Black Sun

By: Rebecca Roanhorse

Narrated by: Cara Gee, Nicole Lewis, Kaipo Schwab, Shaun Taylor-Corbett

From the New York Times best-selling author of Star Wars: Resistance Reborn comes the “engrossing and vibrant” (Tochi Onyebuchi, author of Riot Baby) 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 even 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.

Crafted with unforgettable characters, Rebecca Roanhorse has created a “brilliant world that shows the full panoply of human grace and depravity” (Ken Liu, award-winning author of The Grace of Kings). This epic adventure explores the decadence of power amidst the weight of history and the struggle of individuals swimming against the confines of society and their broken pasts in this “absolutely tremendous” (S.A. Chakraborty, nationally best-selling author of The City of Brass) and most original series debut of the decade.

©2020 Rebecca Roanhorse. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

amazing multiple narrators

having the multiple narrators was a wonderful experience. the voice acting was very good, well beyond just reading

FANTASTIC!!!

Great book, great characters, great performances!!! highly recommended! ordering the rest of the series now

I binge listened

I usually listen to books on my commute to and from work. I binge this.

Absolutely beautiful

This book reminds me of myths I’d hear growing up. The pacing of the actors is amazing and I love how the speech patterns evoke the voices I remember growing up in small town Montana.

Amazing

This is both a special book and a special audiobook production with many talented readers. My thanks to all this work’s creators for the wonderful experience that this was.

Wonderful World-building and enjoyable characters

I really enjoyed this book. About to start the next one now. The world is complex and intriguing, as are the characters. I found this hard to step away from beginning to end.

Unique Setting, Great Characters, Great New Series

(No Spoilers) This book moved to the top of my TBR pile after receiving a Hugo nomination, and now I'm kicking myself for waiting so long to pick it up. This was a very well written and unique Fantasy book!

THE GOOD

Unique Setting: A welcome departure from classic European Fantasy tropes, this series is set in a world similar to America before Columbus came and screwed everything up. The seemingly effortless world building made the world feel real and lived in, right down to the small details like cacao beans for currency, round houses, and casual mentions of a third gender. I loved this world, and the author clearly mined her Navajo culture for inspiration in the best ways possible.

Characters: I either liked or loved all of them, though Xiala was the clear winner for me, followed closely by Serapio. Their sections of the book were always crackling with energy and humor.

Structure aka The Final Countdown: I'm a sucker for a good "Catastrophic Countdown", and the book being structured to lead up to the conjunction (eclipse) made for an enjoyable and gradual escalation of dramatic tension.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD

Clunky Prose: Usually if the prose isn't exceptionally pretty (see Guy Gavrial Kay, etc.) I don't really notice it. In this case, the solid if workman-like prose knocked me out of my suspension of disbelief a few times with some questionable word choices. The author served up such scintillating sentences as:

"A thrill thrilled through her body."

Not exactly Shakespeare, eh?

In addition, some distinctly modern words were being thrown around that felt out of place in this setting, such as "tourists". It made me think of Hawaiian shirt clad Dad-bods on a beach, which is distinctly not in keeping with the Pre-Columbian America vibe.

There were also a few too many guys described as having "sensual" mouths for my taste, and I would get a disconcerting trashy-romance-novel feel every time it happened.

That being said, it's a minor quibble and if that's the only thing I didn't enjoy about a book, then you know I'm scraping the barrel to find something to gripe about.

THE VERDICT

I loved this thoroughly, and am now bummed that I have to wait for the sequel. Highly recommend!

4.5 out of 5

Devoured

I could not stop reading. The perspective shift in each chapter left me wanting more and more and more! Each story thread was perfectly woven together and I can't wait for the sequel.

A great combo

This title shows the rare combination of being extremely well written, a great world full of mysteries as well as some truly captivating characters. To top it off, the narrators are easy and captivating to listen to.

The only downside for me was that the book ended too soon, because I want more.

I'd recommend this to fans of soft magic systems and people who enjoy a fantasy world that isn't a poor copy of 12th century England.

I didn’t want it to end!

It’s a little slow at first with the build up but when it finally gets going, it’s so good! The way the story unfolds and the narration really makes the listener care for each character and hope everything turns out well for them all (which is unrealistic but also very hard to do as the author so kudos to Roanhorse for that).
Waiting impatiently for the second book next year!