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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I’ve been disappointed by the final installments of fantasy series before, but this one really shot Rebecca Roanhorse up to the top of my must read authors.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Torture, Grief, Abandonment
Minor: Pregnancy, War
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:
Complicated
I’m so glad Rebecca Roanhorse was able to bring her dream of a pre-Columbian America fantasy to life. Similar to NK Jemisin, the worldbuilding has such specificity that it reads like a mythological epic; the details feel less like a fantastical invention that you can see the author’s fingerprints on, and more like this is a recording of a story long told. This was such an engrossing series about young adults caught up in machinations started long before their time by their ancestors and their gods. I loved so many characters and the high stakes made things so tense. Roanhorse sticks the landing with the ending showing us how the characters fight to possibly end the cycle others put in motion. It’s a fitting ending for a series that is simultaneously about love, hope, and family while also being a cautionary tale about power, gods, and prophecies.
I borrowed the books in this series from the library, but the covers are so stunning I’d like to own them.
I borrowed the books in this series from the library, but the covers are so stunning I’d like to own them.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I enjoyed reading all of the characters sections, and enjoyed all the political stuff. I was a bit confused on what happened to narampa, and was surprised that okoa died, but so many people died I probably shouldn’t have been surprised.
Love that xiala and seraphio sorta get their happy ending.
Great end to the series.
Great end to the series.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hey rebecca roanhorse! what the fuck was that! did we lose the plot? i almost DNF-ed this at page 217/600 and honestly? i should have. i should have slammed that book shut and never gone on to subject my eyeballs to this.
buckle up, i'm going on a rant
there are romantasy books like ACOTAR and Fourth Wing which everyone knows are kinda trashy and they're not supposed to be shining beacons of literature and so i passively hate them. i get a good laugh out of them. so it's important to note that this is one of the rare books i find myself actively hating. my least fav read of 2024 and it's disappointing considering i gave Black Sun 5 stars. and wow oh wow i predicted what would happen to a certain someone in Fevered Star. :/
worldbuilding
quite upsetting bc i actually do like this world. the clans and the priests and the gods. and what did roanhorse do with that? filled us up with a glass of potential and then dumped it down the sink. the magic, for instance. it happens when it's convenient, these people can use it whenever they want and however they want until they can't anymore bc again it behooves the plot to do so. everything felt so contrived, like it was created last minute in order to fulfill the requirement of the setting, rather than it seem natural. but the worldbuilding was probably my fav thing so imagine the rest...
prose
the magic has vanished. the zing! everything became so dull. it was like roanhorse was beating us over the head with her points, no nuance or subtlety. serapio is tortured and thinks he's undeserving of love. you wanna hear that ten times? the teeks have lost their powers but still have such a strong sense of community. repeated 100 times in the first 15 pages. i felt so invested in Black Sun, but here there was absolutely nothing! it was like a textbook! and the dialogue omg? everyone spoke in the same cadence and manner, like the author gave up trying to give people unique voices.
plot, bc where was she??
in the entirety of this series, perhaps 3 things happened that were relevant and important?? the threads roanhorse created seemed to drop off like she didn't need them anymore. she brought interesting things up and then it felt like she forgot about them. people did random things that advanced our main characters but of no real reason beside that. perhaps they were all NPCs? i was expecting a battle that played out in the heavens and on earth, something big and majestic like we were promised in chapter one. but NONE OF THAT HAPPENED. the same empty feeling we're left with after book 2 permeating this entire book. it's a whole lot of people doing absolutely nothing but traveling and going places and being stupid and then when we do get this supposedly final battle? it's the most anticlimactic thing ever. i was not inspired; i almost gave up on this every other chapter.
let's talk romance
you can feel roanhorse's disinterest through her romances. she gave up on the plot and tried to push hard for xiala/serapio but guess what? it was just as dry and boring as everything else! they have no chemistry! they have not interacted substantially since like book 1! sure, they have a friendship, but romantic love?? is it in the room with us?? xiala supposedly loves serapio but her thoughts about him are like contemplating the merits of a salad. serapio? he only thinks about her when it's convenient that he does so i.e. the bride prophecy. in fact, serapio thinks more about okoa than any other person in this book. entire chapters are devoted to them. then we have iktan/nara which is a much better couple but also it's too much. book 1 we were promised so much with nara's ambition and her politics and her role as the sun god priest but here? her entire arc was diluted to romance. she did nothing but that. she was supposed to lean into her powers and her direct enmity with serapio and that fizzled out into nothing. i also cannot stress how absurd it is that in a book with an extraordinary queer normative world (xe pronouns, island full of men-hating women, matrons ruling clans), that our main romance was the most boring straight couple ever??? really roanhorse? it's like roanhorse really only cares about xiala/serapio and somehow also not at all bc the effort towards them is minimal and sickening at the same time.
must i talk okoa/serapio? i will. UNHIDDEN SPOILERS AHEAD
i'm mad as hell. it genuinely feels like roanhorse didn't know where she wanted to go with this. she infused it with so much tension and devotion and yet pulled the "ur my brother" move. and then she did absolutely squat with it at the end. examples below.
- serapio imagines the grief of losing xiala (his lover) akin to losing okoa. ok bro.
- serapio spends an entire chapter thinking about okoa's motivations and desires. this is 150 pages in and he has spent one sentence on xiala.
- okoa braided his hair and wore earring and supposedly looks incredibly handsome and is disappointed serapio is blind and he won't even see the effort :( WHAT
- oh heart," he thought. "how fickle you are. how inconstant. do you hate this man or love him?". it's at this point where i started to suspect roanhorse was doing this shit on purpose. this is her non canon homoerotic relationship that apparently every single author must write. it's the canon event that they cannot be canon and are simply "brothers"
- serapio lets okoa fall on him during their fight and when he pins serapio to the floor, serapio drops his inner secrets and watches him unravel before him
- okoa's entire personality turns to serving serapio bc he has no goal of his own. and then serapio breaks him out of jail and hugs him and dressed him (naked) and then delivers him a further purpose
- serapio is reuniting with xiala but "okoa needs you" ok dawg??
now why would i not enjoy this? why did i not eat this up? because though i am the biggest advocate of the king x lionheart trope, the devoted to a fault trope, guess what? it only works when it's reciprocated, when they're BOTH codependent and attached to the other. here, it was just embarrassing watching okoa's entire character get destroyed to be a tool for serapio who felt a tinge of regret but that was it.
so did i want serapio/okoa to be endgame? not at all. but i think it's crazy that the intense chemistry-ridden homoerotic relationship pans out to nothing while the boring, yawn-inducing couple gets their happy ending. will we never be free from the clutches of these norms.
roanhorse took all these characters who i loved in book 1 and butchered them.
serapio is pretty much nothing here. his "make me ur villain" "i'll be the villain" angsty thoughts got so exhausting. there's a point where the angst becomes too forced and turns wearisome. oh he's so sad and broken nobody loves him :( oh he's a horrible person he killed all these traitors but won't kill the kids :( come back to me when he kills the kids honestly. what else do i hate about characters? that they gamble every time correctly like everyone around them are 5 year old idiots who can't think for themselves. bc wdym he's so smart and knows what everyone's thinking and guesses right EVERY DAMN TIME. he literally ate the immunity berry (barbie mermaidia reference) and somehow he knows everyone's secrets. he was insufferable. he was not compelling.
xiala was completely ruined. i thought it was bad in book 2 that her entire arc was based on serapio but here it got worse. oh, but you say, she has her development with teek. that's what ur supposed to think! this useless ship plot and revenge arc is literally all so she can gain control of her powers and become the ultimate #girlboss so she can save serapio and end up with him anyway. the ship plot thing btw was ridiculous and added nothing besides developing xiala's powers as if killing all her loved ones is the only way to do that. we're supposed to feel something ig, but xiala was a funny, empowered, and action-oriented pirate in book 1 and she's been watered down to serapio savior. it was awful.
naranpa was also diluted. she was a powerful avatar of the sun god! she was supposed to do big and better things. she was headed off to be greater when she returned to kill serapio. but none of that actually happened. she spent a significant chunk of time learning how to dream walk which panned out to NOTHING. there is NO reason for her to develop this skill other than for her to go to iktan. it is not brought up again and nara's connection to the sun god isn't explored further. her entire arc in this book is around iktan. i'm so mad bc i was so looking forward to nara's explosion and her final showdown with serapio. roanhorse forgot what she wanted to do with nara i guess??
iktan was kinda useless too. bc what xe went to try and kill balam and all that just to nara could be worried and run all the way to find xir?? i really don't get iktan's role in this story other than to help other people. romance with nara check. and then at the end why did xe figure out about serapio and tell xiala anyway ugh. i wanted xir to be more cool with the poison daggers and the priest of death but xe literally had one job to kill the big bad and failed at that. the nephew war college thing was weak too bc why should we care about that.
okoa was my biggest disappointment. he was my fav character in the series and roanhorse took my guy and RUINED him. i was so on board with the whole killing serapio plot and then yeah page 217 happened and i was like NO WTF? fight back okoa grow a spine! how could you be so easily manipulated by serapio??? did you not learn strategy in that war college? why would you let him turn you into clay??? roanhorse took his driven single-mindedness and desire to do the right thing and she turned it against him that was so sick and twisted of her. like does she hate okoa?? tbh the torture scene was the best scene in the book and that's bc bro had it coming. usually authors destroying their characters don't tarnish my view of them bc i like to think i know better than the author but roanhorse has somehow achieved the impossible. she's ruined a character with potential and spat on it and ground it under her shoe. son of a traitor who can't escape being manipulated by everyone OH NO he's literally leo dan brock from A Little Hatred, my #1 opp.
balam was so boring. do i care for his flashbacks? no. do i care for his reasons and his evil machinations? not really. just let villains be evil dawg stop giving me backstories and whatnot. and what even was his reasoning besides carrying out his delusional visions and dreams of his long gone lover. and his "plot twist" was the least surprising thing ever. i'm so unmoved.
the ending, HIDDEN SPOILERS AHEAD
ur telling me nara and serapio didn't have their epic battle. ur telling me the whole point of killing the crow god is that serapio had to die as well didn't even happen. ur telling me we had a flashforward scene. ur telling me okoa died for nothing. i was left like what was the point of this book, this series?? it felt so cheap.
1) xiala killing balam ok whatever i can handle that. but then nara and serapio don't even interact?? they were supposedly drawn to each other, and yet nothing happened from that. book 2 ended with a promise they weren't done with each other but apparently not!
2) serapio surviving annoys me. he's supposed to die with his god. that's his ending. that makes sense; it's satisfying. it fulfills the tragic trope that roanhorse obviously is looking for. but somehow he survives? no explanation given, he just does.
3) and then what. six years later serapio and xiala find each other again? no preamble there, just an "oh we always wanted to be together forever let's ignore what six years might do to each other." it's bad writing. it's terrible. if i were xiala i'd be so pissed serapio didn't once try to find her. he was totally content living blind just whittling away for SIX years and now she's here and he's all like "ok sure yeah i always wanted to be with you." unreal.
4) okoa's death. now i'm half on esi's side for sending an assassin to take him out. when she manipulated him to kill serapio's bride i was like SLAY! (just for serapio to also be manipulating him, not a slay). but he died. forever young, i want to be forever young. he was only 21 (he's just like me fr). he was JUST A KID and roanhorse took him and ruined his character and killed him for no good reason. he was the only one striving to do the right thing and he died for it. i'm 99% convinced roanhorse needed a #sad factor and wrote okoa in to fulfill that. bc his role in the story wasn't that important, he could be written out. but she wrote him in, made him semi-important and then killed him off so we could all be upset, giving it positive or negative traction. it's useless. once again, it's bad writing.
5) and then guess what. his bro, his homoerotic bestie, has no reaction to this death. that okoa died FOR serapio. we don't see how he reacted to this news; we don't even see if he even KNOWS about this. there's nothing there for someone he spent 80% of the book thinking about. i'm so confused like did roanhorse forget to write that in?? or was okoa's death just to hurt the reader and give it an emotional whump this book was severely lacking. the problem is that no one reacted to his death. he was so young and had so much ahead of him. no one had a single thought about it.
and some last thoughts, UNHIDDEN SPOILERS AHEAD
- books weren't as memorable as i thought bc i literally forgot who balam was for a good moment
- dating the chapters as year 1 of the crow served no purpose. if it's a flashback, sure tell us the year, but it's not rocket science when we're in the present. and if u do feel the need to add dates, could we have specifics so we know what happens when??
- the teek are a dwindling group of people who hate men so it's hard enough to have kids when they kill 50% of the population. so why tf are they welcoming complete randos with open arms?? how is that practical?? let's think this through pls.
- nitpicky but the prophecy paragraph was justified in format and i hated that
- iktan doing what other characters should do and just kill the villain rather than negotiate with them
- but then every fight loses meaning bc no one dies until the last battle when the big bad guy dies
- how are the teeks actually building one ship a day
- why didn't iktan poison xir knife
- nara/iktan reunion was so lackluster
- i don't give on flying fuck about okoa's river project, ESP when it didn't even contribute to the plot. there was no reason to do this. the entire chapter was useless. he went all the way there just to return for the wedding? stupid.
- oh good gracious me balam is the father who would've thought what genius must've inspired this unforeseeable plot twist
- think of the stupidest thing possible, the craziest unrealistic thing ever, and boom you've guessed the plot and potential plot twists
- authors want their uwu sad death moment and don't even have the courage to kill their mc (unless ur rf kuang and kill everyone) so they invent a character with just enough value and then they kill them. matthias style in Six of Crows. tristan style in The Gilded Wolves. i could name countless other books where authors randomly do this so they get their sadness factor but i don't wanna spoil other books. it makes me so mad.
- hey heres a plot point: kill everything a character holds dear so they can have trauma do terrible things for a good cause. (it does not a good plot make)
- serapio is a god why is it so hard for xiala to believe he's a king. she spends a whole page harping on it like move on girl!
- ppl hate the pregnancy trope and i get it i do. but what i hate more is the MARRIAGE trope in fantasy. cuz ur telling me at the end of the day, after magic and battles and gods, ur just gonna settle down and marry? it seems so normal and boring and non fantasy. maybe i just love misery tho idk.
- we needed more of okoa's torture that's what he gets for being stupid and naive.
- but no that moment gets interrupted with another strangely intimate moment with serapio
- xiala/serapio have the worst sex scenes ever. it's not cathartic or relieving or even cute. it's just plain boring. like staring at the wall.
- the most interesting thing that happened was that the hoka and the teek word for ambition was the same thing. like huh that's cool ig.
- more homoeroticism: serapio and okoa's crows disappeared together after their "death"
- we were led to believe something bad happened to iktan but nothing did. and nara is in her dreamlike state explain that pls? resolve that? nope!
- all we get are the straights prevailing
- oh and what's that? sike! we DO get the pregnancy trope.
- okoa dying, nara in a coma with iktan just wandering around the world.... and it ends with xiala and serapio getting their happily ever after. this is hell. this is so unsatisfying. this is like if in The Boys tv show homelander won everything at the end of the day.
if this book has a million haters i'm one of them. if this book has 1000 haters i'm one of them. if this book has 10 haters i'm one of them. if this book has 1 hater it's me. if this book has no haters it means i'm dead. if the world loves this book, then i am against the world.
the plot was nonexistent and wandering. roanhorse created avenues and pathways and then they meandered off as she forgot about them. things happened that were convenient and useful. serapio was the smartest, strongest, bravest blah blah blah indestructible godking. nara and xiala were destroyed in favor of their romance. okoa was destroyed in favor of serapio. everything epic that roanhorse promised to give us did not pan out. it was like trying to hold water in a strainer. it was like trying to ice skate in a desert. it was one of the worst things i've ever read. the romance was as dry as a bone, the most mind-numbing nothing of substance thing ever. i feel lied and cheated to. i thought book 2 was pretty bad, but i didn't realize how worse it could get. i could feel the drive and passion draining from roanhorse with every word. and if she didn't lose her passion, then what happened here bc it was one hot mess after mess. it's upsetting the amount of potential Black Sun had just to end up with this book. but hey, this is why we don't buy a book before we read it. i wanted to buy book 1 so bad but waited just to see. and boy oh boy am i glad i did, i would hate to own this series.
buckle up, i'm going on a rant
there are romantasy books like ACOTAR and Fourth Wing which everyone knows are kinda trashy and they're not supposed to be shining beacons of literature and so i passively hate them. i get a good laugh out of them. so it's important to note that this is one of the rare books i find myself actively hating. my least fav read of 2024 and it's disappointing considering i gave Black Sun 5 stars. and wow oh wow i predicted what would happen to a certain someone in Fevered Star. :/
worldbuilding
quite upsetting bc i actually do like this world. the clans and the priests and the gods. and what did roanhorse do with that? filled us up with a glass of potential and then dumped it down the sink. the magic, for instance. it happens when it's convenient, these people can use it whenever they want and however they want until they can't anymore bc again it behooves the plot to do so. everything felt so contrived, like it was created last minute in order to fulfill the requirement of the setting, rather than it seem natural. but the worldbuilding was probably my fav thing so imagine the rest...
prose
the magic has vanished. the zing! everything became so dull. it was like roanhorse was beating us over the head with her points, no nuance or subtlety. serapio is tortured and thinks he's undeserving of love. you wanna hear that ten times? the teeks have lost their powers but still have such a strong sense of community. repeated 100 times in the first 15 pages. i felt so invested in Black Sun, but here there was absolutely nothing! it was like a textbook! and the dialogue omg? everyone spoke in the same cadence and manner, like the author gave up trying to give people unique voices.
plot, bc where was she??
in the entirety of this series, perhaps 3 things happened that were relevant and important?? the threads roanhorse created seemed to drop off like she didn't need them anymore. she brought interesting things up and then it felt like she forgot about them. people did random things that advanced our main characters but of no real reason beside that. perhaps they were all NPCs? i was expecting a battle that played out in the heavens and on earth, something big and majestic like we were promised in chapter one. but NONE OF THAT HAPPENED. the same empty feeling we're left with after book 2 permeating this entire book. it's a whole lot of people doing absolutely nothing but traveling and going places and being stupid and then when we do get this supposedly final battle? it's the most anticlimactic thing ever. i was not inspired; i almost gave up on this every other chapter.
let's talk romance
you can feel roanhorse's disinterest through her romances. she gave up on the plot and tried to push hard for xiala/serapio but guess what? it was just as dry and boring as everything else! they have no chemistry! they have not interacted substantially since like book 1! sure, they have a friendship, but romantic love?? is it in the room with us?? xiala supposedly loves serapio but her thoughts about him are like contemplating the merits of a salad. serapio? he only thinks about her when it's convenient that he does so i.e. the bride prophecy. in fact, serapio thinks more about okoa than any other person in this book. entire chapters are devoted to them. then we have iktan/nara which is a much better couple but also it's too much. book 1 we were promised so much with nara's ambition and her politics and her role as the sun god priest but here? her entire arc was diluted to romance. she did nothing but that. she was supposed to lean into her powers and her direct enmity with serapio and that fizzled out into nothing. i also cannot stress how absurd it is that in a book with an extraordinary queer normative world (xe pronouns, island full of men-hating women, matrons ruling clans), that our main romance was the most boring straight couple ever??? really roanhorse? it's like roanhorse really only cares about xiala/serapio and somehow also not at all bc the effort towards them is minimal and sickening at the same time.
must i talk okoa/serapio? i will. UNHIDDEN SPOILERS AHEAD
i'm mad as hell. it genuinely feels like roanhorse didn't know where she wanted to go with this. she infused it with so much tension and devotion and yet pulled the "ur my brother" move. and then she did absolutely squat with it at the end. examples below.
- serapio imagines the grief of losing xiala (his lover) akin to losing okoa. ok bro.
- serapio spends an entire chapter thinking about okoa's motivations and desires. this is 150 pages in and he has spent one sentence on xiala.
- okoa braided his hair and wore earring and supposedly looks incredibly handsome and is disappointed serapio is blind and he won't even see the effort :( WHAT
- oh heart," he thought. "how fickle you are. how inconstant. do you hate this man or love him?". it's at this point where i started to suspect roanhorse was doing this shit on purpose. this is her non canon homoerotic relationship that apparently every single author must write. it's the canon event that they cannot be canon and are simply "brothers"
- serapio lets okoa fall on him during their fight and when he pins serapio to the floor, serapio drops his inner secrets and watches him unravel before him
- okoa's entire personality turns to serving serapio bc he has no goal of his own. and then serapio breaks him out of jail and hugs him and dressed him (naked) and then delivers him a further purpose
- serapio is reuniting with xiala but "okoa needs you" ok dawg??
now why would i not enjoy this? why did i not eat this up? because though i am the biggest advocate of the king x lionheart trope, the devoted to a fault trope, guess what? it only works when it's reciprocated, when they're BOTH codependent and attached to the other. here, it was just embarrassing watching okoa's entire character get destroyed to be a tool for serapio who felt a tinge of regret but that was it.
so did i want serapio/okoa to be endgame? not at all. but i think it's crazy that the intense chemistry-ridden homoerotic relationship pans out to nothing while the boring, yawn-inducing couple gets their happy ending. will we never be free from the clutches of these norms.
roanhorse took all these characters who i loved in book 1 and butchered them.
serapio is pretty much nothing here. his "make me ur villain" "i'll be the villain" angsty thoughts got so exhausting. there's a point where the angst becomes too forced and turns wearisome. oh he's so sad and broken nobody loves him :( oh he's a horrible person he killed all these traitors but won't kill the kids :( come back to me when he kills the kids honestly. what else do i hate about characters? that they gamble every time correctly like everyone around them are 5 year old idiots who can't think for themselves. bc wdym he's so smart and knows what everyone's thinking and guesses right EVERY DAMN TIME. he literally ate the immunity berry (barbie mermaidia reference) and somehow he knows everyone's secrets. he was insufferable. he was not compelling.
xiala was completely ruined. i thought it was bad in book 2 that her entire arc was based on serapio but here it got worse. oh, but you say, she has her development with teek. that's what ur supposed to think! this useless ship plot and revenge arc is literally all so she can gain control of her powers and become the ultimate #girlboss so she can save serapio and end up with him anyway. the ship plot thing btw was ridiculous and added nothing besides developing xiala's powers as if killing all her loved ones is the only way to do that. we're supposed to feel something ig, but xiala was a funny, empowered, and action-oriented pirate in book 1 and she's been watered down to serapio savior. it was awful.
naranpa was also diluted. she was a powerful avatar of the sun god! she was supposed to do big and better things. she was headed off to be greater when she returned to kill serapio. but none of that actually happened. she spent a significant chunk of time learning how to dream walk which panned out to NOTHING. there is NO reason for her to develop this skill other than for her to go to iktan. it is not brought up again and nara's connection to the sun god isn't explored further. her entire arc in this book is around iktan. i'm so mad bc i was so looking forward to nara's explosion and her final showdown with serapio. roanhorse forgot what she wanted to do with nara i guess??
iktan was kinda useless too. bc what xe went to try and kill balam and all that just to nara could be worried and run all the way to find xir?? i really don't get iktan's role in this story other than to help other people. romance with nara check. and then at the end why did xe figure out about serapio and tell xiala anyway ugh. i wanted xir to be more cool with the poison daggers and the priest of death but xe literally had one job to kill the big bad and failed at that. the nephew war college thing was weak too bc why should we care about that.
okoa was my biggest disappointment. he was my fav character in the series and roanhorse took my guy and RUINED him. i was so on board with the whole killing serapio plot and then yeah page 217 happened and i was like NO WTF? fight back okoa grow a spine! how could you be so easily manipulated by serapio??? did you not learn strategy in that war college? why would you let him turn you into clay??? roanhorse took his driven single-mindedness and desire to do the right thing and she turned it against him that was so sick and twisted of her. like does she hate okoa?? tbh the torture scene was the best scene in the book and that's bc bro had it coming. usually authors destroying their characters don't tarnish my view of them bc i like to think i know better than the author but roanhorse has somehow achieved the impossible. she's ruined a character with potential and spat on it and ground it under her shoe. son of a traitor who can't escape being manipulated by everyone OH NO he's literally leo dan brock from A Little Hatred, my #1 opp.
balam was so boring. do i care for his flashbacks? no. do i care for his reasons and his evil machinations? not really. just let villains be evil dawg stop giving me backstories and whatnot. and what even was his reasoning besides carrying out his delusional visions and dreams of his long gone lover. and his "plot twist" was the least surprising thing ever. i'm so unmoved.
the ending, HIDDEN SPOILERS AHEAD
1) xiala killing balam ok whatever i can handle that. but then nara and serapio don't even interact?? they were supposedly drawn to each other, and yet nothing happened from that. book 2 ended with a promise they weren't done with each other but apparently not!
2) serapio surviving annoys me. he's supposed to die with his god. that's his ending. that makes sense; it's satisfying. it fulfills the tragic trope that roanhorse obviously is looking for. but somehow he survives? no explanation given, he just does.
3) and then what. six years later serapio and xiala find each other again? no preamble there, just an "oh we always wanted to be together forever let's ignore what six years might do to each other." it's bad writing. it's terrible. if i were xiala i'd be so pissed serapio didn't once try to find her. he was totally content living blind just whittling away for SIX years and now she's here and he's all like "ok sure yeah i always wanted to be with you." unreal.
4) okoa's death. now i'm half on esi's side for sending an assassin to take him out. when she manipulated him to kill serapio's bride i was like SLAY! (just for serapio to also be manipulating him, not a slay). but he died. forever young, i want to be forever young. he was only 21 (he's just like me fr). he was JUST A KID and roanhorse took him and ruined his character and killed him for no good reason. he was the only one striving to do the right thing and he died for it. i'm 99% convinced roanhorse needed a #sad factor and wrote okoa in to fulfill that. bc his role in the story wasn't that important, he could be written out. but she wrote him in, made him semi-important and then killed him off so we could all be upset, giving it positive or negative traction. it's useless. once again, it's bad writing.
5) and then guess what. his bro, his homoerotic bestie, has no reaction to this death. that okoa died FOR serapio. we don't see how he reacted to this news; we don't even see if he even KNOWS about this. there's nothing there for someone he spent 80% of the book thinking about. i'm so confused like did roanhorse forget to write that in?? or was okoa's death just to hurt the reader and give it an emotional whump this book was severely lacking. the problem is that no one reacted to his death. he was so young and had so much ahead of him. no one had a single thought about it.
and some last thoughts, UNHIDDEN SPOILERS AHEAD
- books weren't as memorable as i thought bc i literally forgot who balam was for a good moment
- dating the chapters as year 1 of the crow served no purpose. if it's a flashback, sure tell us the year, but it's not rocket science when we're in the present. and if u do feel the need to add dates, could we have specifics so we know what happens when??
- the teek are a dwindling group of people who hate men so it's hard enough to have kids when they kill 50% of the population. so why tf are they welcoming complete randos with open arms?? how is that practical?? let's think this through pls.
- nitpicky but the prophecy paragraph was justified in format and i hated that
- iktan doing what other characters should do and just kill the villain rather than negotiate with them
- but then every fight loses meaning bc no one dies until the last battle when the big bad guy dies
- how are the teeks actually building one ship a day
- why didn't iktan poison xir knife
- nara/iktan reunion was so lackluster
- i don't give on flying fuck about okoa's river project, ESP when it didn't even contribute to the plot. there was no reason to do this. the entire chapter was useless. he went all the way there just to return for the wedding? stupid.
- oh good gracious me balam is the father who would've thought what genius must've inspired this unforeseeable plot twist
- think of the stupidest thing possible, the craziest unrealistic thing ever, and boom you've guessed the plot and potential plot twists
- authors want their uwu sad death moment and don't even have the courage to kill their mc (unless ur rf kuang and kill everyone) so they invent a character with just enough value and then they kill them. matthias style in Six of Crows. tristan style in The Gilded Wolves. i could name countless other books where authors randomly do this so they get their sadness factor but i don't wanna spoil other books. it makes me so mad.
- hey heres a plot point: kill everything a character holds dear so they can have trauma do terrible things for a good cause. (it does not a good plot make)
- serapio is a god why is it so hard for xiala to believe he's a king. she spends a whole page harping on it like move on girl!
- ppl hate the pregnancy trope and i get it i do. but what i hate more is the MARRIAGE trope in fantasy. cuz ur telling me at the end of the day, after magic and battles and gods, ur just gonna settle down and marry? it seems so normal and boring and non fantasy. maybe i just love misery tho idk.
- we needed more of okoa's torture that's what he gets for being stupid and naive.
- but no that moment gets interrupted with another strangely intimate moment with serapio
- xiala/serapio have the worst sex scenes ever. it's not cathartic or relieving or even cute. it's just plain boring. like staring at the wall.
- the most interesting thing that happened was that the hoka and the teek word for ambition was the same thing. like huh that's cool ig.
- more homoeroticism: serapio and okoa's crows disappeared together after their "death"
- we were led to believe something bad happened to iktan but nothing did. and nara is in her dreamlike state explain that pls? resolve that? nope!
- all we get are the straights prevailing
- oh and what's that? sike! we DO get the pregnancy trope.
- okoa dying, nara in a coma with iktan just wandering around the world.... and it ends with xiala and serapio getting their happily ever after. this is hell. this is so unsatisfying. this is like if in The Boys tv show homelander won everything at the end of the day.
if this book has a million haters i'm one of them. if this book has 1000 haters i'm one of them. if this book has 10 haters i'm one of them. if this book has 1 hater it's me. if this book has no haters it means i'm dead. if the world loves this book, then i am against the world.
the plot was nonexistent and wandering. roanhorse created avenues and pathways and then they meandered off as she forgot about them. things happened that were convenient and useful. serapio was the smartest, strongest, bravest blah blah blah indestructible godking. nara and xiala were destroyed in favor of their romance. okoa was destroyed in favor of serapio. everything epic that roanhorse promised to give us did not pan out. it was like trying to hold water in a strainer. it was like trying to ice skate in a desert. it was one of the worst things i've ever read. the romance was as dry as a bone, the most mind-numbing nothing of substance thing ever. i feel lied and cheated to. i thought book 2 was pretty bad, but i didn't realize how worse it could get. i could feel the drive and passion draining from roanhorse with every word. and if she didn't lose her passion, then what happened here bc it was one hot mess after mess. it's upsetting the amount of potential Black Sun had just to end up with this book. but hey, this is why we don't buy a book before we read it. i wanted to buy book 1 so bad but waited just to see. and boy oh boy am i glad i did, i would hate to own this series.
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
After the betrayal of the Golden Eagle clan, Serapio exacts a merciless punishment against them, but worries that he only brings death for the Crow God. When he learns of a prophecy from Coyote, he tries to figure out how he can use it to win the war between the gods. Meanwhile, the lords of Cuecola are gathering forces to conquer Tova and build their own Empire. To do so, they are using old sorcery of blood and shadow magic. Xiala has returned to the Teek and must find a way to save them from the coming war, but she just wants to find a way to return to Serapio. And Naranpa has gone north to learn dreamwalking to find a way to save her city of Tova. But the power of the gods always comes at a price. Who will win and who will lose? Either way, Tova and the cities of the Crescent Sea will never be the same.
A very strong and excellent ending to this (very bloody) epic fantasy trilogy. The world-building is amazing, and the characters’ personal internal conflicts are very engaging. There are lots of plotting and political machinations, but really it’s about people fighting to be themselves. It does a really good job of finding endings for all the different interwoven stories, and while there are sad endings for some characters, it is a very fitting ending overall.
Content warning: human sacrifice, torture, mutilation.
A very strong and excellent ending to this (very bloody) epic fantasy trilogy. The world-building is amazing, and the characters’ personal internal conflicts are very engaging. There are lots of plotting and political machinations, but really it’s about people fighting to be themselves. It does a really good job of finding endings for all the different interwoven stories, and while there are sad endings for some characters, it is a very fitting ending overall.
Content warning: human sacrifice, torture, mutilation.