Books like “Rebel of the Sands”

What to read after “Rebel of the Sands” by Alwyn Hamilton: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Wrath and the Dawn
Renée Ahdieh · 2015
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Desert World
- Slow Burn
Each dawn the young caliph marries a bride, and each dawn she is dead. When Shahrzad volunteers to marry him, she survives the first night by telling stories and begins to look for the truth behind his cruelty.
2
The Stardust Thief
Chelsea Abdullah · 2022
Same genre: “Adventure”
- Desert World
Loulie al-Nazari, the Midnight Merchant, trades in jinn relics with her jinn bodyguard Qadir. When the sultan forces her into a search for a lost lamp, she must cross a desert of jinn, thieves and old stories, where the line between merchant and prey keeps shifting.
3
Dune
Frank Herbert · 1965
Similar setting: “Desert World”
- Desert World
- Rebellion
On the desert planet Arrakis, young Paul Atreides survives the destruction of his family and is taken in by the Fremen. As he learns their ways and the spice trade that powers an empire, he becomes the centre of a prophecy, a rebellion and a war for control of the known universe.
4
The False Prince
Jennifer A. Nielsen · 2012
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy” and “Adventure”
- Coming of Age
In the kingdom of Carthya, a nobleman gathers orphan boys and tells them that one must learn to pass as the lost prince Jaron, or die. Sage is quick, defiant and unwilling to play the part, but the game he is forced into has rules no one has told him, and a prize worse than a crown.
5
The Winner's Curse
Marie Rutkoski · 2014
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Rebellion
- Slow Burn
In a city that has conquered and enslaved a neighbouring people, the general's daughter Kestrel buys a defiant young slave named Arin on a whim. He is far more than he seems, and as rebellion stirs in the streets, Kestrel finds her loyalty to her family pulling against everything she feels for him.
6
The English Patient
Michael Ondaatje · 1992
Similar setting: “Desert World”
- Desert World
In a bombed Italian villa at the end of the Second World War, a nurse tends a badly burned patient who can no longer remember his name. As the others in the house circle him, fragments of his past as a desert explorer and his affair with a married woman resurface.
7
The Blue Sword
Robin McKinley · 1982
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Slow Burn
- Coming of Age
Harry Crewe, newly orphaned, travels to a remote outpost on the Darian border to live with her brother. Corlath, king of the Free Hillfolk, carries her away from the fort, and she finds an old magic waking in her blood. Caught between two peoples, she must decide where she belongs.
8
An Ember in the Ashes
Sabaa Tahir · 2015
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Rebellion
- Coming of Age
Under the Martial Empire, Laia's brother is arrested as a traitor, so she goes undercover as a slave in a brutal military academy to spy for the rebels. There she meets Elias, a reluctant soldier whose future is bound to the regime she works against.
9
Sky in the Deep
Adrienne Young · 2018
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Slow Burn
Eelyn is a warrior of the Aska clan, raised to fight the rival Riki in a war older than anyone remembers. Captured and forced to live among her enemies, she begins to see them as people, and finds herself drawn to a young man she was always taught to kill.
10
Red Queen
Victoria Aveyard · 2015
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy”
- Rebellion
- Coming of Age
Mare lives in a world split by blood: silver elites with powers and powerless reds. When a dangerous ability of her own is exposed, the royal family hides her in their palace, where she becomes a pawn in two secret wars.
11
The Thief
Megan Whalen Turner · 1996
Same genre: “Young adult fantasy” and “Adventure”
Gen has been locked in the king's prison of Sounis for boasting that he can steal anything. Freed by the king's magus, he is dragged along on a hunt for an ancient artifact that could settle the fate of three nations, and he schemes, complains and remembers more than he admits.
12
The Hate U Give
Angie Thomas · 2017
Similar plot moves: “Rebellion” and “Coming of Age”
- Rebellion
- Coming of Age
Starr splits her life between her mostly white school and her neighbourhood, until she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed friend. As the case becomes public, she must decide whether to stay silent or find her voice and speak for him.