Destiny is at the heart of Black Sun, the first book in a new series by Rebecca Roanhorse. It’s a fantasy series with a setting inspired by Pre-Colombian America.
The new location gives the chance for clothes, names, architecture, and foods that are a departure from the traditionally expected fantasy aesthetic.
Black Sun‘s story itself is exactly the sort that readers of fantasy can get into, with its fleshed out characters and deep mythology.
The first half of the book is a slow build, getting each character where they need to be before one of the major plot points: the Conjunction, an eclipse on the winter solstice. For one, a Boat captain character, Xiala, is transporting an important character, Serapio, across the sea.
As a child, Serapio had been made into the living vessel for the Crow God, and the time has come for him to reveal himself. Meanwhile, the Sun Priest Naranpa is trying to maintain the influence of her position while facing threats from outside the city and from within.
The Conjunction takes place in the city of Tova. The city is ruled by four clans led by powerful matrons. The clans are the Sky Born, and each takes their name from a flying animal: Carrion Crow, Golden Eagle, Water Strider, and Winged Serpent. The other power in Tova are the priests in the Tower. Of them, the Sun Priest, is chief among them.
Several decades before Black Sun‘s main story, the Priests massacred members of the Carrion Crow clan for worshiping their own god. This “Night of Knives” is a catalyst for the actions of the book on all sides. It’s why Serapio becomes the Crow God, why Naranpa feels guilt for the actions of her predecessors and fears a second night, and why Okoa, Crow clan guard, so fiercely wants to protect his people.
The book speeds up in the second half as the Conjunction nears.
Xiala and Serapio arrive in Tova. Naranpa discovers the treachery around her, and Okoa searches for something to avert disaster.
I liked that none of Black Sun’s main characters were flat. Xiala, having been a lone wolf, finds herself bonding with Serapio and wishing he would forgo his mission. Serapio wonders what his life would be like if he was an ordinary man with friends and a wife. Naranpa puts her childhood in the slums behind her until she has nowhere else to turn. Okoa goes from skeptic to believer in one bloody stroke.
The events of the conjunction are violent. It’s the end of the years of the Sun and the beginning of a new era. Not everyone survives, but it’s not totally clear what happens.
Beyond the non-European centered setting and mythology, there were other things that were good to see. Several characters exist outside of the heteronormative. Xiala is pansexual, and there are a few trans and non-binary characters that are members of Tovan society, including one of the top priests.
Careful readers are rewarded throughout Black Sun. There are little things here and there that, when you pick up on them, will lead you to clues that hint at what is to come both later in this book and in events that may be in the following books.
This one ended on a cliffhanger of sorts, and I really want to see what happens next.
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