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genny's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Re-read before I jump into the sequel! I gave this 5 stars back in 2020, and I'm giving it 5 stars again in 2022. 💘 I'm mad at myself for not taking notes both times, but I was too engrossed in the story to bother.
The first chapter is one of the best openings I've ever read. The worldbuilding is lush, immersive, and yet never confusing. I think this would be a great starting point for beginners to adult fantasy! Because we're counting down to the solstice, there's this constant heavy feeling in the background, like the characters are being pushed faster and faster towards an inevitable...Something. It makes for a great atmosphere, and I personally had no problem with the somewhat open ending. It just felt right to me. But if you hate cliffhangers, get your hands on the sequel ASAP. 😉 All of the major characters have their flaws, but IMO they're all likable and I felt invested in each POV. I absolutely love Xiala and Serapio, individually and together. They have my whole heart!!!
To summarize: Black Sun has great characters, great worldbuilding, and a great plot. This is a criminally underrated series and I can only hope it draws a bigger following as it continues.
The first chapter is one of the best openings I've ever read. The worldbuilding is lush, immersive, and yet never confusing. I think this would be a great starting point for beginners to adult fantasy! Because we're counting down to the solstice, there's this constant heavy feeling in the background, like the characters are being pushed faster and faster towards an inevitable...Something. It makes for a great atmosphere, and I personally had no problem with the somewhat open ending. It just felt right to me. But if you hate cliffhangers, get your hands on the sequel ASAP. 😉 All of the major characters have their flaws, but IMO they're all likable and I felt invested in each POV. I absolutely love Xiala and Serapio, individually and together. They have my whole heart!!!
To summarize: Black Sun has great characters, great worldbuilding, and a great plot. This is a criminally underrated series and I can only hope it draws a bigger following as it continues.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Xenophobia, Animal death, Alcohol, Murder, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Confinement and Genocide
Minor: Death of parent
melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Thank you to LibroFm for the ALC of this book.
This is a fantasy of absolutely epic proportions. I loved every single bit of it. Xiala is one of my new favorite characters of all time. I was immediately hooked on her storyline and character development.
I also loved Serapio and his story. There is so much going on there, and he is such an interesting character.
The plot of this book really took me by surprise. There was so much going on, from political rivalries, to religious sects, to sirens and villains and cults and everything, but it all flowed together really well.
Roanhorse's writing is delightful and accessible. I absolutely love how well she incorporates so much world-building in without making it feel like exposition drops or overly explanatory writing.
Honestly this book was incredible and I can't wait for the sequel.
This is a fantasy of absolutely epic proportions. I loved every single bit of it. Xiala is one of my new favorite characters of all time. I was immediately hooked on her storyline and character development.
I also loved Serapio and his story. There is so much going on there, and he is such an interesting character.
The plot of this book really took me by surprise. There was so much going on, from political rivalries, to religious sects, to sirens and villains and cults and everything, but it all flowed together really well.
Roanhorse's writing is delightful and accessible. I absolutely love how well she incorporates so much world-building in without making it feel like exposition drops or overly explanatory writing.
Honestly this book was incredible and I can't wait for the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Violence, Torture, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Gore, Emotional abuse, Drug use, and Death of parent
bookishjude's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Slavery, and Suicide
podanotherjessi's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Uhm, wow. That's it. That's the only thought in my head.
Okay, let's try to be a professional reviewer. Honestly, my only complaint for my personal taste is that the ending doesn't really resolve anything and leave open, in my opinion, far too much. This would be less of an issue if I could go straight onto the next book, obviously, but since I'll be waiting, it's more frustrating than enticing.
Beyond that, this is definitely dark, and that won't work for everyone. It never felt excessive or voyaristic; on the contrary, every harsh detail felt incredibly intentional. Even so, this means this won't be a book for everyone. Definitely look at the trigger warnings.
The characters in this were fantastic. I would die for Serapio in a heart beat, and the rest wouldn't take much more time to decide. They are complex and complicated and lovable yet hard to like. I was rooting for each of them to succeed all the while knowing it was impossible.
And... I think that's the most I can say about it coherently. This is a fantastic book, and I recommend it for anyone that can handle the darker parts.
Characters: 10
Plot: 10
Setting: 10
General appeal: 10
Writing style: 9
Originality: 10
Ending: 6
Okay, let's try to be a professional reviewer. Honestly, my only complaint for my personal taste is that the ending doesn't really resolve anything and leave open, in my opinion, far too much. This would be less of an issue if I could go straight onto the next book, obviously, but since I'll be waiting, it's more frustrating than enticing.
Beyond that, this is definitely dark, and that won't work for everyone. It never felt excessive or voyaristic; on the contrary, every harsh detail felt incredibly intentional. Even so, this means this won't be a book for everyone. Definitely look at the trigger warnings.
The characters in this were fantastic. I would die for Serapio in a heart beat, and the rest wouldn't take much more time to decide. They are complex and complicated and lovable yet hard to like. I was rooting for each of them to succeed all the while knowing it was impossible.
And... I think that's the most I can say about it coherently. This is a fantastic book, and I recommend it for anyone that can handle the darker parts.
Characters: 10
Plot: 10
Setting: 10
General appeal: 10
Writing style: 9
Originality: 10
Ending: 6
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Violence
tinytrashqueen's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
ehmannky's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I found the first half of the book to be kind of a slow start as all of the world building is put into place and you get acquainted to the many different point of view characters and their situations (this is not a criticism of either, it just takes time to do this), but once you hit that halfway mark it just zooms right along. I couldn't put it down. The political intrigue, the wild religious stuff and the cult magic, the wonderful relationship between Serapio and Xiala, and everything that Naranpa was up to was just so much fun to read. I feel like the tragedy of being the subject of prophecy and the person everyone puts their hopes on to save (or break) the world was just so up front and center, and I can't wait to read the next installment.
Among the many things that I appreciated about this book, beyond it just being a really good epic fantasy, is that the world is so effortlessly queer.
Among the many things that I appreciated about this book, beyond it just being a really good epic fantasy, is that the world is so effortlessly queer.
It was just as good the second time around! I still didn't care about the Okoa chapters that much, but overall this is such a good series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Grief, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Death of parent, Blood, Child abuse, Genocide, Violence, Death, Murder, and Suicide
Moderate: Biphobia, Drug use, Xenophobia, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Sexism, Animal death, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Vomit
bookswhitme's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Body horror, and Murder
wardenred's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
“Villain,” he mouthed, liking the sound of it, the weight of the word on his bloodied lip. If protecting his crows made him a villain, then a villain he would be.
This was a bit of a difficult book to get into. After the initial hook of the first chapter or two, I felt a bit detached up until about the 20% mark. Once I reached that point, however, the story got truly compelling and held my interest until the very end.
I must admit I loved the parts about Xiala and Serapio far more than the second plotline, even though that one was also stuffed to the brim with exciting things and wonderful characters. The entire story is brilliant, but because for a big part of it the two plotlines were so separate, I accidentally picked a favorite, and that made reading the sections about Tova and the priests a bit harder because I sort of wanted to go back to my favorites. That's the reason I'm not five-starring the book: I get why this structure was chosen, but I'm not sure it quite works here.
Overall, though, a very good read. I absolutely adored the inventive worldbuilding with its Indigenous feel, the entire complex cosmology, the vibrant city of Tova, all the history and all the lore. I loved the sea journey. I loved the characters, even the ones who didn't make my top-two least. I loved how much casual queerness there was, with Xiala being bi, and multiple trans/nonbinary characters being present.
The ending was a bit of too much of a cliffhanger for my taste—that's where the book lost another half star, because honestly, I'm not opposed to open endings as such, but there's an open ending and then there's "hold on, where's my entire act III, I feel like we missed it?". It sure does do the job of making me positively hunger for book 2, though. And I think once that one's out and I get my hands on it, I'll re-read Black Sun before delving into it. I think that I missed a lot in the Tova storyline for the reasons mentioned above, and perhaps on a second read-through I'll spot more amazing things that I've so far overlooked.
Oh, and how could I forget? There's one more thing I loved: the crows! All the facts about the crows, and their constant presence, and how those epigraphs from in-universe texts on crows subtly foreshadowed so many things.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Body horror, Death, Child death, and Animal death
Moderate: Homophobia
annabend's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm in love with the world Rebecca Roanhorse has created. Not only is it great to see an epic fantasy series inspired by pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas, but all of its unique details are also lushly written. From the different clothes and food to the different beliefs and social structures, there is so much to see here. I love how non-European the world is, but also how lovingly this world was created. I wanted to be dropped in the middle of these cities and explore them once the story itself was over. Some of the characters, like Xiala and Scerapio, were much more interesting to me than others, but I also think there's more to see with Naranpa and others next time around. A great read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Death, and Blood
Minor: Animal death and Alcoholism
beholderess's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Death
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and Suicide