Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky #1)

By:

Rebecca Roanhorse

Blurb:

The first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic.

A god will return
When the earth and sky converge
Under the black sun

In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world.

Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.

Review:

Reading over the blurb for Black Sun, I’m not sure why I added it to my to-read list. It’s a good blurb, but not what I usually read. It’s got a great cover, and it was on a ton of must-read lists, so maybe that was why.

I liked the characters that were followed in Black Sun. There were four, and they were each unique and complex, but they were good. I like books where I don’t hate the main characters. They were flawed and trying to work in a system that was fighting against them, but they kept on fighting.

The world created was also interesting. It was new and different. I’m still unclear on many things, but I’m hoping it’s answered in the following books.

The only thing I found frustrating was the ending. It was a major cliffhanger. I wish that I’d known that going in because the next book doesn’t come out until 2022, and that’s a long time to wait after such an ending. It would have been nice to wait until the second book was finished before starting the series.

Oh well. I enjoyed Black Sun, and I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in the series, whenever that comes out.

4/5