Black Sun

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?

“We have become a place of long weeping
A house of scattered feathers
There is no home for us between earth and sky.
—From Collected Lamentations from the Night of Knives”

Black Sun is a fascinating speculative fiction novel that takes the cultures and mythos of the indigenous Americas and crafts a brutal yet beautiful world teeming with strife, injustice, and conflict. I have always been quite curious about Aztec mythology and I for one am glad to see more stories reflecting the beautiful diversity of the indigenous Americas (also, plug for Onyx Equinox, an adult animated series based on indigenous myths that you can watch for free on Crunchyroll—it’s so good). The story follows several major protagonists, and though the shifted perspectives left me wanting more at times, each character got a decent amount of time in the spotlight. Roanhorse uses actual historical and mythological records as a basis for the worldbuilding yet also manages to make it her own. The pacing of the plot could have been better, but overall this was a refreshing novel and fun take on the fantasy genre.Of the characters, Xiala and Okoa were my favorite, but I also found myself curious about the side characters like Lord Balam and the dedicants of the celestial tower. Roanhorse manages to set up a world that feels quite lived-in, but I wish she would have spent a bit more time making the characters feel fleshed out and not just static representations of their role in the storyline. For example, when we first meet Xiala, her ‘thing’ becomes getting drunk and ending up in prison… and this is referenced at least a couple other times in the story. She is a captain, a Teek, and many other things besides—but the reader doesn’t need to know much more than that, apparently.The plot starts off with a bang—as other reviewers have said, this has one of the best first chapters I’ve read in a while. It hooked me right away and it doesn’t pull its punches. The rest of the book is not as strong, and while it was enjoyable, it definitely had a bit of a meandering pace to it. The shifting perspectives didn’t help, as every time I felt myself getting comfortable with one character, the narrative shifted to another; as a result, I’m mildly ‘OK’ with all the characters but not too enraptured with any one in particular. Since this is a trilogy, it is reasonable that a lot of this book will be setting up what is to come—and what has been set up seems very promising, so I’m excited to read the forthcoming books in the series.Speaking of plot, the book does start to develop some interesting themes that I hope we will see more of in future books. What is the role of authority, and who determines who should wield power? What do we owe to victims who have suffered a great loss? Do we have a duty to do what we have been brought up to do? Can the trauma of our ancestors be truly healed without furthering the cycle of pain? Is it possible to leave one’s past behind? What is the value of sacrifice and justice? All of these questions play some role in the narrative and in the character’s roles, and I found myself engaging with many of them. These are familiar themes and not particularly groundbreaking, but I enjoyed how Roanhorse tied them into this story.Perhaps my favorite aspect of the book is the worldbuilding—and this is hardly a surprise as I was expecting it to be. First, a fair warning: the world can seem overwhelming and confusing when you start, but power through and you will find yourself acclimating. There are plenty of hints and drops to indigenous mythologies and cultures in the text; I’m no expert, but some references were obvious enough. For example, the different regions of the Meridian reflect different elements of actual historical cultures. But take care to remember that this is epic fantasy, not historical fiction—so while it’s not exactly something familiar to the reader, Roanhorse does make the world of the Meridian just as interesting. There is magic, sorcery, people born with a connection to the sea, giant crows, and that’s to name a few. Some aspects were not as developed as I would have liked, but this being a trilogy it’s possible that they will be developed further in other books. The religious underpinnings were also incredibly interesting and I became quite invested in learning about the backgrounds and traditions of the religious factions in the story; hopefully this will be developed in the upcoming books. I certainly wouldn’t mind spending more time reading the book if it meant I could stay in this world a bit longer.Being me, I do have a few nitpicks however… the writing style felt a little ‘modern’ at times, what with the now-unfortunately-common trend of writing in half-sentences and doing a bit more telling-than-showing. This seems to be a ‘thing’ now in publishing and I’m not sure I like it… but it was bearable, considering everything else. I applaud Roanhorse for the use of neopronouns but they did make the writing feel a bit clunky to get through, and moreover, the entire point of neopronouns is that they are a socially constructed thing—there wasn’t an established background for their use within the context of the story. I would’ve appreciated more development of the idea of being outside the gender binary rather than a superficial display of ‘representation’… and speaking of, there are LGBT characters but the main ‘romance’ was your standard heteronormative fare. I wasn’t a huge fan as the romance seemed quite underdeveloped and unsuitable for the characters involved. Thankfully the romance is not a large part of the plot, but it does result in a few melodramatic moments.What with that first chapter, it was quite easy for me to lose myself in this book for a few days, and it still managed to tick off a lot of boxes for me. As Roanhorse describes it, there are “spearmaidens and assassins, shipkilling tempests and god-made storms deadlier than any weather”, and a rather cool map as well. If you’re interested in epic fantasy and/or speculative fiction and/or indigenous cultures, definitely check this book out.Favorite quotes:※ “‘A man with a destiny is a man who fears nothing,’ he whispered to himself.”※ “What use is a power to read the heavens if it cannot be turned to your own benefit?”※ “I once saw a crow befriend a kitten and protect it with its own life.” (I am no fan of birds but this does sound like something crows would do. In fact, this entire book made me appreciate crows in a way I haven't since reading Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo... and there were very few actual crows in that book.)※ “…justice came though the actions of humans holding wrongdoers to account, not through some vague divine retribution and certainly not through violence.”※ “It was a simple thing, but it felt good. She had had a problem and she solved it. It wasn’t so hard. A manageable danger rather than the precipice of future decisions that lay ahead.” (Note to self: the next time I am procrastinating because something is difficult, do something small.)※ “But if your stories are of adaptation and survival, of long memory and revenge, then I will know you are a Crow like me.”

This book blew me away with how good it was. It's set in a fantasy world based on the pre-Columbian Americas, and is chock-full of interesting, diverse characters. The bulk of the story is set in the city of Tova, religious center of Meridian, where the different Sky Made clans and their matrons live, and the priests of the Celestial Tower try to shape society. Not long ago, there was a massacre of the Crow Clan, instigated by the Celestial Tower, and cultists who do not follow the priests' beliefs are waiting for the return of Grandfather Crow, to take revenge.

The book starts 20 days before the Convergence, a rare solar eclipse during winter solstice, and Grandfather Crow is traveling towards Tova in the form of a young man named Serapio, one of the PoV characters. Since childhood he has been groomed towards the day of the Convergence, to kill the Sun Priest in Tova. Aiding him in getting to Tova is Xiala, a vivacious Teek captain who likes to play hard and soothe the seas with her song.

The other PoV characters are Narapa, the young Sun Priest, who is beset by political machinations on all sides as well, plus Okoa, the son of the Crow Clan's matron who died under mysterious circumstances.

The Convergence of all those characters is skillfully done, I was at the edge of my seat as the day count in each chapter got smaller, and could easily have read 500 more pages of the good stuff. The flashbacks to Serapio's youth were always very interesting too. Serapio must be the most tragic character I have read of in recent times.

The world is vibrant, colorful, gripping. Hooray for non-European centric Fantasy, get me more of this stuff.

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.

Black Sun is fantastic and dark, slowly counting down to the fulfillment of an event years in the making. Full of complex relationships and a deep sense of history; interpersonal politics, religious factions, and the (hopeful) fulfillment of prophecy.

The sense of place is beautiful; the descriptions, especially early in the book, are so vivid that it felt like I could walk through many of the spaces in the text. I don’t normally have a good sense of space so it takes some damn good writing to take me there, but this did. The world-building implies complexity early on and then backs up that promise over and over without resorting to info-dumping. 

I love the dynamic between Xiala and Serapio, it builds really naturally and is part of some good Big Damn Moments; the kind that make me want to run around and tell everyone about the really awesome thing that just happened; the kind where an emotional arc combines with a spectacular Event in a way that is satisfying on all fronts. The book handles interpersonal relationships in general really well, no two people have the same dynamic with any other two, and that complexity builds to show different sides of people depending on who they're with. That's not unique to this book, but the subtlety of it here is remarkable and was one more thing I loved about it.

The pacing is really good, the timestamp at the beginning of each chapter was very useful and also ominous as it slowly counted down (except for brief forays into the past). It created tension for me as a reader without requiring the action to ramp up for every character (as not all of them had a sense of the deadline). 

The political and interpersonal machinations are great, they’re something I generally enjoy that is done really well here. There’s a few points where information is revealed to the reader via one POV character, but we only find out some part of its significance when a different character is made aware of it. It’s the kind of thing that makes the book feel cohesive even as it keep swapping POV characters with each new chapter. The characters have very relatable motives for their actions; generally I understood why the various factions were trying for different goals even though I wasn't rooting for everyone. The book also didn't really pressure me to feel like I need to root for anyone.

I loved the ending and I'm very ready for more in this series whenever it's available. 

I don’t give out five star ratings lightly. I feel like this book especially is asking me to rate it lower because the ending is very unsatisfying (apparently we will have to wait for the second book for an actual ending, which is very annoying). It also lacks the exploration of themes I usually need to rate a book highly. But I’m still going to give it all the stars. Why? Basic competency, I guess? First of all, the world is highly unique. While religion plays a large part, it’s all inherited through family, clans, and other social structures so it feels much more meaningful than I’ve seen in other books. There is magic but there’s never a moment where it’s used solely as spectacle. It’s use is purposeful and not taken lightly. Every character has clear motivations, the relationships between them feel real and earned, and no one comes across as evil for the sake of being evil. It’s just... very well done. I won’t be recommending it until there are more books as the not-ending is very frustrating, but everything else about this book makes me wish I could recommend it to literally everyone, even people who aren’t usually interested in fantasy. So yeah... still five stars. Haha.

Well, well, well, so here we are once again, with me writing a review that takes a contrary position from nearly everyone else who read this.

I’ve actually been procrastinating my review of Black Sun for this exact reason, because I really wanted to love this book—and at first I did. On the surface, it seems like it should be an automatic win: an interesting, new take on the fantasy genre that, as countless others before me have observed, draws on nontraditional, non-Eurocentric sources, contains a greater number of important, strong female characters than is typical of fantasy novels, and includes more modern characterization (non-binary characters don’t even raise an eyebrow, for example).

So with this as the foundation, we should be on our way to a completely fresh take on the fantasy genre, right? Well, sadly, no. Instead, nearly all of the standard fantasy tropes make an appearance, which means there is plenty of....guess what? QUESTING. Yes, the most overused trope in the history of fantasy writing makes up the majority of this book, with any sort of actual plot grinding to a halt while nearly everyone travels somewhere for reasons that I’m sure are very important.

(Something does actually happen during the last chapter or two, but by the time I got there I really didn’t care anymore.)

This could be overlooked if it were used to help us get to know the characters better, but that isn’t really what happens here. Each character is largely interchangeable with every other character, and the emphasis on pre-Columbian American civilization that is so hyped in descriptions of Black Sun wasn’t really evident to me (it’s possible that, as I don’t really know much about pre-Columbian American civilizations, I didn’t really know what to look for, and that’s on me rather than the author). I couldn’t really chart any sort of growth or development for any character here. Connecting with them emotionally was not really possible.

Most tellingly for me, however, is the fact that I had to increasingly force myself to return to reading this book until I was finally just trying to make it through to the end. It isn’t that Black Sun was bad or poorly written. It was just dull. So while I didn’t hate Black Sun, it is unlikely that I’ll be reading the other volumes in this series.

*I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is it.*