Fantasy Book Critic: Review: The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi

OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Saara El-Arifi is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ending Fire trilogy and the upcoming Faebound. Her work is inspired by her Ghanaian and Sudanese heritage. She has lived in many countries, had many jobs and owned many more cats.

She was raised in the Middle East until her formative years, when her family swapped the Abu Dhabi desert for the English Peak District hills. This change of climate had a significant impact on her growth—not physically, she’s nearly 6ft—and she learned what it was to be Black in a white world.

El-Arifi knew she was a storyteller from the moment she told her first lie. Over the years she has perfected her tall tales into epic ones. She currently resides in London, UK, as a full-time procrastinator.

FORMAT/INFO: The Battle Drum will be published on May 23rd, 2023. It is 560 pages split over 51 chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue. It is told from the third person POV of multiple characters, including Sylah, Anoor, and Hassa. It is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: After discovering shocking secrets, Anoor, Sylah, and Hassa have put into motion a plan to hopefully save the empire from the increasingly devastating tidewind that strikes the country every night, killing any who stand in its path. Sylah is journeying to uncharted regions to seek out answers that may end the tidewind, while Anoor stays behind to govern and try to enact reforms that will hopefully keep all people safe, regardless of blood color. As Sylah’s journey takes unexpected turns, Anoor’s reign is almost immediately plagued by accusations of murder. And at the heart of everything is Hassa, a spy for the clear-blooded Ghostings who finds herself increasingly torn by her duty to her people and the bonds of friendship that grow as she develops a network of allies.

The Battle Drum is the kind of sequel that stuns the reader when it reveals just how narrow the focus was in book one. The reveals we get are not only surprising, but also ones that delight as they prove that the author had an overarching plan from the very beginning. There is supreme satisfaction in watching big picture puzzle pieces click into place, especially for pieces you didn’t even know existed. This is all extremely vague writing, but the journey is so worth experiencing fresh that I hesitate to get into any specifics. Just be assured that the overall story continues to be unexpected and wonderful (as well as dark and occasionally graphically violent – check your trigger warnings for sure on this one).

I was really pleased to see Hassa have a more expanded presence in this book, as that was a big lament I had about The Final Strife. She takes more of a center stage role in sussing out what secret happenings are going on in the city, and how all the pieces click together. We also get a few new POVs this go round, including a new character whose storyline is intriguing to follow as you wait to see how it connects with the main plot line.

There was one weakness, however, that stopped this from being as big a homerun as The Final Strife, and that was Anoor. She and Sylah are separate from each other for the entire book, and the result was a character who seemed shockingly ineffectual. Anoor was priviledged and naive in book one, yes, but she also put plans into motion and did the work. This time, however, it felt like much of her time was spent flailing about, and even accounting for the emotional toll she goes through, I was surprised at how much she was sidelined.

CONCLUSION: The Battle Drum is a worthy follow-up to The Final Strife. I loved seeing new corners of this world and coming to understand the history that led to present day circumstances. Although Anoor’s storyline left me underwhelmed, the rest of the book held up, and I will be eagerly awaiting the third and final book in this trilogy