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The Battle

Karuna Riazi

Ages 9–14

Readers rate it 3.0 (1 on Hardcover)

320 pages · Released Sep 29, 2020

Content report card

The Battle parent’s guide: what’s inside

High confidence

Language

Sexual content

LGBTQ+ themes

Substance use

What it offers

A note for parents

The Battle is an engaging sci-fi adventure with themes of friendship, courage, and teamwork that will appeal to middle-grade readers who enjoyed The Gauntlet. The stakes are high (world-threatening danger) but violence is limited and depicted within a game/virtual reality context, keeping the intensity manageable. The story features a diverse cast with Muslim representation and celebrates problem-solving over combat, making it age-appropriate for readers around 9–14.

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From the publisher

The game begins again in this gripping follow-up to “exciting, clever” (Booklist) The Gauntlet that’s a futuristic Middle Eastern Zathura meets Ready Player One! Four years after the events of The Gauntlet, the evil game Architect is back with a new partner-in-crime—The MasterMind—and the pair aim to get revenge on the... The game begins again in this gripping follow-up to “exciting, clever” (Booklist) The Gauntlet that’s a futuristic Middle Eastern Zathura meets Ready Player One! Four years after the events of The Gauntlet, the evil game Architect is back with a new partner-in-crime—The MasterMind—and the pair aim to get revenge on the Mirza clan. Together, they’ve rebuilt Paheli into a slick, mind-bending world with floating skyscrapers, flying rickshaws run by robots, and a digital funicular rail that doesn’t always take you exactly where you want to go. Twelve-year-old Ahmad Mirza struggles to make friends at his new middle school, but when he’s paired with his classmate Winnie for a project, he is determined to impress her and make his very first friend. At home while they’re hard at work, a gift from big sister Farah—who is away at her first year in college—arrives. It’s a high-tech game called The Battle of Blood and Iron, a cross between a video game and board game, complete with virtual reality goggles. He thinks his sister has solved his friend problem—all kids love games. He convinces Winnie to play, but as soon as they unbox the game, time freezes all over New York City. With time standing still and people frozen, all of humankind is at stake as Ahmad and Winnie face off with the MasterMind and the Architect, hoping to beat them at their own game before the evil plotters expand Paheli and take over the entire world.

Shelved under

  • Juvenile Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Young Adult
  • Adventure
  • Fiction
  • Science fiction
  • Dystopian
  • Children's fiction
  • Adventure and adventurers, fiction
  • Virtual reality, fiction
  • Games, fiction
  • Magic, fiction

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ISBN 9781534428737 · Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

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