There are plenty of plot twists and characters who aren’t what they seem. These three women are likable, though flawed, as they search for the truth about their homeland. There are three main characters, Sylah (the protagonist and an Ember stolen from her family and raised as a Duster), Anoor (the love interest and a Duster raised as an Ember), and Hassa (a Ghosting). Physically, they are set apart from the other two as their hands and tongues are amputated at birth as a retaliation from an insurrection from 400 years earlier. These can be told apart only by the color of their blood and their role in society: the Embers have red blood and hold all the power Dusters have blue blood and are destined for labor and Ghostings have clear blood and delegated to being servants. A lot of time is spent delineating the various racial groups that populate this world. This first book is an exciting read for many reasons.

And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm.Īs 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.The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi is an amazing fantasy/fiction/scifi novel that is the first in a trilogy. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution. Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom-and their hearts. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.Īnoor 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. 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. Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control.īlue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance.Ĭlear is the blood of the slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible.

The final strife series