and match blended group of people. This is why ALOT of people recommend interviewing people or engaging in conversations with people that are knowledgeable in their cultures like Husseini does.
- the half brother turned crazy religious leader had me cry laughing. Mighty military soldier —> crazy overly religious priest that will kill anyone unworthy. If it wasn’t a stereotype in every book I would have humoured it a little more.
- for the love of god please these 1000 wife harems has to be stopped please please. I know polygamy is thing in our religion and culture but it’s really not that big of a thing 😭
-the whole your souls are tied in marriage when you have sex so if one is killed by a jinn another is also killed. I got whiplash just remembering it. Speaking of which I know marketing needs some romance but a sex scene the night before battle was just so weird
-to add to the cultures point, I loved the Easter eggs in the names like ‘shahrazad’ but that also got me very confused. Some names were Arabic, some Persian and others I’m not sure. It was a little weird hearing a mix of names from different languages yet all of them speak the same language and are of the same culture.
- not necessarily a criticism I just remembered this so here’s a fun fact: In the book there are half jinns that have fun superpowers and this is a fun concept I’m not gonna trash on it but a little not so fun fact is that it is believed that actual half jinns are called ‘NusNus’ which means ‘half half’ and they are horrifically deformed hybrids that have half of what a normal human has such as one leg and one arm (not sure whether this is pre-islamic folklore or not I’ll have to read up on it).
-I said I wasn’t going to trash on the concept but it baffles me a little that the jinn are considered gods in the book whereas irl they are very very similar to humans though they are from a different world and should not ideally enter ours. They are capable of free will and do have incredible abilities humans do not. They’re typically not worshipped but rather used for witchcraft and black magic so yeah…
Will add more when I remember.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 30, 2023
I absolutely love these series my favourite of all time. The character development and the main character amani. The thing i am most disappointed about is that we don’t get to see more of her brother noorsham. I like how she has all these complicated feelings about her father and how angry he makes her. She is a very complicated person and I like that, this is just my favourite series of all times. 👍
April 29, 2024
I read the book because I want to know what will happen after the first book. This story is so addictive, when you want to take a break, there is something suddenly happened and you just cannot stop reading.
However the spotlight is all in Amani, that would be great if we have some rooms for others as well.
thank you for creating this amazing world.
However the spotlight is all in Amani, that would be great if we have some rooms for others as well.
thank you for creating this amazing world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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May 21, 2024amazing expeptiinal book wowowowwo
December 18, 2021
Excellent
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews