Epic Fantasy is a genre of imagination, a genre of metaphor, a genre that acts a doorway to new worlds that may have a flavor of the familiar. Saara El-Arifi’s The Final Strife fulfills that promise in gloriously. The novel/world is inspired by Ghanaian folklore and Arabian myth and is the first installment of The Ending Fire. Set on a landmass with society by the color of the people’s blood – red, blue, and clear. The Red Bloods can perform magic, referred to by the populace as “bloodwerk” and since they are the sole practitioners of these powers, they are the ruling class. The clear blooded, or “Ghostings” are at the bottom, their tongues cut out and hands cut off at a young age, with the blue-blooded as the people in the middle/working class. But a rebellion might be on the horizon if the populace can survive the deadly tidewinds, which blows a mixture of salty air and blue sand through at a deadly force regularly. Three fascinating, driven, and magnetic women are the lynchpins for this potential changing what the Empire is, even if they aren’t aware of their connection initially.
In the first book of a visionary fantasy trilogy with its roots in the mythology of Africa and Arabia, three women band together against a cruel empire that divides people by blood. the resistance.
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 slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible.
Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.
Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom—and their hearts.
Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution. And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm.
As the empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.
El-Arifi tells the story from three viewpoint characters, each of a different color of blood. At the center of this story is Sylah, a red-blooded/noble who was kidnapped at a young age in an event referred to as the Night of the Stolen. She was also part of a group of rebels called the Sandstorm who was decimated prior to the events of the novel, she has very few connections left. So, on two counts, she is very much an orphan, or at least a person with little familial connections. Her one outlet is The Ring, essentially a fighting tournament where she finds herself being quite successful. When we meet her she is addicted to joba-seed, which helps her forget the family who raised her being slaughtered and it helps her to divert her thoughts from the life she could have had were she to be raised by her red-blooded family. Because she was raised amongst the blue bloods, she never learned the blood magic. But part of her wants to find her birth mother.
Just slightly to the center and perhaps a secondary protagonist is Anoor, the red-blooded daughter of the most powerful ruler of the empire, the Warden of Strength. She doesn’t exactly have a great relationship with her mother, which drives Anoor to compete in the Aktibar, a tournament that occurs every 10 years to determine the next disciples. She and Sylah get connected and Sylah, with her vast combat experience in The Ring, trains Anoor to compete in the various trails that comprise the Aktibar. As a result, Anoor agrees to help Sylah kick her joba seed addiction.
The third POV character is Hassa, the clear-blooded slave and friend of Sylah. Sylah makes it a point to learn the sign language the clear-bloods. As a “Ghosting” she is beneath the purview of those above them in the social strata, and because of their tongues being removed, are not heard. They’ve developed a strong society of their own that is glimpsed at through Hassa and her interactions with her fellow Ghosting. While the Ghostings may seem to have little power, because they are all but invisible to the higher classes, they can move through portions of the city and society unchecked which leaves them privy to secrets and an ability to keep secrets.
Sara El-Arifi has a great knack for world-building, which comes from her diverse background. She dispenses details about this world like the best, most season fantasy writers do, through her characters. The characters are fantastically well-drawn, believable, and empathetic. She doesn’t shy away from the darker details of the world, the class oppression, the clenched fist of the empire controlling the lives of its people.
While romance is part of the story, it isn’t the thrust of the story, and it is handled extremely well. There’s same sex/queer relationships, straight relationships and they are treated fairly equally as parts of the world. There’s a fluidity to character’s emotions and attractions that feels natural, people are drawn to and attracted to whomever they are attracted to, regardless of gender. It is a refreshing take on love and attraction, that adds another layer to El-Arifi’s refreshing take on Epic Fantasy.
I’ll admit I almost gave up on the novel, for nearly the first 100 pages, the narrative focuses primarily on Sylah and her throes of addiction. I wasn’t finding too much sympathy for her within myself. As El-Arifi revealed more details about Sylah’s past, what drove her to the character to whom we were initially introduced, and began bringing in more of Anoor’s scenes into the story, I was hooked. Once that switch flipped, I was completely on-board with the story El-Arifi was telling and emotionally invested in the twists and turns of the plot and character’s journeys.
Del Rey was giving away Advance Reader Copies during New York Comic Con in October 2022, which is how I procured my copy of the book. I’ve been engaged in the Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction community for many years having reviewed here at SFFWorld for the better part of the last two decades. I hadn’t seen or heard much about this book before snagging the ARC at the convention and I am very glad I did. This is a book that really deserves more attention because El-Arifi is a stunning, bold, and imaginative voice in the genre.
Had I read The Final Strife in 2022 when it was initially published, it likely would have made my best of the year list and would have been a strong contender for best debut. If you want to dive into a novel that feels like a rejuvenated take on Epic Fantasy, while towing to the hallmarks that readers of the genre enjoy so much, Saara El-Arifi’s The Final Strife is the novel for you.
Highly Recommended
© 2023 Rob H. Bedford
Del Rey Books | June 2022
Hardcover | 608 pages
Author Web site: https://www.saaraelarifi.com/
Excerpt https://brittlepaper.com/2022/09/excerpt-the-final-strife-by-saara-el-arifi/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
