DNF at 12%

Firstly, thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Unfortunately, the writing style really didn’t work for me. I know that 12% doesn’t seem like I got very far (and that’s true), the book is quite long. 12% is somewhere around 60 pages.

In particular, I found the descriptions of characters to be over-the-top and caricaturish, and descriptions of places and scenery to be overdone. At least for me, these descriptions didn’t succeed in creating an atmosphere in the way that was intended, although I can see that it might work better for others.

I also struggled with understanding character motivations and interactions. For example, when two characters interact, I found it difficult to work out whether they had an amicable relationship, if there was supposed to be some tension, or really what the dynamic was supposed to be. This kind of thing might have become evident later in the story but I don’t see a reason for it to be so confusing off the bat - it didn’t feel natural.

If my issues with this book had been anything other than the writing style, I would have pushed through a bit more, but I don’t expect the writing to suddenly change to a style that is more compatible with my brain.

First of all, I'd like to thank you NetGalley, Daphne Press and Gabriela Romero Lacruz for providing me with a free advanced reader copy.

Unfortunately I couldn't finish this book and I rarely do that.
Normally it takes me 2 days to read really good fantasy book with complex world-building, because I just can't put down book like that. It definitely wasn't the case with The Sun and the Void.

I was able to read 50% of the book but I was really struggling. The characters didn't catch my attention. I don't even know if I like them, or not. I just don't care what's going to happen with Reina or Eva and that's really disturbing, because getting attached to fictional characters is my hobby.

I didn't get too far into The Sun and The Void before realising it's just not for me right now. The world building is deep and the character relationships complex. To me it felt quite wordy and I couldn't get into a good rhythm with it. However, this will really work for some so I'm not completely DNFing, I'm just pausing for now until I can really take my time with it.

I'm not sure how I feel about this book, since it definitely wasn't terrible, but I don't find it very charming either. I found the world-building quite confusing and I only started understanding what was happening around 30% into the book. I also felt like it dragged quite a bit, which made my reading experience not as enjoyable as I wish it would have been as most of the time I had to force myself to read it in hopes that it will get easier. It did a bit, but that wasn't enough for me to look forward to the next chapter. It's a shame, because I thought that the premise was quite good, but it didn't live up to my expectations.

"The Sun and The Void" was one of my most anticipated books this year and I'm really glad that I was able to read an ARC of it!
The blurb was really promising but after reading the book I have to say that even with really good plot ideas the execution wasn't as satisfying.
Let's start with the things I enjoyed:
• The woldbuilding happened through the eyes of the protagonist, we learn about the world through other characters telling and explaining it to them.
• The arc of suspense at the end was quite good and I enjoyed reading the last chapters.

But the biggest issue I had with the book was the timeline. The story expanded over a view years and because of that it feld like the author wanted to put too many plot points in this book. There was too little focus on different events and they fell a bit flat.  Also, the characters seemed kinda inconsistent and some of their actions didn't made sense.

Another thing I didn't like were the love interests. They were either racist (at least in the beginning) or abusive and still, the protagonists fall for them. I really didn't like that the abusive behaviour was explained with "a curse" for that seemed to take the responsibility for their actions.

All in all I would say that the ideas for the plot could be good but it needs a little more balance between booklength and events in the story as well as more comprehensible character building.

Edit: the more I thought about this book, the more problematic aspects I've found. Especially the ableism!! That's why I changed my review to 2 stars.

Not a great review- describing indigenous natives as MONSTER is a major racial problem. As a person of colour, i found it difficult to continue reading this book, i have to give one star because i cannot give 0 stars. Hopefully the publishing team takes a deeper look at this book and see where the problems lie.

Honest, this books reminds me why you shouldn’t jump into social media hype.

It was good, it just wasn’t great.

1/5 stars or well technically a DNF

Unfortunately this book is just not for me. I already struggled with the first chapter, which should've been a sign for me. The premise of the book sounded so good, so promising. It's a shame that for me it just couldn't grab my attention, making it rather difficult to make my way through. I took 30 days to even get past the first chapter.

I ended up DNF'ing because I realised I should not have to force myself to continue reading a book. Maybe the book does get better but it unfortunately didn't get me to care enough to keep going. Can I fully describe why this book didn't grab me? No, in the end that's mostly a personal opinion. What makes me not like it might make others adore it. But for those book I highly recommend reading an excerpt to see if you mesh well with the writing style and descriptions. For me, they didn't work. Considering the high reviews on Goodreads others clearly do love it.

It's unfortunate but alas, not a book for me.

I received an e-arc from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A very exciting debut set in a rich and evocative world. It felt like a breath of fresh air and I cannot wait to see what Lacruz has up her sleeve next!

dnfed at 52%
the premise was intriguing but this was very slow and dragged out and i was forcing myself to get through it. the characters felt inconsistent in their motivations and actions, as well as distant from the reader. i just don't have much interesting in finding out what happens next, especially as it's a series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Daphne Press for the advance reader copy.

I was very intrigued by the concept of this book especially with it being inspired by the history and folklore of South America, throw in some warring gods and I was very ready to read this.

I found that it took me a while to get into the book and want to continue. I had thought to DNF and then was too intrigued by what would happen later on in the story.
I think that this book is probably meant to aimed a a YA story, but there’s a lot of trigger warnings which I feel make it more adult. The only problem is the writing is very YA, and entry to adult fantasy fiction; so I felt there was a disconnect with the main characters but also that there were some heavy triggers involved.
The ending felt rushed, and there was a slight cliffhanger in terms of what will happen to the leads.

Overall glad I was able to finish the story.

This book has one of the most intriguing opening chapters, filled with beautiful Venezuelan culture, ferocious monsters ripping chunks off of half-human creatures with tails and horns and seemingly strong pacing. Yes. A thousand times, yes. If I could verbalise quite what I want from a story, I'd like to think it would include all of those things!

Sadly, I also need to have a couple of other essentials ticked off the list: 1) a magic system (yes, there's magic too!) which makes sense, 2) less info-dumping, but if you insist then that also could do with making sense early on in the book so the rest of the book is set up nicely, 3) less naivety from BOTH protagonists, who seem intent upon walking around their lives with their eyes closed because the level of manipulation is so intense it surely should be smacking them right in the face screaming, "they're lying to you!". I don't know, that was just a pretty disappointing combination for such a chunk of a book, and a promising one to boot.

The book has some really interesting moments, and lots of incredible ideas; I was so excited to get stuck in and actually the first 50 pages were some of the best I've read in a long time. But it just trickled off, death-by-pacing combined with what I think was probably too much of a good thing - lots of awesome ideas squashed together and poorly executed. It's sad, it feels like it could have been a 10 star book but was destroyed by a lazy edit.

I'll definitely keep my eye on the author though; there was crazy talented potential in here.

ARC provided from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

TW: alcohol, assault, blood, child death, childbirth, death, gore, infertility, kidnapping, pregnancy, racism, sexual scenes, slavery, violence

Positives: I am absolutely in love with the world, the setting and the magical system. I love the Venezuelan influence, the South American folk and legends worked in the story. This high fantasy was so freaking unique! I can't even remember if I ever read anything like this!
The new races (nozariel, volco) are absolutely beautiful and I love their differences. Truly great Sapphic fantasy stand-alone! Love how the author worked messages in the story: what does freedom means? How racism influences society? When are you worthy?' Just beautiful book!

Negatives: the plot was dragging sometimes and almost 600 pages book had points in the middle where I wasn't invested much. If the plot was more condensed and faster paced it would be 5 star. The language was heavily influenced by Spanish and had also some unique words this made reading for me personally harder and took me long to get through this book.

<i>*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.* </i>

<u> I feel very conflicted about this book… On the one hand I think the premise and mythologies were original and compelling, but on the other hand the execution of the story felt dragged and terribly slow-paced. </u>

Regarding <b> the plot</b>, there were elements I really liked: for example the first arc in Reina’s story up to the point where she leaves Sadul Fuerte was great, very dark and mysterious. I also enjoyed some parts in Eva’s story, especially when she starts learning magic and embracing her true self. However, at the beginning of the book both narrators seemed too similar, and that made me lose focus at times: the novel starts with two main characters, both of which are outcasts in the societies where they live because of their race and both of which have lost their parents and have to live with their authoritative grandmothers. I feel like perhaps these similarities where made on purpose but I personally didn’t like them.

The <b> main characters</b>, Reina and Eva, are morally grey characters full of contradictions, and I understand what the author was trying to achieve with this but I found Reina really unlikeable and while I liked Eva slightly more, especially in the end, I couldn’t relate to her when it came to her romantic relationship (I won’t say more to avoid spoilers).

Some <b>secondary characters</b> were nuanced and well-developed, like Javier and Maior, but some others lacked a proper motivation to explain their actions, like I feel is Celeste’s case.

The <b> mythologies and worldbuilding</b> are probably my favourite elements in this novel. They were refreshing and intricate and the author creates a very attractive and immersive setting.

In my opinion, <b> this book had a lot of potential but it loses strength with the execution and unrelatable characters</b>. I really wanted to connect with this novel and the protagonists but while I won’t say it is a bad novel, it definitely wasn’t for me. And although I think 2.5/5 is a fair score, I won’t continue reading this series.

<b>Overall</b>, I think this author has a lot of talent but her debut wasn’t the strongest. It was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and I’m quite disappointed with the result. At first, I was enjoying the book, but then (about 40% in) I became bored and wanted to finish it as soon as possible. I will admit that there were a couple of rewarding surprises toward the end, but unfortunately they still didn’t change my general opinion of the story.

2.5/5
Rep: (L)GBT

This was brutal. If you skipped the content warnings, go back and read them because it was a lot. But I didn't hate it. There were bits that I certainly wish I hadn't read, but I enjoyed the rest. I liked the characters, I liked the plot and the magic system was really interesting.

I did feel like part of the plot was introduced too late. For one thing, I was led to hate Javier and then in the second half, I was meant to feel sympathy for him? Like his plotline was interesting, but there was a pretty big thing that didn't even seem to be hinted at, it was just dumped in the middle of the book and I was expected to go with it. Maybe there was foreshadowing I missed but it put me off.

I also started to really hate Reina by the end of it. She was the character I was most interested in at the start, but she made some really, really bad choices and treated Celeste terribly so I went off her. Celeste wasn't that great to her either, but that doesn't excuse it.

I probably won't read on with this series.

What a fantastic, fresh fantasy novel! I really enjoyed The Sun and the Void a lot.

The setting is very South American in feel, which really makes it stand out from the Western European and Far Eastern settings so often seen in fantasy. It's a post-colonial world, that has recently fought for and established its independence from an overseas power, and while it's easy to see some of the influences at work, it's imaginative and innovative and not a direct parallel. The cultural influences are embedded throughout though, in food, music, language and beliefs.

Although the political circumstances can be felt throughout the novel, it's not a book about political manoeuvring. There are hints and suggestions about what happened and how things stand at the statecraft levels, a few explanations of the war and its key figures, and several of the characters are major political players, but that's not the focus of the novel. Rather it focuses on the smaller players, those not seen as great movers and shakers, or figures of destiny, but who can have a very important and surprising role to play.

One of the core themes of The Sun and the Void is the price of power. This plays out in each of the different character arcs in different ways, and really pulls together the narratives and the characters. What are we prepared to do to get what we want, and what is it we actually want? There's a real complexity to it reflected here. No one wants power just for the sake of it. They want to belong. They want to be loved. They want to be healthy again. They want lost loves returned to them. They want to be respected. The motivations for each character were very skilfully presented, as was the price to be paid. It would be easy to see this as a book with very few good characters, but the truth is more complex than that. People are seduced into doing very dark deeds through various means, and the road into darkness is one that can be very hard to see when you're on it. The slow descent into some very dark places is really captivating. At times it was easy to see what they could not, and at times the reader was also kept guessing, as the novel slowly and steadily moves each piece into position for an exciting climax.

I loved the magical system and its links with theology too. One particular favourite was the different views people can have of their own religion, best seen in the way Maior's understanding of her religion is so vastly different to that Eva experienced in her home town. As a practicing Catholic with very progressive views myself I really appreciated her take on it over the "Burn the witch!" philosophy of the archbishop.

I also loved the romantic elements, which were also complex and understated. There are a lot of feelings packed into this novel, and the characters themselves seem to struggle to fully understand them for quite a lot of it, which makes for a fascinating spectacle.

There's a feeling of fate or destiny as people are slowly brought together and what unfolds is thrilling, dynamic and powerful, with a satisfying conclusion to the novel and a few tantalising hints at what might yet unfold.

A bold and visionary new fantasy novel I highly recommend!

THE SUN AND THE VOID is a story of increasing pace in a world full of magic and characters desperate to achieve their desires without knowing what they truly want.

The world is so richly imagined, with all these magical humanoid creatures inhabiting it and folklore stuffed into every part of life. There's also distinctions in culture between regions, in the references and dialects different characters use, betraying their heritage and upbringing. It's things like this that make worlds believable, the perfect sandboxes for adventures to happen within.

Eva and Reina are two different half-magical creatures, two races treated differently by society and their families. It allowed the book to explore the consequences of history and religious institutions on how we treat people.

It's not just Reina and Eva who are out chasing desires they don't know if they truly want. The book is a journey of discovering what the thing you think you want entails and whether it is possible to desire the things you've been denying you want - or deserve. I really liked that this was reflected in so many different ways across the cast, shining a light on the different ways this can come across in people.

The ending is certainly action packed, the pace really picking up after a slower start in to a fraught race against time as the two POVs come together - but no one in their group can trust the others. The uncertainty was great because it made me so unsure of what was going to happen - and what I wanted to happen because the various characters' wants were in opposition.

This is the start of a trilogy, and the book's end seems to be promising more opposition between the characters in coming books.

I really liked how this was set in South America, it was very different from other settings I have read before. I really enjoyed the main characters and their interactions/ developments.

I found the pacing a bit slow for my liking and the writing style was not for me

A fine fantasy debut from a to-watch author.

This book's strengths definitely lies within its main characters, Eva and Reina, and within the South American inspired setting that is built up very immersively through the opening chapters. As I said, I loved the character work and getting to switch between Eva and Reina's POVs kept the story fresh, and allowed you to learn about this unique world and what influenced them to make the decisions they did.

This book makes a lot of salient points about coloniolism, imperialism, and revolution; three topics I wish we saw more of in trad fantasy, as coloniolism especially is at the heart of most fantasy stories. I applaud this book for carving a space for itself in an otherwise Western, white-dominated genre and I will always have time for those kinds of books. It would also be remiss of me to not mention the sapphic slowburn romance at the centre of the novel, which I loved.

Unfortunately there were some things that didn't work for me, namely the length of this book and the pacing. I found the first half/two thirds to be pretty slow and at times struggled to keep my interest. It definitely picked up in the latter section of the book, but by that point I was mostly reading to finish as I had invested a lot of time in this. I do think it could have done with some editing down, maybe removing some of the exposition in the first half.

I will however continue to check out other books from this author, as I think fantasy as a genre could really use some more diverse voices and stories.

Sometimes I can take all the blood and gore and violence and sometimes, I just can't. This is the second case.
I had to put this book aside because the story was not grabbing me and then I gave it another try and it is just not for me.

I think the South American setting it interesting, the mythology/supernatural beings are interesting and the plot did pick up, yet it is really dark and violent and at this point I don't see what's the purpose of all the suffering and pain.

YMMV and there might be lighter, more positive things happening in the story ahead but right now I don't have the desire to continue reading in order to find out.

CW: violence, gore, death, kidnapping, dark magic