Black Sun

audio cd

Published Oct. 13, 2020 by Blackstone Pub.

ISBN:
978-1-5082-8308-9
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(80 reviews)

4 editions

reviewed Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Between Earth and Sky, #1)

Interesting albeit not thrilling

There was a lot of interesting elements in that first novel of a trilogy, with the worldbuilding, magic and beliefs system. The characters were also mostly engaging, but I didn't feel like I needed to start the second book of the series immediately. Maybe it just means that my expectations were too high.

reviewed Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Between Earth and Sky, #1)

remarkably well-executed

I haven't read enough fantasy since I started reading again to say much that can't be disentangled from my reading experience. I will say: I found the characters interesting, their dynamics more so, and the backdrop of the meso-american inspired fantasy captivating. It was so compelling I finished in one sitting. As soon as the book club for this one wraps, I'm starting the sequel.

Review of 'Black Sun' on 'Storygraph'

Interesting enough to finish but missing the pull that many other books have. Not my wheelhouse, but some of the topics feel a little forced. The ending felt rushed, and this book doesn’t stand on its own. Likely won’t continue the series.

reviewed Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Between Earth and Sky, #1)

First in a trilogy

Excellent worldbuilding, likeable characters - it actually pulls off the thing I've seen a few times where characters on opposing sides are all presented as likeable. Often, I end up not caring about any of them; here, I find myself wanting things to go well for all of them.

Selling points: South/meso-American-inspired setting; bi rep; nonbinary rep. (Also blind rep but I'm not sure I can recommend it on that basis - Rebecca Roanhorse obviously made an effort with the disability rep here, but he's also a reincarnated god, and as someone who's not blind on that level myself I don't think I can fairly judge whether or not she hit the balance well.)

Warnings: violence; child abuse; child neglect; ritual injury of a child by a parent; a sex scene, tasteful but fairly explicit; end on quite a sequel-hungry note.

Warnings:

Review of 'Black Sun' on 'Goodreads'

A pulpy fantasy in a setting inspired by South American and indigenous cultures. It ends on a massive cliffhanger and while one arc of plot is resolved, it does not feel like this book stands by itself. Annoyingly the plot is driven by characters making bad decisions they probably shouldn't have been in the position to make and what passes for political intrigue is really just high school drama. The effort that's gone into works building is all that brings this up to ⭐⭐⭐, I don't care enough to suffer through another two of these.

reviewed Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (Between Earth and Sky, #1)

interesting worldbuilding, narrative structure, but definitely 1/3

The Mesoamerican (?) world is interesting, and the explicit use of timestamps on each chapter (including foreshadowing, jumping back and forth) is somewhat unique, but the book definitely leaves the reader with that "Ooops I started a trilogy" feeling.

Review of 'Black Sun' on 'Goodreads'

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 …

reviewed Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Captivating story, engaging writing

The character and world building in this book is phenomenal. I love that the author based a fantasy world on indigenous central american cultures and not medieval England (yawn).

I always appreciate a book that's got quality LGBTQ+ characters (both in terms of sexual attraction as well as gender identification).

The book got pretty intense and violent in parts, which is why I'm rating it 4 stars. Readers who don't mind that sort of stuff might appreciate it as a 5 star book. I'm not kidding when I say that the story and characters are really well done.

I finished this book last night and am excited to start the sequel tonight!

Review of 'Black Sun' on 'Goodreads'

"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 …

Richtig gute, epische Story

… 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 …

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