tinysierra's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
An amazing epic fantasy with intriguing diverse characters. Wow. Also… mermaids! Giant crows!
There was a mix of character driven and plot driven moments. I felt like there was a lot of slow/medium paced moments where there was more focus on character development/interactions but it did pick up in some places with more plot related aspects. It kept my attention either way.
The timeline hopped around a bit, jumping back into the past and then forward into the present. Slowly putting the pieces together. The chapters had the date along with experts from in world media (like journal entries), which really added to my immersion.
I liked Xiala and Serapio’s chapters the most. It was nice to see the story through a blind characters perspective. I hope to see more about Xiala’s powers in the next book.
In this book, queer characters are accepted in some of the societies but not others. There are characters that use neopronouns (xe/xir)! Xiala mentions that she takes pleasure with “men, women, and other genders” which I assume means that she’s bi or pan.
I guess I didn’t expect to see fuck and shit in a fantasy book because they usually have fantasy curses. Xiala even says “Mother Seas” instead of “God” so that part felt… kind of jarring?
The ending was fast and admittedly a little anticlimactic but I don’t find myself feeling disappointed. I’m curious about where the story is going.
There was a mix of character driven and plot driven moments. I felt like there was a lot of slow/medium paced moments where there was more focus on character development/interactions but it did pick up in some places with more plot related aspects. It kept my attention either way.
The timeline hopped around a bit, jumping back into the past and then forward into the present. Slowly putting the pieces together. The chapters had the date along with experts from in world media (like journal entries), which really added to my immersion.
I liked Xiala and Serapio’s chapters the most. It was nice to see the story through a blind characters perspective. I hope to see more about Xiala’s powers in the next book.
In this book, queer characters are accepted in some of the societies but not others. There are characters that use neopronouns (xe/xir)! Xiala mentions that she takes pleasure with “men, women, and other genders” which I assume means that she’s bi or pan.
I guess I didn’t expect to see fuck and shit in a fantasy book because they usually have fantasy curses. Xiala even says “Mother Seas” instead of “God” so that part felt… kind of jarring?
The ending was fast and admittedly a little anticlimactic but I don’t find myself feeling disappointed. I’m curious about where the story is going.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Colonisation, Alcoholism, Violence, Classism, Murder, Physical abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, War, Suicide, Homophobia, Biphobia, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Animal death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit, and Abandonment
alyssasaurus's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, War, and Vomit
mariebrunelm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
It's epic! It's queer! It's not set in a Western Middle-Ages village!
Black Sun is a fast-paced, high-stakes, multiple-points-of-view fantasy inspired by Pre-Columbian civilizations of South America. We follow a priestess preparing the highly important ceremonies of the Convergence, a captain whose luck soars and plummets with equal force, and a young whose destiny has the dark, sleek feathers of a crow. Each one is a pleasure to follow across the streets, waters and airs of this novel that I found hard to put down. The short chapters introduced by glimpses of world-building helped, for sure. I was worried I would be completely lost in the ins and outs of a complex world, but the author manages to blend seamlessly her character focus with the twists and turns of the story (of which there are many). A very, very enjoyable read! I don't know if I'll continue with book 2 (it's quite rare when I do), but I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed Black Sun's refreshing diversity. Some parts (especially the gruesome first scene) reminded me of N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, so you may want to look that way for similar vibes).
Rep: bi, non-binary (using neo-pronouns), trans characters. Blind character. No white character that I noticed.
Black Sun is a fast-paced, high-stakes, multiple-points-of-view fantasy inspired by Pre-Columbian civilizations of South America. We follow a priestess preparing the highly important ceremonies of the Convergence, a captain whose luck soars and plummets with equal force, and a young whose destiny has the dark, sleek feathers of a crow. Each one is a pleasure to follow across the streets, waters and airs of this novel that I found hard to put down. The short chapters introduced by glimpses of world-building helped, for sure. I was worried I would be completely lost in the ins and outs of a complex world, but the author manages to blend seamlessly her character focus with the twists and turns of the story (of which there are many). A very, very enjoyable read! I don't know if I'll continue with book 2 (it's quite rare when I do), but I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed Black Sun's refreshing diversity. Some parts (especially the gruesome first scene) reminded me of N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, so you may want to look that way for similar vibes).
Rep: bi, non-binary (using neo-pronouns), trans characters. Blind character. No white character that I noticed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Vomit
jamielikestoread's review against another edition
emotional
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? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Vomit
unwise_samwise's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, and Child abuse
Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Misogyny, and Transphobia
Minor: Rape, Death of parent, and Vomit
breadwitchery's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Violence, Suicide, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Abandonment
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Confinement, and Body horror
Minor: Slavery, Vomit, War, Cursing, and Pregnancy
aardwyrm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Hits you right in the first book of a trilogy, managing full story arcs for the many viewpoint characters while setting up a longer tale to come. The worldbuilding (definitely the strength of the book) makes the universe feel lived in even as it oozes epic fantasy tropes of noble houses and magic animal allies and such. The prose is evocative and lush and the pacing is excellent.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Gore, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Vomit, Pedophilia, and Child abuse
troisha's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Racism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Vomit, and Suicide
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
stacey332's review against another edition
mysterious
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
My CAWPILE score: 3.93/10 - definitely in the 2 star range.
Things I liked:
-The storytelling/oral history style was great and the writing fit that style very well!
-The audiobook narrators did a great job!
-Some of the lore and atmosphere was interesting and enjoyable.
-A couple of the characters are memorable.
Things that didn't work for me:
-I thought the ending was pretty abrupt and I wanted more falling action!!
-Most of the content was setup for the series overall and ended up not being very relevant to the plot in this book.
-There was a lack of exploration of motivations behind characters actions.
-The plot felt hyperfocused on one event and it ultimately didn't feel satisfying for me due to the ending. We're introduced to some plot threads that end up going completely unexplored, there were missed opportunities in that area, such as:
-There were several elements that were seriously underdeveloped that could have added a lot more intrigue, such as:
-There was the odd moment that was lacking in logic that didn't end up being explored. One example of where this stood out to me was:
-The descriptions were lengthy and got boring in my opinion. I would have preferred if they were sprinkled in throughout the story instead of taking over large chunks at a time.
Things I liked:
-The storytelling/oral history style was great and the writing fit that style very well!
-The audiobook narrators did a great job!
-Some of the lore and atmosphere was interesting and enjoyable.
-A couple of the characters are memorable.
Things that didn't work for me:
-I thought the ending was pretty abrupt and I wanted more falling action!!
-Most of the content was setup for the series overall and ended up not being very relevant to the plot in this book.
-There was a lack of exploration of motivations behind characters actions.
-The plot felt hyperfocused on one event and it ultimately didn't feel satisfying for me due to the ending. We're introduced to some plot threads that end up going completely unexplored, there were missed opportunities in that area, such as:
Spoiler
Naranpa's note to Okoa, the death of Okoa's mother, what the Carrion Crow clan actually did.-There were several elements that were seriously underdeveloped that could have added a lot more intrigue, such as:
Spoiler
Okoa's relationship with his sister, clan dynamics, what any of the 4 clans actually stand for & what they do, the magic (including the "witchcraft" & the Teek magic), the other Gods/deities.-There was the odd moment that was lacking in logic that didn't end up being explored. One example of where this stood out to me was:
Spoiler
in chapter 15 when we find out Okoa's mom is dead and his cousin tells him that nobody could have entered her room since the door was guarded BUT we literally just got through learning that 3 of the quarters/clans have aviaries and obviously her room had a window if she supposedly jumped.-The descriptions were lengthy and got boring in my opinion. I would have preferred if they were sprinkled in throughout the story instead of taking over large chunks at a time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Gore, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Slavery, Suicide, Trafficking, and Vomit