Book Review: The Ending Fire by Saara El-Arifi

The Ending Fire by Saara El-Arifi

Book title: The Ending Fire
Author: Saara El-Arifi
Genre: Fantasy
Published: September 10, 2024
512 pages
My rating: 4/5

“But small rebellions don’t change the world.
Some truths were too big to hide among the pauses of a soliloquy. They needed to be shouted. They needed to be confronted.”

The Warden’s Empire, the Blood Forged, and the Zalaam are preparing for a coming war. In the Warden’s Empire, a vigilante called Truthsayer raises an army against the wardens, and Sylah and Hassa have to navigate the changing political system while searching for Anoor. After joining her grandmother, Anoor is celebrated as the Child of Fire who will bring victory to the Zalaam. She finds herself a new purpose as they set off on their last voyage to wage war against the other nations.

The Ending Fire is the third and final book in Saara El-Arifi’s fantasy trilogy. I read the first book The Final Strife (4/5 stars) last year and the second book The Battle Drum (3.5/5 stars) right before this book. There is again a helpful recap of the events of the previous book as well as a glossary and a list of characters.

Majority of this book is spent on the war preparations and the actual final battle. The book is not as heavy in terms of worldbuilding as the first and the second books, and the things that we learned about in the earlier books finally come to fruition. The first half of the book is rather slow, but as the battle approaches, the pacing picks up. Maybe even a little too much, as the ending did feel a little rushed.

In terms of the main characters, Hassa was easily my favorite. I wish we had seen more Sylah in this book, as I found her character intriguing in The Final Strife. She was pushed more to the sidelines in The Battle Drum and The Ending Fire. I still didn’t care for Jond or for his new budding romance, and Anoor actually took steps backward with her naïve trust in her grandmother and the Zalaam. I wish we had seen more character development on her part.

Since there were so many point of view characters, the book doesn’t quite manage to wrap up everyone’s story line in a satisfactory way. For example, over the course of the book Anoor develops a drug addiction, but in the end, she overcomes it easily. Since Sylah’s addiction was handled so well, I was a little disappointed that in Anoor’s case the aftermath was brushed over so fast, but I can forgive it considering that having her face the same ordeal as Sylah would most likely felt repetitive. I don’t think Anoor had a proper redemption arc, though.

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending and the epilogue. The rest of this paragraph contains major SPOILERS, so be warned. After the war, both Hassa and Jond note how devastated they are that Sylah and Anoor have disappeared, but in the very next paragraph both continue their lives as if nothing had happened. The epilogue features Sylah and Anoor, and I’m not sure if they are supposed to be alive (it would be rather cruel that their grieving friends never find out that they survived) or if they are in some strange afterworld (which would make more sense, considering that Anoor and Sylah act perfectly fine even after suffering major injuries). I don’t necessarily need books to have a closed ending, but I felt a little cheated by the epilogue.

Despite a small stumble at the very end of the novel, I found this an exhilarating ending to the trilogy. While the series doesn’t quite reach five-star status, I enjoyed the series a lot, and I’m giving this final installment four stars. If you enjoy fantasy novels about racism, religious zealotry, and overthrowing oppressive governments, I can definitely recommend this trilogy.