I was wrapped up to my eyes, and even hours after sunset I was sweating under the padding like a sinner at prayers. My hand snapped to my sheema before I could think better of it, checking it was still tightly fastened so the better part of my face was covered. The doors of the bar banged open, spilling out light and noise and a fat drunk with his arm around a pretty girl. Everything I owned belonged to my uncle anyway, according to law, down to the clothes on my back. I’d stolen the hat from my uncle, along with the horse. I tugged the wide brim of my hat lower as I stepped out of the yard. Or maybe that was just his two black eyes. The kid sitting against the fence was sizing me up suspiciously. I slid from Blue’s saddle and tethered her to a post behind some bar called the Dusty Mouth. Then again, I wasn’t exactly up to no bad neither. Particularly enjoyable are some of the mythical creatures that add to the mix: “Nightmares” unfurl from “a vicious leathery ball into spindly limbs and filmy black wings” “Skinwalkers” take on the appearance of the last human they ate and the offspring of Djinns and mortals – the Demdjii – have superpowers allowing them, for example, to reduce a man to ash at will.They said the only folks who belonged in Deadshot after dark were the ones who were up to no good.

Over the course of the novel, Hamilton creates a convincing alternative universe. Eventually Amani must decide whether to part company and head for the city, or become embroiled in a rebellion: “A new dawn, a new desert.” There is great chemistry between the romantic leads, who are each other’s match in word and deed. Jin’s true ambitions, allegiances and identity are only gradually revealed. The two head off into the desert together. Things don’t go according to plan, and when the teasingly named foreigner, Jin, blows up the town’s explosives factory, Amani throws in her lot with him in order to escape. Tales her mother had told her about Izman, “city of a thousand golden domes”, prompt her to run away and start a new life. Deemed to be in need of a husband who might be able to “finally beat some sense into her”, Amani discovers that she is about to be married to her uncle. He dubs her the “blue-eyed bandit”.Īs her mother was hanged for killing her drunkard father (he called her “a used-up foreigner’s whore who couldn’t give him a son”), Amani lives with her aunt and uncle and his innumerable offspring. She also meets a dark foreigner with “the uncanniest eyes I’d ever seen”.

Naturally, Amani is an ace shot, and during the course of the evening she proves her mettle. It’s the first of many tongue-in-cheek one-liners from a plucky and resourceful heroine who is easy to root for.

Rebel of the sands by alwyn hamilton