A review by hanarama
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The Good: 
  • The plot gradually picks up the pace towards the end, building tension. 
  • Great LGBT rep, including wlw and nonbinary identities. 
  • The writing is very melodic. 

The Bad:
  • Cliffhanger at the end can make the story feel unsatisfying. (A second book is slated, so if you hate cliffhangers, maybe wait for that to come out). 
  • Little character development through most of the book. 

You'll like this book if: 
  • Bi Pirates 
  • Pre-Colombian settings
  • Multiple, opposing POVs

I read this for a buddy read and went into this book with very little idea of what I was going to get. What I got was a journey through a richly developed world in a Pre-Colombian fantasy setting. 

Serapio is a mysterious blind man with a purpose designed to bring about a reckoning. Xiala is a pirate captain with a strong affinity for the sea. Naranpa is the Sun Priest, the first not to come from the Sky Made clans, and a polarizing progressive. Okoa is the son of the Carrion Crow Matron, and the rider of a giant crow. As the solar eclipse and the winter solstice approach, their stories rapidly come together and their opposing needs collide. 

Roanhorse has a very smooth writing style that allowed me to breeze through the book quickly. Though the multiple POVs made it at times hard to develop strong connections to the characters, there were some standouts. Xiala, the pirate captain is immensely enjoyable and out of all the characters feels the closest to an audience surrogate. 

Additionally, Roanhorse provides a lot of lgbt+ representation, allowing it to exist casually in her setting. There are multiple characters that use xe/xir pronouns, which I found really cool to see.

The world feels really rich, with a lot more open for exploration. Throughout the majority of this book the characters are being driven by the forces put in place long ago, so it feels like a convergence of forces, but because the story is so plot-driven, there's little room for the characters to stretch their legs. I hope that with the sequel the cast will get more character development. 
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