Scan barcode
A review by theogb451
The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi
4.0
A bit stodgy at the start but stick with it
Overall an enjoyable read but one star is docked for some issues with the plotting and so forth.
This isn't your normal fantasy novel world and it's not just because the author lacks the usual white, male, Eurocentric gaze. It's a sort of Afro-steampunk place where the social hierarchy is determined by blood colour - red, blue and clear - and because only the red bloods can do magic, they have been able to keep themselves at the top. A lot of horrors of colonialism are examined here.
The magic system is one for fans of Sanderson school: embedded within science, it consists of runes drawn in blood on objects that has allowed a sort of industrialisation to occur since via runes the society has access to guns, light, engines, etc. Magic as science.
The details of this are all dropped into the narrative in a way that mostly works, but there's simply a huge amount to digest here so it makes the first six or so chapters a bit dizzying, which is a shame. In some ways the book could have done with being longer and giving us more time to settle in and absorb at a slower pace.
That said, by chapter 8 the book has settled down into its main plot line which is more-or-less Lethal Weapon meets a Rocky film montage. Mostly this is good fun but it's a little jarring in terms of its shift from the opening chapters that centre around our main character in a drug-addicted stupor of self-pity. Making the opening longer would probably not have served this main aspect as well.
And really let's not forget FOUR STARS but the issues here are around the plotting, which frequently relies on some highly contrived situations that I found pulled me out of the story. On top of that there's never really any sense of danger/stakes here. The main villain is all mouth and no trousers, the main story centres around a contest over a series of rounds and failure in one is the end so we know there will be no failure.
Behind this all is a bigger mystery that we are shown parts of, but which is sadly a background to everything else. It'll be interesting to see how things unfold in the next book because there are a hell of a lot of hanging threads her that are going to widen the scope hugely.
Overall an enjoyable read but one star is docked for some issues with the plotting and so forth.
This isn't your normal fantasy novel world and it's not just because the author lacks the usual white, male, Eurocentric gaze. It's a sort of Afro-steampunk place where the social hierarchy is determined by blood colour - red, blue and clear - and because only the red bloods can do magic, they have been able to keep themselves at the top. A lot of horrors of colonialism are examined here.
The magic system is one for fans of Sanderson school: embedded within science, it consists of runes drawn in blood on objects that has allowed a sort of industrialisation to occur since via runes the society has access to guns, light, engines, etc. Magic as science.
The details of this are all dropped into the narrative in a way that mostly works, but there's simply a huge amount to digest here so it makes the first six or so chapters a bit dizzying, which is a shame. In some ways the book could have done with being longer and giving us more time to settle in and absorb at a slower pace.
That said, by chapter 8 the book has settled down into its main plot line which is more-or-less Lethal Weapon meets a Rocky film montage. Mostly this is good fun but it's a little jarring in terms of its shift from the opening chapters that centre around our main character in a drug-addicted stupor of self-pity. Making the opening longer would probably not have served this main aspect as well.
And really let's not forget FOUR STARS but the issues here are around the plotting, which frequently relies on some highly contrived situations that I found pulled me out of the story. On top of that there's never really any sense of danger/stakes here. The main villain is all mouth and no trousers, the main story centres around a contest over a series of rounds and failure in one is the end so we know there will be no failure.
Behind this all is a bigger mystery that we are shown parts of, but which is sadly a background to everything else. It'll be interesting to see how things unfold in the next book because there are a hell of a lot of hanging threads her that are going to widen the scope hugely.