Black Sun

3, 3.5 stars? This was fine, serviceable. Not something I loved or hated. I think if it were a movie I might continue on to the next in the series, but as a book I’m not especially interested in continuing.

What I liked:
1) The setting, the world, or what I got of it. I liked the setup of the clans, the Teek, the cultists.
2) Opening chapter. Loved it! Such a strong dramatic, engaging moment.
3) The political intrigue. Again - what I got of it, I enjoyed. Naranpa’s situation is the kind of fantasy drama I eat up.
4) Some of the climax with Serapio. I felt like I could visualize that battle, and it was a wild time.

What I didn’t like, much of which I recognize are preferences and subjective, not flaws of the book:
1) Character work. I found it lacking. The four POVs were distinct enough, which I appreciated, but I didn’t find any POV enough for me. The characters didn’t really have arcs, at least not in this book. They did have a lot of potential, but it was not explored enough. For example, I wanted more of Naranpa and Denaochi as kids in order for their reunion as adults to hit hard. Much of the state of the relationships here are told to you rather than shown, which frustrated me.
2) World building. As someone who doesn’t love lots of description, it makes me laugh that I wanted more. This didn’t feel as lush and full as I wanted it to feel. I had questions about what people and places looked like, what the cultural rules were.
3) The romance. I’m sorry, chemistry where? It felt obligatory. This was another example of being told some relationship dynamic existed rather than shown.

Glad to have read it, it was a breeze to read despite its 400+ pages!

"There was magic in the world, pure and simple. Things she didn't understand. Best get used to it."

I'm waffling hard on whether to give this the 5 stars that I feel like it deserves, and the 4 stars I want to give it out of consistency with my other books I really loved but didn't stick the landing. I'm definitely sure this was a favorite book of this year for me so far, though.

The story this book tells is from the point of view of four different characters. Xiala, a Teek captain tasked with ferrying a blind man to a distant city within a very short time for an urgent date with a Sun Priest before the Convergence (an eclipse on the solstice). Serapio is the blind man, blinded by his mother at a young age to be the vessel for a crow god bent on vengeance against the priests for a wrong done to its people, clan Carrion Crow. Naranpa, the Sun Priest, a low-born priest given the highest rank amonst the priests by the previous Sun Priest and having to navigate office priesthood politics as a result, and Okoa, reluctant leader of clan Carrion Crow, having to deal with the potential fallout a vengeful crow god on the loose will bring his people.

We get a lot of character development between Xiala and Serapio on their voyage to Serapio's appointment which I loved, and we learn a bit about Xiala's people, the Teek, and the strange powers she inherited. I loved Okoa's viewpoint as well, as he feels his way through leading clan Carrion Crow through potentially turbulent times. I thought Neranpa's viewpoint was the weakest of the four, but also necessary to show how fractured the priesthood is. She's a bit naiive, a bit annoying, and a bit gullible, and I found her chapters a bit boring but necessary to tell the larger story.

I feel like the ending of this book was super weak though, and while the second book is out for me to dive into at the time I'm writing this, I think I'd be a bit harsher with docking the book a star if it wasn't. After the buildup, the ending is a bit of a slap in the face.

All that said though, this was a really great read, and I look forward to reading the second book.

… Punktabzug für das Cliffhanger-Ende. Dachte die Geschichte sei abgeschlossen, aber das „Ende“ ist kein so semi offenes, sondern richtig offen. Nunja, muss ich wohl auch das Sequel, „Fever Star“ hören. Was mich auch störte an dem nicht abgeschlossen Ende: Es fühlte sich an, als hätte die Autorin sich nicht getraut, bei manchen Charakteren eine Entscheidung zu treffen. Aber wir werden sehen, ich hoffe, dass ich falsch liege. :)

Was die Story angeht: Schönes Fantasy Setting wenn mich auch der arg symmetrische Aufbau (es gibt etwa genau 4 Clans und passend Stadtviertel und so) etwas irkt und zu sehr an Sentai Serien erinnert. Schön, dass queere Charaktere vorkommen und Neopronomen nicht hinterfragt werden. Nicht so toll fand ich, dass die meisten Protagonist_innen Auserwähle oder Royals sind, was mich immer sehr anöded. Ich erlebe lieber Geschichten von 0815 working class Charakteren und ohne Magie (jdf dann wenn nur Auserwählte diese nutzen können, das ist mir immer zu elitistisch und rassistisch).

Schön fand ich am Hörbuch, dass es mehrere Sprecher_innen gab. Leider fand ich nicht alle überzeugend, einer schien mir wesentlich zu apathisch für die Rolle, die er sprach.

Deeply mixed feelings. Roanhorse’s new world is imaginative, rich and vivid. Her pacing is excellent. The characters, unfortunately, fall completely flat. They’re mere plot devices to move the story on: they have little agency of their own, no inner lives; the relationships between them are for the most part contrived and unsatisfying. The Doomsday Device guy docilely goes along with his preordained fate; the High Priestess is a sappy milquetoast consistently three moves behind everyone else; the Dashing Adventure Heroine — okay, she shows a lot of promise, but she has a lot of shit to get together first.

The story itself is disappointing: it all hinges on a Great Prophecy, and visions of revenge, and a lot of seriously unlikely events coming together in just the right way. There are hints of some Grandmaster-level scheming, but all of it predates the events in the book, those characters having set things in motion before dying, and then those events all happening decades later as planned. (The story clearly takes place before Murphy’s Law was discovered). This leaves very little for the characters to do aside from move according to the script, which they do with an ad-lib here and there. And, too much is not adequately explained: they had years to get Doomsday Guy to his assigned place and time, why did they leave the sea trip for the very very absolute last minute? The priest society, what purpose do they serve? And, seriously, cacao beans as currency?