Okay, so it's only a first draft completed. But as someone who usually struggles with just those, I'm pretty happy. I started drafting this in October/November, sitting next to my sister. She was playing the Les Miserables soundtrack and I'm pretty sure we were both supposed to be job-hunting. I played around with the opening sentence; I knew I wanted it to open with my younger sister character, Aritha. She was the part of the story that was the servant to the Empire so I wanted her to be central, already in the palace, to kick off the story. Immediately, I wanted to draw attention to the tattoo on her wrist and start of saying, "Hey, yeah, so this is an important thing she has." So, beside my sister, I wrote two lines of something about the steam of the pot making her face itch because she had to stir some sort of soup for the palace dinner that night. That turned out to be altered from hot to the feel of the cold of the stone floors making her flinch. Sensory, you see? I'm doing something right.
I called this story Imperial Infiltration. In the back of a taxi in Spain, driving back to the airport to come home, in mid-September last year, I began to have the tendrils of an idea about two sisters; one would be inside the palace and the other would pose as some princess or nobility figure for some reason. I didn't know what it was but I jotted it down on my phone and my mum asked what I was doing, and I just shrugged and said, "Another idea I probably won't use." Yet here I am this morning, writing about it and typing THE END to it. This all sounds very self-important for somebody who hasn't even got an agent or started editing this but I want to get my writing out there. I'd love for people to read this and gain interest, follow my news and updates. I don't know, but here's to trying! And here's to my sister for telling me to post and blog about my writing again properly to get it circulating, thank you! If anyone remembers, my earlier blog posts used to actually be about the last book I wrote so I may start that up again depending on how this one goes.
So Imperial Infiltration tortured my mind for a while. At the time, I was writing a story about two best friends in a gang of thieves, working for a man called Red. That story sucked quite spectacularly. It was fueled by pure anger and grudges and sadness and I'd never tried writing about thefts before but I persevered. But then I really, really couldn't help thinking that this new idea would be better; it would be the thing to break the spotting of creativity and I'd actually make good progress with it. So I began to write properly--each day, starting officially on this rule in January. And it's massively paid off for me. I've gotten a first draft completed in five months where my last full book took me a year and a bit. Yes, editing is to come next and I have my notes and my plans and the positivity still there in a waves, and this will be a lengthy process but I'm just enjoying my success here. My last post was dismal, angry, and I wanted a different tone.
This is the story of two sisters, only two years apart. When they lose both their parents, they're forced to duel out ownership of their house as they want to go their separate ways. Here, it doesn't matter who was born first; it just matters who wins. The eldest, Reya, wants to travel, train herself to become more like her father who served as the Emperor's general (this story is set in a big Empire called Zaari) and use the house as a constant base for when she returns. Aritha is the youngest and more logical. She just wants to live in the house, sell different furniture to buy her own things. But at the same time, she wants out completely. But their duel goes a little haywire and Reya gets injured, making her do that last step towards leaving. She travels to a place outside of the Empire called the Stones, a transformed battle safehouse, where she then trains with a different army general. Alone and surrounded by the house she originally wanted, Aritha can't bear the loneliness and memories so she leaves. But she leaves to go to the imperial palace. Her theory is that there, she'll have work without worrying that she'll have to return to an empty home, she'll be surrounded by people and she'll have a constant in her life again. So she becomes a servant. After a few choice events, Reya also makes her appearance in the palace, but posing as someone called Lady Revina and she's been sent there for some ulterior motive that even she didn't know.
Romance doesn't really take a high seat in this story. There is very much elements of it. For example, Aritha finds herself feeling for a lord's son within the palace and their journey assists in her own in her confidence. She's out of practice with feeling loved and second-guesses the reciprocated feelings quite a bit but she comes to realise Jackson, the son, does care about her. In the Stones, Reya and Eli, the general's nephew, come to have a certain arrangement of "hey, I'll kiss you and try to acknowledge that I like you but in reality and more sober, I'm too scared to admit it." But there's only make-believe feelings there. None of them really pursue it but they argue about it enough. It's more focused on the depth of the siblingship and the break in the past and how each of them deal with the loss of their parents and each other and what the memories and unfinished business does to them. Reya is a character who can get stroppy quite easily, someone easily scared. Aritha suffers from panic attacks and is timid, afraid in her own way, and is picked on within the palace. But she builds herself up each time because she only has herself. She falls the hardest out of everyone in the kitchen where she works but she's the first to get herself back up.
So this was originally planned to be a 420-page standalone. That was my goal when the idea began to take shape in my head. With each month, I counted up my daily wordcount and my monthly one and got better and better. Two days ago, I wrote a chapter ending and realised: oh, this is actually a pretty good, concluded ending. Followed by, wait! you have so much more to write. And I literally had an internal monologue/argument with myself over if I should leave it there and write a second book to couple with it because of how much further I wanted to go with this story, or if I should carry on writing, shorten my ideas and make it the standalone originally planned. So I took out my phone and talked and explained to my friend; she agreed that good fantasy usually comes as more than one book and it should be a duology. I asked others and they also agreed. So, after much deliberation, I'm now closing THE END on the first book standing at 340 pages (pre-edit) and beginning the editing process whilst planning out brief notes for the continuation. Me being me, I scrambled at the books on my shelves, somewhat disappointed as I don't feel like this is long enough but I've said all I want to in a now first book and tried to find others that had a 300-400 page count. And I did so I'm somewhat reassured this may be okay.
I have no idea what either one will be called now so I'll also be thinking up ideas for that and perhaps looking for critique partners again which never work out but heyho, timing is awful. In the second book, I plan for most things to come to light. The reason why Reya was sent to the palace, what the infiltration means, introducing characters into the off-limits part of the Empire called the Barian Desert rather than just have past legends being told. A lot more can go on with this story, especially given where I've ended it. I never thought I'd end a story with a kiss but that seemed right and nice for one of the character's partial conclusion.
I usually post updates on my personal Instagram account: reidandwriting, or I have a Twitter account @ShaneDReid where I post about my writing, if anyone's interested! Follow me or come chat to meeeee :D
Friday 31 March 2017
Sunday 12 March 2017
TRAITOR TO THE THRONE Review
This review includes spoilers for both REBEL OF THE SANDS and TRAITOR TO THE THRONE.
Here's the thing: one day, you finally pick up that pretty blue and gold book that's been waving at you for ages. You look away, leave it be for a while, think over buying it. But then you buy the book and it's called Rebel of the Sands written by an author with one of the coolest names going, Alwyn Hamilton. So this book turns out to be not just one of the best fantasy books set in a desert (which is so uncommon in YA fantasy) with legends galore but it has everything in it. And truly everything. Everything, enough to coax this booknerd to write their first fantasy book review.
(So if this is bad and messy and just godawful, please do excuse. I'm filled with a lot of emotions right now about this story and don't really know what anything is anymore.)
It turns out that this story of a rebellious, mouthy desert girl called Amani who learnt to shoot a gun at a very young age gripped me tightly enough to tumble headfirst into the equally pretty sequel. AND LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS THE SEQUEL.
It starts off with Amani being captured in Saramotai, soaking a shirt through with blood. She gets herself captured in order to free two rebels who'd already gotten themselves into trouble. There, in prison, she finds two sisters, one Demdji. From the prison, the rebels free many women who choose to follow them to their camp. One of them happens to be Amani's aunt who was meant to be making a life for herself in Izman, a more prospering city that was originally Amani's destination. This aunt also happens to be a bad woman and captures Amani one night when they run from their camp, selling her to the Sultan due to her Demdji powers. From there, Amani spends 70% of the book in the palace, under the command of the Sultan thanks to the iron and bronze embedded in her skin; the bronze to follow the orders and the iron the strip her of her powers. In the palace, she meets previous characters from Rebel, literal ghosts from her past, and also she meets Sam. A wall-walking, amusing boy who takes her nickname, Blue-Eyed Bandit, and turns it into a very notorious legend that includes seducing many women. Inside the palace, she's trapped in the harem and meets her Djinni father and makes unexpected allies and Leyla. Sweet, sweet Leyla. Traitor is Amani's time in the palace, enduring the Sultan's command in the face of his foreign guests and alliances and witnessing terrible things from inside, and finding her own true loyalty and doubts and helping the Rebellion from where she is, even when she can't quite reach them.
There's this wonderful transition from Rebel to Traitor where Amani isn't just a desert-girl from Dustwalk, her hometown. Now, she's fully recognised as the legendary Blue-Eyed Bandit, which originates from the very first chapter of Rebel. At first, her blue eyes are just another trait from her real father, who Amani doesn't know. But then she meets Jin, and through him, she gets the adventure and escape from her hometown she's always wanted. It's a little (a lot) bloody and dangerous that she may have anticipated but it gets her away. It gets her to an entirely different world. It gets her to the Rebellion. Through Jin, (wonderful, swoony, heart-breaking Jin) Amani meets the Rebel Prince, Ahmed. More importantly (I think), she meets Shazad, the ultimate female fighter in the whole thing. I adore Amani's skills and her constant need for guns and how the iron of guns made her securely human and safe for her entire life, but Shazad is truly something else.
The rebellion is not just some magic circle who think they can fix every problem with a flick of a hand or will and have elements at their fingertips. It's not just about having otherworldly elements at their disposal there. The Rebellion is everything. It's a human prince who wants a better world for his country, who wants to be a better ruler than his murderous father, the Sultan. It's a general's daughter who's constantly underestimated due to being both female and beautiful. Nobody looks past Shazad's status or beauty to see the cunning brains she has. It's Demdji's working alongside non-Demdji's and having a fully mutual respect. Hala, Imin, Izz and Maz, Delila. All of them having their own powers that set them aside from each other but make them fit easily with the Rebellion. They're not selfish magic-users; they want to use their Demdji gifts to better the world, to help their friends and families and their prince.
In Traitor, there are so many elements of the world addressed. Something I found incredibly important was Imin's character and the swaps. As a shape-shifter, Imin switches between female and male appearances and with that Alwyn Hamilton tailors to the gender swap, giving light to an issue that has such an influence within the story. Navid, Imin's husband (as he becomes in the sequel), is mentioned to never discriminate Imin for whatever form she chooses. Whether Imin is a burly guard hiding in plain sight in the palace, or a slight young woman sitting in Navid's lap, as his wife, he loves Imin whole-heartedly and never loses an ounce of that dedication and love no matter the form he sees. And for me, that was an amazing thing to have included in this story. It's an equality within a relationship, friendship, and a world-changing group to all see Imin as anything she chose or had to be seen as. It's diversity for Imin's character; to show her (or his) value to the Rebellion as anything. She dedicates her entire being and appearance to any role she needs to fill and is never ashamed or let anyone put her down for any shape she chooses to take.
Also in the umbrella of gender, there's Shazad, as mentioned earlier. An incredible woman I was happy to read about on International Women's Day because if there was ever an admirably strong woman from the very start of her introduction, it's Shazad. As a general's daughter, it seems as though there could be a lot of pressure for her to be the leader of battles and strategies and she slips into that role so, so easily, and clearly has her passion for it. She's calculating, often formidable when she uses her appearance to her advantage to fight her enemies. Nobody expects her to be this girl who steps out of a stand storm wielding swords against soldiers but she does. And she does it wonderfully. Shazad faces an awful thing in Rebel: losing her best friend, Bahi. But she doesn't let that defeat her--she grieves for her friend but she comes back fighting, always. Even when she is met with hurdles and hitches in her carefully thought-out plans, she alters if she needs to and so quickly. Her mind is constantly moving with logic and thought and strategy. Know this about this story: Shazad is incredible. She is an inspiration with unwavering dedication to her cause, her prince, her friends. She's the character who, one minute, will be laughing with her head thrown back, pulling off a gorgeous khalat; the next, she'll whipping out a weapon from somewhere nobody quite knows and getting anyone to safety and fighting her way out.
Another notable woman in the series so far is the Demdji Hala. (Honestly, Alwyn, you write so many admirable females, I'll want to write for DAYS about them and had to narrow my individual talks.) At first, her and Amani don't seem to get along. The gold-skinned Demdji meets the Demdji-forced-human who literally grew up in golden sand. They're both golden-covered girls but for different reasons. It's Hala who ends up being Amani's most relatable friend in the Rebellion, learning to harness and know her power, helping her out when she loses it again, understanding what it would be like to lose the thing that makes her different. So when Amani returns to her aunt's place to get the iron removed from inside her, it's Hala she chooses to come with her. Not Shazad, not Jin. Hala. Because she knows Hala understands. And that was a massive bonding thing. I was deeply touched by how much Hala helped Amani out in that part. She alters the aunt's mind and when she sees Amani in the overwhelming amount of pain she is when the iron is being cut out of her, Hala takes her away to an illusion, taking the pain away. Something in Hala cares deeply for Amani and helps her through that pain and gives her something beautiful to focus on instead. I actually wanted to cry at that part, it felt so vital to develop that rocky friendship.
Traitor to the Throne is a story of immense sacrifice and reflection and betrayal, even more so than the first book. It's a story showing the power of the Sultan and his many sons, but also of the women in the palace, particularly Mirajin women in the harem. Whilst the palace is one big political spiderweb, the harem is full of dangerous, battling women, too. Except their fights are quite different to the royal overthrowing of the men. Ayet, the Sultim's wife is a jealous bitch to Amani, cutting off her hair, getting her two Mirajin friends to humiliate Amani over and over, purely because she is Mirajin and that's the Sultim's favourite type of woman and they're scared of being replaced as there is only a place for three girls. In the harem, a surprising turn happens. Shira, Amani's cousin from Dustwalk, is reintroduced. Along with Tamid, Amani's best friend who she left for dead and forever carries that guilty burden on her shoulders of. Shira, the Blessed Sultima, becomes one of the biggest strength stories of the whole book, I think. She changes her views towards her cousin and they learn to become somewhat allies. Amani changes her views too and starts respecting her cousin for the lengths she went through to survive and make a name for herself in the harem, as an important person to not be easily discarded.
Set in a sprawling, vast landscape of desert and cities and palaces and beautiful exteriors, Alwyn Hamilton gives a very visual story, a book full of mesmerizing world-building. She doesn't just focus on where the Sultan lives just because Amani spends a great portion of the story there. She explores and uses her stunning world. I found myself loving the desert described and loving how it raised and taught Amani and how it became her hidden strength. I love how it witnessed magic and legends and love. It sees a new dawn full of clever plots, genius strategies throughout the Rebellion that literally left me wanting to screech at how wonderfully it was planned out. It sees death and execution and liars and deserters and pain. Here, the desert doesn't just represent a hometown. It represents a guardian, something that watched over the Rebel Prince taking his rightful lands and leading a growing group of rebels who saw a better world; who watched over a girl desperate to leave her hometown and make something of herself; it saw her learning her own skill at the age of ten, all the while never letting her see half of her true self. But then it spoke to her, rose up to help her and made her realise she was more than just a desert-girl who knew how to fire a gun with lethal accuracy.
A tale of magic and legends of Djinni, princesses and truths, of unknown creatures, of sacrifice and loyalty and betrayal, Alwyn Hamilton has written two fantastic books so far and left me itching for the third installment.
Here's the thing: one day, you finally pick up that pretty blue and gold book that's been waving at you for ages. You look away, leave it be for a while, think over buying it. But then you buy the book and it's called Rebel of the Sands written by an author with one of the coolest names going, Alwyn Hamilton. So this book turns out to be not just one of the best fantasy books set in a desert (which is so uncommon in YA fantasy) with legends galore but it has everything in it. And truly everything. Everything, enough to coax this booknerd to write their first fantasy book review.
(So if this is bad and messy and just godawful, please do excuse. I'm filled with a lot of emotions right now about this story and don't really know what anything is anymore.)
It turns out that this story of a rebellious, mouthy desert girl called Amani who learnt to shoot a gun at a very young age gripped me tightly enough to tumble headfirst into the equally pretty sequel. AND LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS THE SEQUEL.
It starts off with Amani being captured in Saramotai, soaking a shirt through with blood. She gets herself captured in order to free two rebels who'd already gotten themselves into trouble. There, in prison, she finds two sisters, one Demdji. From the prison, the rebels free many women who choose to follow them to their camp. One of them happens to be Amani's aunt who was meant to be making a life for herself in Izman, a more prospering city that was originally Amani's destination. This aunt also happens to be a bad woman and captures Amani one night when they run from their camp, selling her to the Sultan due to her Demdji powers. From there, Amani spends 70% of the book in the palace, under the command of the Sultan thanks to the iron and bronze embedded in her skin; the bronze to follow the orders and the iron the strip her of her powers. In the palace, she meets previous characters from Rebel, literal ghosts from her past, and also she meets Sam. A wall-walking, amusing boy who takes her nickname, Blue-Eyed Bandit, and turns it into a very notorious legend that includes seducing many women. Inside the palace, she's trapped in the harem and meets her Djinni father and makes unexpected allies and Leyla. Sweet, sweet Leyla. Traitor is Amani's time in the palace, enduring the Sultan's command in the face of his foreign guests and alliances and witnessing terrible things from inside, and finding her own true loyalty and doubts and helping the Rebellion from where she is, even when she can't quite reach them.
There's this wonderful transition from Rebel to Traitor where Amani isn't just a desert-girl from Dustwalk, her hometown. Now, she's fully recognised as the legendary Blue-Eyed Bandit, which originates from the very first chapter of Rebel. At first, her blue eyes are just another trait from her real father, who Amani doesn't know. But then she meets Jin, and through him, she gets the adventure and escape from her hometown she's always wanted. It's a little (a lot) bloody and dangerous that she may have anticipated but it gets her away. It gets her to an entirely different world. It gets her to the Rebellion. Through Jin, (wonderful, swoony, heart-breaking Jin) Amani meets the Rebel Prince, Ahmed. More importantly (I think), she meets Shazad, the ultimate female fighter in the whole thing. I adore Amani's skills and her constant need for guns and how the iron of guns made her securely human and safe for her entire life, but Shazad is truly something else.
The rebellion is not just some magic circle who think they can fix every problem with a flick of a hand or will and have elements at their fingertips. It's not just about having otherworldly elements at their disposal there. The Rebellion is everything. It's a human prince who wants a better world for his country, who wants to be a better ruler than his murderous father, the Sultan. It's a general's daughter who's constantly underestimated due to being both female and beautiful. Nobody looks past Shazad's status or beauty to see the cunning brains she has. It's Demdji's working alongside non-Demdji's and having a fully mutual respect. Hala, Imin, Izz and Maz, Delila. All of them having their own powers that set them aside from each other but make them fit easily with the Rebellion. They're not selfish magic-users; they want to use their Demdji gifts to better the world, to help their friends and families and their prince.
In Traitor, there are so many elements of the world addressed. Something I found incredibly important was Imin's character and the swaps. As a shape-shifter, Imin switches between female and male appearances and with that Alwyn Hamilton tailors to the gender swap, giving light to an issue that has such an influence within the story. Navid, Imin's husband (as he becomes in the sequel), is mentioned to never discriminate Imin for whatever form she chooses. Whether Imin is a burly guard hiding in plain sight in the palace, or a slight young woman sitting in Navid's lap, as his wife, he loves Imin whole-heartedly and never loses an ounce of that dedication and love no matter the form he sees. And for me, that was an amazing thing to have included in this story. It's an equality within a relationship, friendship, and a world-changing group to all see Imin as anything she chose or had to be seen as. It's diversity for Imin's character; to show her (or his) value to the Rebellion as anything. She dedicates her entire being and appearance to any role she needs to fill and is never ashamed or let anyone put her down for any shape she chooses to take.
Also in the umbrella of gender, there's Shazad, as mentioned earlier. An incredible woman I was happy to read about on International Women's Day because if there was ever an admirably strong woman from the very start of her introduction, it's Shazad. As a general's daughter, it seems as though there could be a lot of pressure for her to be the leader of battles and strategies and she slips into that role so, so easily, and clearly has her passion for it. She's calculating, often formidable when she uses her appearance to her advantage to fight her enemies. Nobody expects her to be this girl who steps out of a stand storm wielding swords against soldiers but she does. And she does it wonderfully. Shazad faces an awful thing in Rebel: losing her best friend, Bahi. But she doesn't let that defeat her--she grieves for her friend but she comes back fighting, always. Even when she is met with hurdles and hitches in her carefully thought-out plans, she alters if she needs to and so quickly. Her mind is constantly moving with logic and thought and strategy. Know this about this story: Shazad is incredible. She is an inspiration with unwavering dedication to her cause, her prince, her friends. She's the character who, one minute, will be laughing with her head thrown back, pulling off a gorgeous khalat; the next, she'll whipping out a weapon from somewhere nobody quite knows and getting anyone to safety and fighting her way out.
Another notable woman in the series so far is the Demdji Hala. (Honestly, Alwyn, you write so many admirable females, I'll want to write for DAYS about them and had to narrow my individual talks.) At first, her and Amani don't seem to get along. The gold-skinned Demdji meets the Demdji-forced-human who literally grew up in golden sand. They're both golden-covered girls but for different reasons. It's Hala who ends up being Amani's most relatable friend in the Rebellion, learning to harness and know her power, helping her out when she loses it again, understanding what it would be like to lose the thing that makes her different. So when Amani returns to her aunt's place to get the iron removed from inside her, it's Hala she chooses to come with her. Not Shazad, not Jin. Hala. Because she knows Hala understands. And that was a massive bonding thing. I was deeply touched by how much Hala helped Amani out in that part. She alters the aunt's mind and when she sees Amani in the overwhelming amount of pain she is when the iron is being cut out of her, Hala takes her away to an illusion, taking the pain away. Something in Hala cares deeply for Amani and helps her through that pain and gives her something beautiful to focus on instead. I actually wanted to cry at that part, it felt so vital to develop that rocky friendship.
Traitor to the Throne is a story of immense sacrifice and reflection and betrayal, even more so than the first book. It's a story showing the power of the Sultan and his many sons, but also of the women in the palace, particularly Mirajin women in the harem. Whilst the palace is one big political spiderweb, the harem is full of dangerous, battling women, too. Except their fights are quite different to the royal overthrowing of the men. Ayet, the Sultim's wife is a jealous bitch to Amani, cutting off her hair, getting her two Mirajin friends to humiliate Amani over and over, purely because she is Mirajin and that's the Sultim's favourite type of woman and they're scared of being replaced as there is only a place for three girls. In the harem, a surprising turn happens. Shira, Amani's cousin from Dustwalk, is reintroduced. Along with Tamid, Amani's best friend who she left for dead and forever carries that guilty burden on her shoulders of. Shira, the Blessed Sultima, becomes one of the biggest strength stories of the whole book, I think. She changes her views towards her cousin and they learn to become somewhat allies. Amani changes her views too and starts respecting her cousin for the lengths she went through to survive and make a name for herself in the harem, as an important person to not be easily discarded.
Set in a sprawling, vast landscape of desert and cities and palaces and beautiful exteriors, Alwyn Hamilton gives a very visual story, a book full of mesmerizing world-building. She doesn't just focus on where the Sultan lives just because Amani spends a great portion of the story there. She explores and uses her stunning world. I found myself loving the desert described and loving how it raised and taught Amani and how it became her hidden strength. I love how it witnessed magic and legends and love. It sees a new dawn full of clever plots, genius strategies throughout the Rebellion that literally left me wanting to screech at how wonderfully it was planned out. It sees death and execution and liars and deserters and pain. Here, the desert doesn't just represent a hometown. It represents a guardian, something that watched over the Rebel Prince taking his rightful lands and leading a growing group of rebels who saw a better world; who watched over a girl desperate to leave her hometown and make something of herself; it saw her learning her own skill at the age of ten, all the while never letting her see half of her true self. But then it spoke to her, rose up to help her and made her realise she was more than just a desert-girl who knew how to fire a gun with lethal accuracy.
A tale of magic and legends of Djinni, princesses and truths, of unknown creatures, of sacrifice and loyalty and betrayal, Alwyn Hamilton has written two fantastic books so far and left me itching for the third installment.
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