The Final Strife

This first installment was an absolute joy to read. Character-driven, but with great detail given to the world building and plot pacing. I especially loved the many ways in which El-Arifi queered the genre of fantasy by tackling gender and sexuality in a way that brought the absence of "otherness" to the page. I laughed. I cried. I was angry, and I was heartbroken... and for one book to gift me all those emotions was a read I will not soon forget. Can't believe I have to wait two weeks for the next one to come out!

Definitely don't want to miss out on this one. READ IT!

I read this for r/Fantasy's Happily Ever After Book Club which also satisfies a Bingo square for Book club Discussion or Read-along. I wanted to read something that was outside of my wheelhouse, so that's why I chose the Fantasy Romance book club, but apparently I chose a month where the chosen book's romance takes a back seat to the dark and oftentimes bleak story that is at the forefront of the story. The romance even seemed a bit problematic to me because the two characters don't start on equal footing, or with a foundation of trust and understanding, but their romance starts after the main character Sylah, breaks into a young woman's home, gets mistaken for an assassin, gets captured, goes through forced withdrawal from a drug show more addiction while in captivity and enters into an agreement with the person who captured her to teach her combat and other skills necessary to survive the upcoming trials that determine new leaders in this land. A bit of a wobbly foundation for a relationship at best. The characters are keeping secrets from each other the whole time, but love blossomed along the way, and when those secrets were revealed, pain and separation followed. The worldbuilding and the plot grew on me over time, and I was more invested in the overall story, than with the romance. I will probably check out book 2, because some big secrets were revealed at the end and I want to see where this story goes. show less

“a world run by people who think they’re better will never be better for everyone.”

The author was raised in the United Arab Emirates by a Ghanaian/ British Christian mother and a Sudanese/ Arabian Muslim father, before moving to a village in Yorkshire. Her debut novel is the first part of a trilogy based on Ghanaian folklore and Arabian mythology.

The world is divided by race. The red-blooded Embers are the ruling class, the Dusters the blue-blooded workers and the Ghostings the clear-blooded despised slave class. The four guilds of the empire are strength, truth, knowledge or duty. “Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control. Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance. Clear is the blood of the show more slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible.” Sylah lives in the Dusting quarter, raised to be a warrior, part of the resistance. After the tragic loss of her family Sylah becomes lost in a world of drugs, until a man from her past, Jond Aluna, reappears and challenges her to fulfill her destiny. Anoor is the despised daughter of one of the Ember leaders, the fierce Warden of Strength. Hassa is one of the Ghostings, robbed of her tongue and hands, destined to be invisible. Sylah ends up training Anoor for the Aktibar, the great competition to appoint the next leader. Not everything is as it appears in the empire, with secrets buried and cruelty and poverty tearing things apart at the seams.

The story has straight, gay and trans or intersex characters. There is a bisexual love triangle. Ultimately this book highlights the author’s “desire to prove that all cultures are magical in their own way.” I found this to be an engrossing story with strong women that was hard to put down. I’m not a big fantasy reader but this was a 5 star read for me. It would make an amazing movie.

“Bruises fades, but resilience doesn’t.” show less

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi is a book you must put on your TBR if you love epic fantasy. There is no way I will ever be able to do it justice, whether it is a brief review or a lengthy one. Not only does it use African and Arabian mythological influences, but there are also two switched-at-birth heroes, a Sapphic love interest, political machinations, the birth of a revolution, and an intense set of games to decide upon the new heir. It is genuinely fantastic and worthy of all the stars you can give it.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

This was a fantastic book! A dystopian book set on another world, it follows the story of Sylah, a young woman with life-long connections to the Sandstorm, a rebel group fighting for the lower castes. Although once powerful, Sandstorm has fallen on hard times and in her guilt Sylah has become addicted to drugs. Through chance and error, Sylah is forced not helping a high-caste woman train for the competition that decides the world's leaders. There is so much more to this book! Sadly a few sentences cannot possibly describe the plot and since I don't want to leave spoilers, I'll just leave it there. The author weaves a rich and complex story, making her show more characters come to life on the pages. I loved this book, and it was so refreshing to see the beginning of a fantasy trilogy where the main character is a woman of color and the story was based in African mythology. Excellent book, and I can't wait to read the next one. show less

The writing is engaging, and the authors worldbuilding is excellent. The character descriptions are well done and I could visualize each principle character throughout the story. They are defined as much by their physical descriptions as they are by their personalities.

Another great part is how so many things came together in the book and felt completely natural. Even when things were set up one way and then changed, not necessarily turning things on their head, but a simple shift that kept you reading, just so you could see what was going to happen.

This book is good on it's own, but is definitely a setup for what I believe will be an even more interesting development in book 2.

This book was so good! Absolutely fantastic world building with characters that felt real and had full arcs. I loved every bit of the story too. There was the right amount of love (both romantic and friendly), intrigue, and genuine fun that I was hooked the whole way through.