The desert sands are not forgiving towards anyone, least of all poor, female orphans. Amani Al’Hiza is one such unlucky individual, her home, Dustwalk, made harder to endure by her dreams of a better life away from the sands she has always known.
She has heard rumours of a rebel prince, the rise of the Sultan’s army, and the strange and harmful magic that has lingered in the deserts since the beginning of time. So when a strange foreigner gives her a way out of Dustwalk, she has a chance to live the life she wants. But she soon gets caught up in the middle of a dangerous rebellion that could threaten to tear the desert apart.
This book was a book that I definitely needed to read. Alwyn Hamilton said she decided to “cross the wild west with Arabian Nights”. It was certainly a good mix. I always love magic in books (because all the best things in life are in books, right?) and the added mystical creatures were certainly a bonus! One thing I will say about these mystical creatures is I kept getting confused with their names, but I never read the names correctly (I spent half of the book thinking that the letter “i” at the end of the word ‘demdji’ was another ‘j’ – a demdji is one of said mystical creatures).
Throughout this book I was completely captivated by Amani’s journey and the history of her country, the legends that filled the sands and the stories and names that the rebellion was earning for themselves. This book is a must-read for anyone who is looking for fantasy with a twist, the kind that you’d find in another dimension of history.
A new dawn, a new desert.
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