I think what this story lacks for a long time is an end goal. Because Amani has been desperate to leave her town and Jin is a wanted fugitive, the two hit the road in a blaze of drama. Jin is an easy-to-spot love interest as early as page seven, when he is introduced with a detailed description of his bone structure *rolls eyes*, but the two have zero chemistry. The beginning is literally all about getting Amani and Jin on the road together. And yes, I'll admit the other books may just have the advantage of being first but, for whatever reason, they were so much more compelling than this one. ^This sums up the plot of each book I mentioned, as well as Rebel of the Sands. Long-ass road trips, usually with accompanying hot dude. Absent or dead parents forcing heroine to impersonate a cowboy and go on the road.
Badass, gun-toting heroine who, though pretty cool, is exactly the same in each book. My initial excitement over this return to the Western genre is petering out, because it seems that everyone is telling the same story. Maybe I would have liked it more had I not already read the first two thirds in Walk on Earth a Stranger, Vengeance Road and Under a Painted Sky. I didn't think it worked and, if you ask me, it succeeded in taking an area of the world that is oft-unexplored in modern fantasy and westernizing it.Ģ) For the most part, this book mirrors the plot of the stream of other Westerns we've seen lately. By "Western", I mean cowboys, shoot outs, saloons, etc. On two levels.ġ) Firstly, I just did not like the fusion of Arabian mythology with a Western setting. I'm willing to admit that part of my problem with this book is a personal one.
It takes a very long time to get there, though, and the journey is a slow one.
Rebel of the Sands does pick up toward the end when the real fantasy and magic elements are finally introduced to the story. And yet, for the first two thirds, I was so painfully bored I very nearly DNFed it. A Middle-Eastern fantasy with djinn, magic and mythical horses? It's like a unique and delicious recipe for exactly the kind of book I would love. Jin had the sort of smile that would turn over whole empires to the enemy - that made me feel like suddenly I understood him exactly, even though I knew nothing about him.
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