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bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I'm glad I waited until the whole series was out to start this one because THAT ENDING!
I loved the worldbuilding and the characters. The multiple religions felt fleshed out and made sense for the setting, as did the conflict that sprang from those religions. I loved that there was no true villain and that both Serapio and Naranpa were simply following the path that had been set out for them and doing their best with it. I also loved that the cultures we encounter in the book had varying attitudes to gender and sexuality as well as other cultural differences. Fantasy is so often either based in a fully homophobic and misogynistic world or in a fully queernormative one, and this approach makes so much more sense.
I do wish that the supporting cast had been more fleshed out. Iktan is the only non-POV character who felt fully fleshed out. I think that was mostly down to length, though. This book could have been 100-200 pages longer, though that might have slowed it down too much. And I did like the group scenes we got a whole lot (the ones with Xiala's crew maybe being the weakest of the lot).
I was expecting Xiala to be my favorite character because she's the sort of character I normally love and cannot get enough of, but while I quite enjoyed her, Naranpa was far and away my favorite. I adored her and spent the entire book rooting for her -- not necessarily for the sun priests and co generally, but very much for Naranpa in particular. And they're both bi! Truly a win for us all.
Excited to continue with the series!
I loved the worldbuilding and the characters. The multiple religions felt fleshed out and made sense for the setting, as did the conflict that sprang from those religions. I loved that there was no true villain and that both Serapio and Naranpa were simply following the path that had been set out for them and doing their best with it. I also loved that the cultures we encounter in the book had varying attitudes to gender and sexuality as well as other cultural differences. Fantasy is so often either based in a fully homophobic and misogynistic world or in a fully queernormative one, and this approach makes so much more sense.
I do wish that the supporting cast had been more fleshed out. Iktan is the only non-POV character who felt fully fleshed out. I think that was mostly down to length, though. This book could have been 100-200 pages longer, though that might have slowed it down too much. And I did like the group scenes we got a whole lot (the ones with Xiala's crew maybe being the weakest of the lot).
I was expecting Xiala to be my favorite character because she's the sort of character I normally love and cannot get enough of, but while I quite enjoyed her, Naranpa was far and away my favorite. I adored her and spent the entire book rooting for her -- not necessarily for the sun priests and co generally, but very much for Naranpa in particular. And they're both bi! Truly a win for us all.
Excited to continue with the series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, and Misogyny
jo_lzr's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I liked reading this book and I'd definitely like to read the second one, especially for Naranpa's story as she is my favorite. Iran and Xiala are also characters I care about. I like Serapio and I hope that he can find a way to escape his destiny, but I don't like The Crow God, though I am grateful that he killed Abah and Eche!
The worldbuilding and the magic system are very intriguing and well built, even though there is more to the magic system that we haven't seen yet and I'd definitely like to see more.
I want to see Iktan's perspective about what happened after xe realized that Naranpa was kidnapped. I like xir as a character, especially after seeing that xe wasn't like the rest of the traitors.
I also thought it very ingenious how the traitors ended up unknowingly saving Naranpa's life by scheming against her.
Furthermore, I loved the scene when the Crow God realized that Eche didn't have the sun's essence and that the real Sun Priest was somewhere else. I would love to see Naranpa discovering her potential, though I'm guessing that she might have to share the same fate as Serapio.
TW: If you're sensitive to images of body horror, please read with caution as they are graphically described.
The worldbuilding and the magic system are very intriguing and well built, even though there is more to the magic system that we haven't seen yet and I'd definitely like to see more.
I also thought it very ingenious how the traitors ended up unknowingly saving Naranpa's life by scheming against her.
Furthermore, I loved the scene when the Crow God realized that Eche didn't have the sun's essence and that the real Sun Priest was somewhere else. I would love to see Naranpa discovering her potential, though I'm guessing that she might have to share the same fate as Serapio.
TW: If you're sensitive to images of body horror, please read with caution as they are graphically described.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
instalovewithbooks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
I really enjoyed learning about all the characters through this story and seeing it come together. I loved how Roanhorse explains the story as it goes but I really wish there was maps! I love fantasy maps, makes the world make more sense to me. I do really love learning more about the 3 POVs and seeing how everything comes together. 💜 Cant wait to start book 2!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Violence and Vomit
Minor: Sexual content
helixlhart's review
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
3.75
Fascinating world building and compelling characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Xenophobia, and Blood
Minor: Animal cruelty, Drug use, and Sexual content
fedoratheexplora's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, Grief, and Death of parent
yuripiano's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Mother waters, what a first chapter!
Seven hells, what a rest-of-the-book!
This book was hyped up to me by a number of people, and I came into it with high expectations fresh off of finishing The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. Listening to the first chapter and coming from Oklahoma, I was excited - I could tell this was the start of a book I could really get into. The setting was interesting, and I really can't stop talking about how hard that first chapter hooked me.
I sadly can't say that for the rest of the book.
I feel like often times, I've said books had a "medium pace" on here that others would say had a slow pace, and I could go with the flow of them and be swept up in the overarching narrative, but I was about 80% of the way through this book and still waiting for anything meaningful to happen.
This book features a number of characters with their own sorts of ambitions all converging into one point, which they conveniently also call "convergence". That said, I think of two books that I both thought were excellent when it came to this sort of explicit foreshadowing (Harrow the Ninth) and converging plot points (Children of Time).
Obligatory spoilers for both of these books, but, with regards to Harrow the Ninth, the book explicitly states "x days before the Emperor's murder", and you're thrown right into the night before it happens - so much suspense! Black Sun does this too, and both feature jumping back and forth in time getting closer and further away from The Big Event while explaining more of what's going on. With Harrow, however, it felt as though much more was happening even though you were kept in the dark as to where exactly everything fell into place. There was always this feeling that more would be revealed as you reread the book and the series as a whole, and even still, there's so much in that whole series that will inevitably having me shaking my fist and cursing Tamsyn Muir for making it so obvious once Alecto comes out in 2073. However, we more or less already know what's going to happen with regards to the convergence in Black Sun, and the rest of the book just feels like waiting to get to "the good part".
As for multiple points of view, the chapters with Serapio's POV are the most enjoyable to me (along with Okoa who is introduced criminally late in my opinion), and they help to give more insight into the actually-important-thing-happening. This is contrasted with Xiala's story which is... what, budget Amina Al-Sirafi? I had no great interest in her, and it felt as though the author really wanted to make something of her being Teek and her lore and whatnot, but it felt so incredibly disconnected with the greater story of Naranpa and later Okoa that every chapter with her felt more like "walking simulator" where we were just... plodding away, hoping to get closer to Tova.
In Children of Time, we also have multiple groups with different aims leading toward a single contact, but each group felt important toward progressing the story, and there were likable characters, whereas I got annoyed by Naranpa and actively disliked Xiala.
I was also disappointed with Abah - she felt a little cartoonishly antagonistic to me, especially with the events near the end with her abducting Naranpa. I'm not sure how to put it - the whole affair felt rather... forced? A number of things in the whole book felt kind of forced though. Speaking of cartoonish characterizations, Denaochi and the whole affair in The Maw felt difficult to believe. Perhaps I'm being overly critical of Naranpa's arc, though.
Wall of criticisms aside, I thought that the plot in a vacuum was really cool - just the execution of it left a lot to be desired for me.
Like The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, this is another book that makes me want to go back and revise my old reviews. I think this book had serious potential, and then just didn't do anything. I know there's a sequel, but this book didn't exactly make me want to pick up the following book. Again, this is just personal opinion! But I felt like this book was solidly average for my personal tastes.
Seven hells, what a rest-of-the-book!
This book was hyped up to me by a number of people, and I came into it with high expectations fresh off of finishing The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. Listening to the first chapter and coming from Oklahoma, I was excited - I could tell this was the start of a book I could really get into. The setting was interesting, and I really can't stop talking about how hard that first chapter hooked me.
I sadly can't say that for the rest of the book.
This book features a number of characters with their own sorts of ambitions all converging into one point, which they conveniently also call "convergence". That said, I think of two books that I both thought were excellent when it came to this sort of explicit foreshadowing (Harrow the Ninth) and converging plot points (Children of Time).
Obligatory spoilers for both of these books, but, with regards to Harrow the Ninth, the book explicitly states "x days before the Emperor's murder", and you're thrown right into the night before it happens - so much suspense! Black Sun does this too, and both feature jumping back and forth in time getting closer and further away from The Big Event while explaining more of what's going on. With Harrow, however, it felt as though much more was happening even though you were kept in the dark as to where exactly everything fell into place. There was always this feeling that more would be revealed as you reread the book and the series as a whole, and even still, there's so much in that whole series that will inevitably having me shaking my fist and cursing Tamsyn Muir for making it so obvious once Alecto comes out in 2073. However, we more or less already know what's going to happen with regards to the convergence in Black Sun, and the rest of the book just feels like waiting to get to "the good part".
As for multiple points of view, the chapters with Serapio's POV are the most enjoyable to me (along with Okoa who is introduced criminally late in my opinion), and they help to give more insight into the actually-important-thing-happening. This is contrasted with Xiala's story which is... what, budget Amina Al-Sirafi? I had no great interest in her, and it felt as though the author really wanted to make something of her being Teek and her lore and whatnot, but it felt so incredibly disconnected with the greater story of Naranpa and later Okoa that every chapter with her felt more like "walking simulator" where we were just... plodding away, hoping to get closer to Tova.
In Children of Time, we also have multiple groups with different aims leading toward a single contact, but each group felt important toward progressing the story, and there were likable characters, whereas I got annoyed by Naranpa and actively disliked Xiala.
I was also disappointed with Abah - she felt a little cartoonishly antagonistic to me, especially with the events near the end with her abducting Naranpa. I'm not sure how to put it - the whole affair felt rather... forced? A number of things in the whole book felt kind of forced though. Speaking of cartoonish characterizations, Denaochi and the whole affair in The Maw felt difficult to believe. Perhaps I'm being overly critical of Naranpa's arc, though.
Wall of criticisms aside, I thought that the plot in a vacuum was really cool - just the execution of it left a lot to be desired for me.
Like The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi, this is another book that makes me want to go back and revise my old reviews. I think this book had serious potential, and then just didn't do anything. I know there's a sequel, but this book didn't exactly make me want to pick up the following book. Again, this is just personal opinion! But I felt like this book was solidly average for my personal tastes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, and Alcohol
erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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? It's complicated
4.25
This is a book I picked up because I got a recommendation of the second one and then realised I needed to read this one to catch up. Oops.
There are three main characters. In a harsh world, a young boy is taken from his life to be turned into the vessel for a Godform. The whole story starts in abuse, physical mutilation, and sacrifice, and that's pretty harsh. Although his life is harsh it is not without love. At least the kid has his crows.
A young girl is brought up in poverty in the back streets, and through savvy and devotion she is elevated to the head of her religious sect, but her underlings aren't happy about it.
A woman of an Amazon-like minority culture, and who are said to have magical powers, is the captain of a ship that takes a strange cargo on a tight deadline, at the wrong time of year, and she has to deal with an unruly crew, and dangerous weather.
The plot is just an underpinning though. The characters are really fun, and through the narrative there are many characters of many different genders and sexualities. There are at least two obviously NB characters with xe/xer pronouns and one side character is a trans woman. It's normalised, but not all cultures have the same attitudes toward sex, gender roles, or even nudity.
Although there is some combat and training-montage type scenes I was not bored and it was not blow-by-blow or glamorizing. The pace was good, the character interplay was fun and I bought in, and I've always been a sucker for prophecy stories... This one is hopped up on monk juice, scary mermaid energy and seriously full of crows (and crows are cool). Some of these babies are riding size.
Where's MY crow mount?? ok I'm off to read the second one.
There are three main characters. In a harsh world, a young boy is taken from his life to be turned into the vessel for a Godform. The whole story starts in abuse, physical mutilation, and sacrifice, and that's pretty harsh. Although his life is harsh it is not without love. At least the kid has his crows.
A young girl is brought up in poverty in the back streets, and through savvy and devotion she is elevated to the head of her religious sect, but her underlings aren't happy about it.
A woman of an Amazon-like minority culture, and who are said to have magical powers, is the captain of a ship that takes a strange cargo on a tight deadline, at the wrong time of year, and she has to deal with an unruly crew, and dangerous weather.
The plot is just an underpinning though. The characters are really fun, and through the narrative there are many characters of many different genders and sexualities. There are at least two obviously NB characters with xe/xer pronouns and one side character is a trans woman. It's normalised, but not all cultures have the same attitudes toward sex, gender roles, or even nudity.
Although there is some combat and training-montage type scenes I was not bored and it was not blow-by-blow or glamorizing. The pace was good, the character interplay was fun and I bought in, and I've always been a sucker for prophecy stories... This one is hopped up on monk juice, scary mermaid energy and seriously full of crows (and crows are cool). Some of these babies are riding size.
Where's MY crow mount?? ok I'm off to read the second one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
alyanna_dm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-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? It's complicated
5.0
Best book I've read recently and probably my favorite of the year. Intricate worldbuilding, and the plots all weave together perfectly to create the ending. Sometimes multiple POVs can get confusing but this was well done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death and Racism
Minor: Genocide
2treads'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? No
5.0
Absolutely amazing. Mybs3cond time reading this book and I am still in love with how Roanhorse has built this story. The cagracywrs are compelling, the plot moves well and keeps me engaged and immersed. The influence of the Meso-American peoples can be seen in the festivals, dress, beliefs, and clan groupings.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol
norspider's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Revenge is a buffet served cold.
Black Sun has a deep, rich world that is explored more deeply in each chapter. The pre-Columbian inspiration for the setting is utilized expertly; each faction and sub-faction is given their due.
The pace, dialogue, and plot all kept me wanting to read.
I found myself cheering for each of our POV characters, which is very rare for me. I want Xiala to live rich and well. I want Naranpa to bring honor back to her station. I want Okoa to avenge his mother. And I want Serapio to fulfill his destiny.
There is wonderful LGBTQIA2S+ representation! Not caricatures or jokes, just people living in the world as part of the story. Beautifully done.
The only reason I didn't give Black Sun a full 5/5 is because none of its plots conclude; this is an incomplete book. But I knew this was the start of a series when I picked it up so I can (mostly)look beyond that. And Roanhorse has found a passionate new fan in me!
I can't wait to read book 2!
Black Sun has a deep, rich world that is explored more deeply in each chapter. The pre-Columbian inspiration for the setting is utilized expertly; each faction and sub-faction is given their due.
The pace, dialogue, and plot all kept me wanting to read.
I found myself cheering for each of our POV characters, which is very rare for me. I want Xiala to live rich and well. I want Naranpa to bring honor back to her station. I want Okoa to avenge his mother. And I want Serapio to fulfill his destiny.
There is wonderful LGBTQIA2S+ representation! Not caricatures or jokes, just people living in the world as part of the story. Beautifully done.
The only reason I didn't give Black Sun a full 5/5 is because none of its plots conclude; this is an incomplete book. But I knew this was the start of a series when I picked it up so I can (mostly)look beyond that. And Roanhorse has found a passionate new fan in me!
I can't wait to read book 2!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Drug use, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Minor: Excrement