I liked the worldbuilding--it's refreshing to see a Mesoamerican-inspired fantasy--but I thought the characters were weak and Roanhorse over-complicated the story by jumping back and forth in time. I wasn't wowed by this book, but I liked it enough to give the sequel a try.

Received via NetGalley.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse was an excellent fantasy. For me, this one stands out in the very crowded fantasy genre. Roanhorse does an incredible job of weaving in cultural elements and stories that are not often drawn upon. The sequel, Fevered Star, was recently released and I look forward to it.

Interesting read. A fantasy tale based on the Maya and Aztecs. I don’t know of any other fantasy story’s based on those two cultures. The characters are fairly fleshed out and the story builds to a climactic ending and delivers that ending. I hope the series continues to be worth reading.

While this is definitely a super intricate and complex world, it strayed away from ever being too complex or convoluted. In the beginning, I definitely had to find my footing a bit, but, by the end, I couldn't get enough of this world and I loved the South American inspiration behind it.

The characters are so well-done and so well developed. Again, I was nervous and slightly apprehensive going into this book because I heard it was very extreme high fantasy, but I fell in love with the characters which, in turn, helped me love the book overall.

And the writing was phenomenal too! I definitely need to read more from this author and the next book in this series as well.

While it wasn't perfect, it was a great introduction to this new series and I can't wait to continue!!

I have high schoolers who would love this. It’s pretty gory FYI (like gushing blood, pecked apart body parts, sewn up eyeballs, scars type gory) but if you have students into fantasy and who can handle/like that then this will be a win.

It’s queer and it’s got roots in lots of black and brown cultures and stories which is just a bonus win and adds to its freshness in this genre. Readers who love a pirate vibe will also likely be into this one, too. And people into crows! Is bird gore a thing? Who knows these days.

My only qualms were about some of the details of the institutions/structures/framework with the gods and whatnot. I think that was lacking some clarity. But I was able look past that for a compelling narrative and characters and adventure.

The cliff hanger leaves you ready for the next one!

Thanks to net galley and the publishers for a copy in exchange for an honest review. More books like this please!

While I've like Roanhorse's writing in the past, I had trouble getting into this book. It is competently written, and the characters are interesting, and objectively I can see why it's praised. Definitely a case of it's not you, it's me.

Going into this book I had know idea what to expect. I really just picked it for the cover but it's a scifi book which I've come to love. Cover to cover there were few dull moments but plenty of reasons to live this book!

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley, I did receive a eARC in August 2020. I have between that time and now also purchased it in Kindle edition, still I apologize for the lateness of my review.

I did not plan to have read & reviewed so close to Fevered Star's April 2022 release rather than in 2020. I have to say these past two years of the pandemic I have worked in healthcare and now find I have little patience or taste for violence or death in books. So much so I had recently become frustrated with myself and my rate of eARC tbr reading seemingly piling up with no results.

So the opening with a mother intent on sacrifice and blooding & blinding her son was put away until I felt I could get though it chapter by chapter if it was all violence. Yet I fell in love with the characters, especially Xiala and the fates of Serapio and Naranpa enthralled me, yesterday I was at 40% -and today I am finished! It feels so good to read again!

So Black Sun is a gift, I have a love of the ancient Americas that goes back to the beginning of my love of myth and it's so rarely done well or touched upon with respect or genuine kindness.

I would love a whole Teek spin off series, so fascinated was I with Xiala and her people who are mothered by the sea, are lovers to the fickle wind and siblings to the creatures of the sea, who are all women and strange eyed and sometimes gilled & fish tailed.

We get to know the cruel tutors who trained Serapio, who raised him to be the vessel of the Crow God, a sacrifice to vengeance, but Xiala sees him as more than a tool or a god.

Naranpa, Sun Priest, was raised not as one of the four nobles of the Sky Made, but in the Coyote's Maw of the Dry Earth, with her brother Denaochi - now a slum lord. She denies all ties to the past before she became a dedicant and walks a careful line of power as Sun Priest among her fellow priests and the clan matrons. It is her life Serapio was raised to end, even though she had as little to do with the massacre of his clan as he had.

Among the priests is her once lover Iktan, a knife or tsiyo, xie wants to spare Naranpa and is not bothered by using bloodshed to do so saving Naranpa from two assassination attempts. The Sun Priest is not the only one being targeted, when Crow matron Yatliza is killed, at her funeral her son Okoa the Shield of his sister who is the next matron to be, is nearly killed by Iktan.

So all is to be gambled and win or lose, the world will be changed after the convergence, a eclipse of the sun, the crow swallowing the sun, or the sun reborn anew through the fires of the Sun Priest. It's a game not all want to play, but prophecy has made patol players of them all.

First of all, I want to thank Saga Press for the ARC of this book they gave me. Two years ago. Which I just finished. Whoops.

I’ve heard Roanhorse’s name a lot in the past few years, and have the opportunity to hear her speak at a few panels at World Con in DC this past December, where she impressed me. (I also may have avoided going to anything where I might get to speak to her out of guilt for the unread ARC of *Black Sun*.) I’m also always ready to read a book that isn’t Eurocentric in its origins, so I was happy to finally transfer the title of “ARC I Feel Most Guilty Over Not Having Read” to *In the Black* by Patrick S. Tomlinson (published October 2020).

Anyway. This book was creative, original, and well-written, but for some reason it just didn’t click for me. Every time I picked up the book, it was easy to read and engaging. But when I put it down, I found I didn’t think about it all that much. I would think to myself, “I don’t think I really care about any of the characters. Except for the priestess, and crow guy, and the sailor lady … wait, I think that’s literally all the main characters.” I really can’t say *why* it didn’t click for me, when it appears to tick all the checkboxes for a book I’d love. I think this was probably a “It’s not you, it’s me” situation.

The book is inspired by the Americas pre-1492. I’m no expert, but I think this was based mostly on the cultures of central and northern Mexico. There are three main characters: the high priestess of the ruling sect of priests, who is reform-minded and concerned that her and her brethren are out of touch with the people; a man who was raised to be the avatar of a repressed god, on his way to challenge the aforementioned priestess; and the sailor who was hired to get him to the holy city.

It’s essentially two different stories that are mostly independent of each other. On the one hand, you have the priestess engaged in political struggles with the other religious figures in their tower, trying to get them to see their position is more precarious than they believe. And then you have the crow guy and the sailor lady making their way towards the holy city, a danger the priestess and her allies and enemies are all unaware of. Of the two, the crow guy and sailor lady are the more prominent, and (I found) more compelling.

I will say that all my “this isn’t quite clicking” complaints don’t apply to the climax of the story, which is just terrific. I’m not quite certain if I’m going to pick up the sequel or not; I’m going to give it a few weeks and see how much interest I feel.

Black Sun was a really fabulous epic fantasy novel. I loved Roanhorse's worldbuilding in particular. She is using indigenous, pre-Columbian Americas cultures as her inspiration and has a number of diverse characters represented throughout her world. It's a breath of fresh air after countless Lord of the Rings Euro-centric read-alikes. This gave me a similar feel to NK Jemisin's One Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I will definitely be reading more of this series. 4.25 stars.
I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Black Sun is a breath of fresh air in the world building department. It’s inspired by pre-Colombian cultures such as the Maya and Inca, and I believe the book does them justice. The various cultures and societies are complex and unique. The large cast is extremely diverse. If this is what you’re looking for, Black Sun is definitely a book to check out.

However I did struggle with some of this. The characters for me were a little flat, I enjoyed some POVs more than others, and the POVs I enjoyed changed as their stories developed. At first it was Xiala, whose culture and past are kept kind of secretive, and then as her storyline devolved into a romantic one, I became more intrigued by Okoa and where his was headed.

Serapio and Naranpa never really grew on me, and thinking about her storyline now, she feels like a character with little agency- things happen to her, but rarely by her choice which was frustrating to read.

I think the thing that most frustrated me though was the romance. There was too much pining and commentary on how beautiful the love interest was. The romance itself I really didn’t buy- it felt largely one sided and there just wasn’t any chemistry between the characters. It’s okay for characters to just be friends! Friendships are great to read about too! Not everything needs a romance! Scenes between besties can easily still be emotional.

I’m not sure whether I’ll continue this series or not, but as I said above, would recommend it to anyone looking for fantasy inspired by non-western cultures.

Black Sun started slowly. characters and plot seemingly unconnected. However, it inexorably drew me in as the story unfolded and the characters developed. Black Sun's plot and novel story line, the steadily increasing suspense and smoldering dread incased in beautiful world development completely captured my attention. If you haven't read this novel yet do so as soon as possible, you won't be disappointed. I look forward to the next novel.

What I liked : the world building, as well as the character development, the relationships between the characters.
What I didn't like was how confusing it was sometimes when it would switch from one time period to other , then I would be a bit confused and have to go back to the last chapter and re read it as well as the new chapters frist page to get an idea of what was going on.
Over all I did enjoy my time reading it.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher Gallery Books, Gallery / Saga Press, for allowing me to receive this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

Roanhorse constructs a world with so many cultures, religions, socio-economic statuses, and the effects of being born into different magics, deities, power, devotion, camaraderie, and retribution and inspired by pre-Columbian Americas. It checks all the boxes you want in a great fantasy novel! I cannot wait to get to the sequel!

This book is so unique and interesting! Can’t wait to read the next one. Thanks to netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

actual rating: 4.5

THIS BOOK... While it was a bit of a slow build, in retrospect, it was so worth it. I was never bored and getting to know the characters, and watching them get to know each other (specifically in the case of Xiala and Serapio) was better than anything fast-paced. I adored these characters. Serapio and Xiala definitely stole the show for me and while Naranpa is a close third, Okoa barely scrapped his way into fourth. I liked him, but he was introduced too late and had too few chapters for me to like him as much as the other three. However, the ending put him in a prime position to be a bigger focus in the second book, and I'm excited to get to know him better there.

I'm going back to Xiala and Serapio because their yearning was everything to me. Serapio holding back because he's not a human, but a vessel hurt in all the right ways. They were so sweet and watching them grow from strangers to almost-lovers... oof. Oof in the best way.

The culture is so rich in this book and the inspirations are fresh and original. There's nothing like this out there.

This has everything in it and it was everything I needed. I absolutely love Roanhorse's writing and this was no exception. The lore and the characters were just so fascinating! I couldn't put this book down. I can't wait to see how the rest of this story unfolds.

Epic fantasy novel with world-building based on pre-conquest America instead of Medieval Europe which gives it an interesting twist. The characters were well-written with Serapio being my favorite because I enjoy the damaged hero trope. I also liked the concept of the Teek and would love to see that evolved in the next book. This was a slow, character-driven build-up to a cliffhanger with POV chapters so it's not a quick read. If you love crows and crow lore, you will love this one.

Lush Epic, fantasy story set in pre-columbian times with multiple povs. I was not lost in who was the voice in each chapter as we moved through the story. The ancient prophecy is never lost in the story and the tale is woven in a way you just get wrapped up in the tale. The author did an amazing job of weaving, intrigue, plotting, back-stabbing and danger into the story. I did feel that ending was very abrupt to the point where yes their more story but it just seemed like you were cut off with a cleaver i would of liked a bit more to transition to the next book. Overall i think this is a very unique story.

I was not sure what to expect when I started reading this book. It was a bit different than my typical reads. I do enjoy fantasy books, but I had not read one like this before. I enjoyed how the setting was in an almost familiar place, based on something in the real world, but it was so unique and interesting. The characters pulled you in and you easily became a part of their lives and felt for them. There was such a wide array and at first it took me a bit to get used to going between character perspectives. Sometimes I enjoy that type of writing and other times I do not. I feel like this author did it well and it actually kept the story moving along. Once I got used to it I ended up enjoying it. At times it was a bit more graphic than I like, but it wasn't too much to make it unbearable. Overall it was an enjoyable read. I also listened to this as an audiobook once my library had it and I loved listening to it. It had different narrators for each character which was amazing and made it so easy to switch between them. I definitely recommend the audiobook!

This story of a fractured and tenuous world with forms of magic and suspense was an interesting tale that I enjoyed. At the beginning I wasn't sure if I would read the whole trilogy, but after completing it the author had me on the edge of my seat and now I cannot wait for the second instalment.

*I received this book as a free preview from NetGalley for my fair and honest review.