LitPick Review
The City of Sand is about a teenage boy named Tianyi. He lives the life of a grave robber who uses Feng Shui skills to locate the buried treasures of deceased ancient royalty. He learned the art from his deceased grandfather, who turned to grave robbing while addicted to opium. His grandfather left behind half of a book that basically held all the tricks of the trade. Some of these include how to use the astronomical signs to guide to the correct tomb, how to stay safe while pillaging through a tomb, the proper gear to have and what to say before digging through the coffin. We also get to join this character on an exciting adventure through the Gobi Desert to help an archaeology professor and his team find the lost Jingjue Kingdom.
Opinion:
This is the first book I have read that has been translated from another language. It was translated from Mandarin into English. I did have some difficulty pronouncing the character names and the names of the cities. I really enjoyed the plot of the book. It reminded me of the Percy Jackson series because of the quest that the character journeyed on, and it was similar to The Mummy movies for the tombs, mummified corpses, and treasures.
