Picking up where THE FINAL STRIFE ended, THE BATTLE DRUM carries our characters into new worlds where they learn things beyond their wildest dreams regarding blood, magic, and who pays the price for each.

I liked this one a wee bit less that The Final Strife, but still found it to be a solid adventure. I am pumped to read book 3 (hopefully it will have more Hassa!)

I will say that the beginning to this book was a total slog/info dump. It felt like it took a very long time for this book to get rolling. (I think that's what is keeping this book more like a 3.5 for me instead of an even 4 stars). I get that we're doing some expanded world-building here, but the attempts to bring the reader ip to speed felt very homework-y.

Once things started moving though, I was a happier camper. I dug Sylah and Jond's adventures in a new land (I want to live in a mushroom city!) I dug Anoor's political drama, (I wasn't totally into the murder mystery, but I did like her being undercover.) I dug the creepy "Wife" and the context of how her story layered into the others. (I did not see that twist coming, which makes me happy.)

Sadly, Hassa gets the shaft again in the storytelling. I am hoping the third book centers on her story since she seems to be one of the most complex and fascinating characters. I think that especially since Sylah and Anoor have a relationship, Hassa always feels like a third wheel character there to add context through her spying. At least in this book she got a relationship. Still hoping this ends with her being Queen and the other two going off to be in love somewhere.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5, rounded upto 4.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

The Final Strife was one of my favourite debuts of 2022 and The Battle Drum was one of my most anticipated reads of this year.

Now that I have read it, I have... mixed feelings, though positive leaning. Some things are done really well and other not so much. What is surprising is some of things done not as well were done well in The Final Strife.

I'll start with what the highlights were for me. A new perspective was introduced in the role of antagonist and how they came to be in that position, which was both tragic and fascinating. I did guess the eventual twist from that a while before it was revealed, but I felt it was done really well. The world building is expanded quite a bit in this book, both in terms of events and nature. I thought this was a low magic setting, but it a rather high magic setting that is quite original and interesting. The new themes introduced about faith, sacrifice, indoctrination, and power were my favourite additions and I am very interested in where the plot is headed in relation to the those themes. I hope it's not just a simple battle. This books is also very readable and goes by rather quickly despite its 500+ pages(though a lot of it is just world building and set up).

Now for the not so good parts.
Firstly, the pacing is all over the place outside of a great last act. It's meandering at times and breakneck at others. The time line is also extremely confusing. The Final Strife was much more structured in this aspect.

It feels like the book spends too much time on things that aren't as necessary or interesting to its detriment. From the blurb, you would expect a focus on the mystery/investigation elements of Anoor and Hassa, but it doesn't. This books spends a lot of time on Jond, which is alright though I am admittedly not the most invested in Jond. Still his character growth is good, but in spending so much time on his journey, the developments at Zwina Academy to set up for the following book feels way too fast and contrived. For them to change their minds and approach so easily, it doesn't quite have the weight it could have. The new romance plotline introduced between Jond and Kara was also completely unnecessary, and giving them a separate alliance making plotline seems rather uninteresting to me.

The biggest fault of this book is however is how little time is spent on Anoor given the direction was character was taken in. I like the direction, but not the execution. While Anoor is mostly in despair and helpless from the start of the book(the blurb had given me a different idea), we don't really get to see said descent. We're told about it, yet we barely get to see how it happened. One thing The Final Strife did rather well were the emotional journeys of Sylah and Anoor. You felt their despair and understood their decisions while reading. However, in The Battle Drum, Anoor's character direction doesn't really fell earned.

Despite my complaints, I am still quite invested in this series because I am quite curious of where the plot is heading with regards to it's thematic elements (and also the fact that the last act was fantastic which helped bring the score up). And I am still invested in the characters, particularly Nayeli and Anoor(I really hope the next book spends more than exploring her psyche).

I fear that this suffered from second book syndrome.
I’m gonna start by saying Anoor and Sylah are the main characters in the first book. They have a little romance so I assumed that would be progressed in the second book. However, they’re separated so all they do is yearn for one another.
SPOILER WARNING: they don’t even see each other throughout the entire book. I kept thinking “no, this book won’t end without them coming into contact again.” God was I wrong. The author had us caring about their feelings for another and the lengths they would go for another but we rarely saw it.
This book went into the history of of why there is a tidewind and explained the different blood colors. We ventured all new lands where we met people of these different blood colors. We experienced their terrain and native animals and the ways in which they look different. We learned so much history into a certain groups religion. We found out about other regions experiencing horrid weather as destructive as the tidewind. I really liked the monster in the sea.
However with all this background and world building, it completely overshadowed the narrative. Nothing was really accomplished in the second book. So much information was introduced that it was hard to keep track of what I should remember. The characters didn’t go through an arc as much as they should have. Honestly we only really saw Jond, Gorn, Kwame, and Hassa developing. The side characters become more prevalent in this book and I’m happy about that but it sucks that it wasn’t that way for Anoor and Sylah. They were bland. They felt the same things and remained stagnant. If this was paced better with more main character development (and Anoor and Sylah) less world background then it would have been much better.

Can I just say that I have been left amazed after reading book 1 as well as this second book in the series. I don’t think I’ve ever read a series where the sequel wowed me as much as the original but this is it. I love the twists and turns in this tale and was often caught off guard when details would come out about the history of the land and the people. I don’t want to give any details away but I will say that this author is a wonder writer and this is becoming one of my favorite series of all time.

Total Rating: 4.5/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4.5/5
World Building: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Overall Feelings: 5/5

This was a million times better than the first book. I was on the edge of my seat basically the entire time. The ending?! Dear god. Jond’s character arc is so good and I can’t wait to see what happens next with him. Anoor.. we’re not gonna talk about Anoor. Sylah is Sylah but I love her and I love her journey with sobriety. And Hassa?! She is the baddest of b*tches. We get more Ghostings and we get so much incredible world building and lore and I just.. cannot express how much I f*cking loved this book.

My only gripe is that there seems to be this thing with authors where they feel like romance HAS to be in their book or no one will buy it and I just.. I understand that perhaps the romance aspect of it gives Sylah motivation. But it just feels unnecessary and it doesn’t really feel organic. I don’t feel like it added anything to the plot.

However, the good far and away out weighs the “bad”. The world that El-Arifi has built is so well thought out and the inclusivity is astounding. There’s bi rep, trans rep, the normalization of polyamory, ace/aro rep, disability rep… the list goes on. I am truly blown away by all of it and I will be going absolutely insane waiting for the final installment.

Thank you so much to Penguin Random House and to Saara El-Arifi for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

TW (provided by StoryGraph):
Graphic: Gore, Miscarriage, Murder
Moderate: Slavery, Colonization, War

The Battle Drum is an exciting sequel to The Final Strife - filled with murder, love, deception, prophesy, betrayal.

The story is once again told from multiple viewpoints. There's a lot of simultaneous action interwoven between the points of view. This method continues to work to build the suspense.

If you liked The Final Strife, The Battle Drum is a worthy successor.

I was very excited to be reunited with my favorites from book one. Hassa, Sylah, Jond, Anoor. What a wonderful cast. This is the second book in the series. And from page one we are met with a looming prophecy, a song, a telling of the future, fate written by god himself.

This book was darker than I expected, it was DARK. I'm throwing content warnings everywhere for this one. Without saying too much I'm bowing really low in praise for that religious cult element. The spiritual questions, religious inflictions were so well done, I was terrified. I was not prepared, I was not mentally, spiritually prepared for the things that have ensued in this book. Now that is how you write morally gray characters, that's how you write a villain!
The tone is very different from how book one ended. Sylah and Jond go on a journey together elsewhere, Anoor is left to make a difference in the empire, surrounded by her friends, her enemies, known and unknown.

There is a merging of genres that happens in this one. The author introduces quite a bit of sci-fi elements in this world, you start to realize how expansive and diverse the world in this book is. Different cultures, religions, customs, blood systems, climates and infrastructures. I cannot say too much without revealing what goes down but know this. Your mind will be blown with the myriad of plot twists and reveals.

There are some things that didn't work for me, especially when it came to Anoor's character arc. I don't feel like she has developed much as a person. She was very powerless throughout the entire book, and left with not much room to defend herself. In the beginning it was fine but when the 3rd act came around and she was still stuck in that same state of uncertainty, wandering and stillness i got frustrated. I wanted her to have more agency.

The pacing had some issues too. A lot of flashbacks from a new character's perspective, which was necessary but there was so much of it, at times I felt lost, and confused with the different timelines. I also felt like some parts were too slow, as if the author was killing time until the truth can be revealed, throwing random subplots in to fill in the gaps. I didn't like that.

But rest assured, the author had me on the edge of my seat. I was in for a loop. I didn't know what was going on, where we were going but I trusted the journey, I held on to the information being provided until I was at a point where I could connect the dots , and man was it worth it. That anticipation was enthralling. The details and textures of the technologies being weilded by these characters was no small feat, we also get to learn more about the magic. Overall, I applaud this execution but it had its weaknesses.

I'm still going to tune in for book 3 and get a physical copy of book 2. I'm give this a 3.5 stars which I decided to round up to a 4.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-Arc.

This was absolutely a worthy successor to The Final Strife! What was introduced there was expertly built upon here.

I really enjoy the magic system in these books - a really interesting take on runecrafting. I continue to be intrigued by Ghosting society and LOVED the additional look into all the secrets they keep.

And, no spoilers, but the twists and turns? I found myself constantly revisiting my theories... And really, I love that in a story!

Can't wait to see what the final book brings for these characters I've grown to love!

I think I might have liked this even more than The Final Strife. So much was revealed and expanded upon in this book, and I'm so so excited to see how it all concludes in the next book.

4.5
holy moly!!! what a massive jump from book 1 to book 2 I mean that in the best way possible.

What i liked:
- the plot and storyline improved so much and really exceeded. The backstory of the magic and history was amazing and so much more developed than book one. It was needed. How everything came together and was integrated was done masterfully
- the themes of beliefs and false beliefs on religions and was so reflective. False information really.
-the twist and turns where expected and very unexpected at the same time !!! I was on the edge of my seat the majority of the novel.
- the characters. I hated them all in book 1(except Hassa) and what an improvement. i connected and enjoyed them a lot more, except Annor I still don’t like or enjoy her character. John was such a well developed character and his arc was wonderful.
- i love all the villans here and i can sympathize with their understanding of their “belief” i’m so invested in them.
- the cliffhanger at the ends omgg! i was waiting for that to be possible and was happy when it came to fruition.


What i didn’t like:
- the romance. it really brings the story down and is just not needed. i don’t mind the themes of loneliness and love and loving oneself and others. Really forming a found family in the face of being so alone. But romance is not needed. Also don’t think it’s done well. there is no emotional build for a romance to exists. Again i didn’t enjoy book 1 so maybe I am bias here. But the story is more powerful without romance .

- there is an emotional connection missing from this book. Which is interesting since there is so many rich and painful stories of struggle and death but the emotional connection is missing.

-pacing in part 2 was slow going.

overall i highly recommended this when it comes out. This is making me consider re reading book 1 but i know i can’t get pass some of my issues namely the plot being weak and the characters (except Hassa) being boring.

I will be posting a TikTok on this i the next week or so at @latoyadawson13

The Battle Drum is the second book in The Ending Fire Trilogy, following a book I really enjoyed, The FInal Strife. The first novel told an interesting and captivating story (albeit a little slow sometimes), the second book definitely continues to be interesting. However, while reading this one, I didn't fall into it like I did with the first book.

There are a few notable reasons for this.
1. It Drags On
1. There is so much happening in this book but yet every single chapter seems to just wear you down. We get new perspectives, as well as some previous characters getting their own POV Chapters. That didn't really help as things would be happening around the same time but you would read about each person experiencing a mystery but all of it just seems like some walking and talking.
2. Too many POVs
1. Like I mentioned earlier, we do get some more alternating POV's. And while I love getting to see more sides to these characters, the chapters don't really contain much thrill or experience. It is just more talking or planning, There is some plot and action occuring but keeping up is difficult.
3. Overwhelming
1. Not only are there new POV's and characters, the entire worldbuilding and lore has been expanded. You now have (/spoiler:different countries? And different views on bloodwork, blood, and gods). Its not necissarly overwhelming to start, El-Arifi does a good job of pacing it out so that you can learn. But towards the end of the book, it all seems to intersect and leave you feeling more confused.
But all the things I complained about also have a positive side. Seeing Hassa or Anoor getting more chapter time, is great to read. (Not as much as sylah i believe but still an improvement). Characters that were just set to the side now play a vital role in each person's journey.

On the flip side of overwhelming, its incredibly interesting to just see how much further the backstory to the world can go. So many things that you couldn't think of become reality. But I have to say, the reading those moments at the time was a little boring. Thats where it ends up being overwhelming, you are learning so much but its going so slowly and more and more nwe things appear while no resolutions to any of these problems have occured.

The ending really is the only thing that is keeping me in this story, if it didn't keep me interested I might've ended my reading of the series right there. I hope the final book shows some improvement from ths one.

An incredible and captivating sequel to The Final Strife. The worldbuilding, pacing, and character POVs were mesmerizing!

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. I don't know how Ms. El-Arifi did it, but this sequel is BETTER than the first! I read this SO fast, and I didn't even register until I looked up and half the day was gone. Immediately preordered this to put on the shelf next to book 1! A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

I'm always afraid to continue reading a series and experience burnout... but this second book in the Ending Fire trilogy is even better than the first! El-Arifi is a skillful master of world-building and storytelling in general. This is a MUST READ.

It's rare that a sequel is better and harsher then the first book but that is exactly what's happening with the Battle Drum. We are scattered with Anoor in Nar-ruta, and Sylah on a mission to stop the tide wind. We also get to hear Jond's p.o.v. a LOT more which I did like. As well as an introduction to a new p.o.v. a person named Nayeli. The author does a WONDERFUL job with story telling with each of the characters, you are put in the past and present, and when it's time for two to overlap it is done so well. I always like it when everything connects at the end in a good bow but still manages to leave the readers with some questions to ask and theories to ponder. I loved the way Saara achieved that. I also greatly enjoyed the more indepth addition of Jond and Hassa's p.o.vs. I can't wait to see how everyone's story continues on ahead.

Thank you for NetGalley for giving me an ARC for this book!

If you loved the Final Strife then buckle up for this roller coaster of a ride! Saara El-Arifi has now become an automated buy from me. I thought The Final Strife was had developed the characters and the world has already established but I was wrong. That was only the foundation to that skyscraper building that this author has built for her world. The layers and meaning she had created for this book is awe inspiring.

The Battle Drum follows immediately after The Final Strife ( with even a little recap which was nice to have ) every time I thought I knew where this story and characters were going the rug was slip right out from under me!

I have no idea what’s in store for the next book in this series but I’m excited and cannot wait!

The truth behind the long-kept secrets and sacrifices that have upheld an Empire surface as three women and their network of allies strategize how to overcome them when a surprising new battle begins to make itself known in The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi.

Traveling on the mission given to her by Anoor to find a solution for the increasingly deadly tidewinds the Empire is facing, Sylah makes her way to the Ghosting territory to seek their knowledge and aid with her former friend turned prisoner Jond in tow; as they make their way toward support and answers they face dangers in acid rain that incapacitates Sylah and they’re captured by those who would sell them, forcing Jond to devise an escape plan so they can fulfill their mission. Back in the Empire, Anoor has taken up her duties as a disciple and building her Shadow Court in preparation for when she’ll take over as Warden; however, when Uka, her mother and current Warden, is found killed and the clues point toward Anoor she’s accused of the murder, which she didn’t commit, so she tries to solve the mystery to clear her name before it’s too late thanks to the grace afforded to her by her powerful grandmother Yona. While teaching the Shadow Court the Ghosting signing language and helping Anoor clear her name, Hassa finds herself investigating a string of bodies ravaged by the tidewinds that have strange markings in the bones that point toward crime-related murder, but with Loot gone a question arises of who’s ordering the murders. While the three women seek out answers to the questions on their minds while they pursue a solution to save their lives, and their Empire, what they learn unseats everything they thought they knew and will set them on a path forward filled with sacrifices they must decide if they’re willing to make now that the Child of Fire has been found and battle is imminent.

Beginning with a clever method of providing a recap of what previously occurred in The Final Strife, a griot’s story eases readers back into the world for the tale yet to come. Though slowly paced with multiple perspectives to balance and flesh out the situations faced, this second ambitious novel in the trilogy addresses many of the questions raised and left open toward the end of The Final Strife while also depicting a much broader world beyond the Empire, presenting a new, yet related, set of questions to address; the storyline of Nayeli is fascinating and provides greater context and depth around the world’s history, particularly that of colonization and God worship, easily demonstrating that the sliver readers have been offered thus far, and therefore what Sylah, Anoor, and Hassa know, is but a small part of a grander whole. While there are some major revelations within this novel, which were set up and hinted at well, they serve primarily as a way of setting the stage for the battle that will unfold in the next installment of the series, piquing interest to learn what might happen and how things will resolve as a result of what was revealed. Moments of stark realization about the lies they’ve been fed their entire lives are interspersed throughout a variety of hardships, be it dangerous travel in deadly weather elements or attempting to evade capture or striving to clear your name from murder charges, all of which provide opportunities for the characters to demonstrate how they’ve grown in how they react to these trying situations.

Overall, I’d give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The battle drum by Saara El-Arifi is a stellar, knock out of the park second installment to the final strife series

Picking up right where the first buck left off, you are immediately thrust into additional plot, world and character development. This book is much faster paced than the first installment. I definitely was hoping for more political intrigue and character and world development in the second book, and the second book absolutely delivered all three. And I went through a complete range of emotions about reading this book. So many questions that I had were answered. Yet, just an enough was left to the imagination to keep me hungry for the third book. Which I am already chomping at the bit to obtain lol. Well done!

Wow. Just WOW.
So many of the questions we were left with in book 1 were answered in this sequel and it was just so satisfying to start to put the pieces of the puzzle together and start to see the bigger picture.
That twist at the end?!?! Absolutely floored me.
I'm enjoyed that we got multiple POVs in this book vs. the (almost) singular POV from book 1.
We are introduced to a new character in this book and her POVs made me truly angry. There are certain tropes used that I am personally not a fan of. But regardless of how I feel about those tropes, they added a lot of substance to the plot and it served the story well!
Battle Drum picks up almost immediately where Final Strife left off and we are thrown into the thick of it right away which I loved. Final Strife took me a second to really get into but Battle Drum stole my interest from page 1.
I also adored the world building we got in this sequel. I need fan art of the giant mushrooms IMMEDIATELY.
I cannot waitttttt for the third book. I NEED ANSWERS SAARA