ARC Review: We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya #1) by Hafsah Faizal
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Series: Sands of Arawiya #1
Author: Hafsah Faizal
Published August 27th 2019 by Macmillan Children's Books
Goodreads Synopsis
People lived because she killed. People died because he lived.
Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the sultan. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. Both Zafira and Nasir are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya--but neither wants to be.
War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the sultan on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds--and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.
Living in a caliphate were girls are treated as lesser citizens, Zafira has been keeping a secret for years. She is the Hunter, who braves the Arz daily in order to hunt for food to keep the people in her small village alive. Most people can never find their way in the cursed Arz, and when Zafira flees into the forest to hide from the Sultan's army, she comes across the Silver Witch, who asks her to head on a quest to the island of Sharr, when the wicked Lion of the Night was imprisoned, to recover the missing piece that will return magic to the kingdom, once and for all. Zafira knows her strange sense of direction will help her in her efforts, but it also leads to others wanting to ally with her. Nasir is the crown prince, but he's also known as the Prince of Death, and has been tasked with killing the Demehune Hunter, and grabbing the artefact for the Sultan himself. When Zafira and Nasir, along with Altair, Benyamin, and Kifah, form an uneasy alliance, they soon discover that what they thought they knew about their world, and the story of the Six Sisters, was all wrong, and need to keep their wits about them in order to survive.
Now, I will be honest - this is my second time attempting to read the book. Back in 2019, before the book was released, I was sent an ARC by the UK publisher, and tried to read it, but could not get more than 70 pages into the book. I just wasn't gripped, thought that something was missing, and really couldn't understand the hype surrounding the book. Well, 2020 happened, and I decided to spend time trying to clear some of my backlog of review copies, and decided to retry We Hunt the Flame, and I'm so glad I did. This time around, I was hooked and loved Zafira's character so much. She was strong, and knew what she wanted, but also had a softer side that we saw as she became much more comfortable with the zumra as their time on Sharr progressed. Nasir is such a broody and tortured character, who's suffered so much under the hands of his father, the Sultan, and all he needed was a hug, really. He's soft at heart, but pushes everyone away in order to keep them safe, and seeing him with both Zafira and Altair as he started to come into his own, was amazing.
The world building for Arawiya, with the added history and mythology of the Six Sisters was so well written and woven into every page, that you honestly felt like you were seeing what was happening in real life. The world is made up of five different caliphates: Alderamin, Pelusia, Zaram, Sarasin, and Demenhur, which all should have their own caliph leading, but the Sultan is taking control of more and more areas, and wants to control the whole world. The mysterious Arz erupted around the Baransea when the Six Sisters fell, and magic was lost, and it is encroaching more and more into each caliphate, until the majority of people are suffering. I can't wait to see how the epic cliffhanger in We Hunt the Flame affects what happens in book 2, and if the rag tag bunch manage to succeed in saving each other and Arawiya.
Dates Read:
December 22-24, 2020
Rating
4 Stars
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