Black Sun Review

By Nic Daniels

Hello, audacious readers!

The year is winding down quickly, but we still have exciting times ahead. In October, we had Fall Break with a fun list of spooky reads. For November, we dove into a world of power, love, and political intrigue with the fantasy novel, Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse.

In the holy city of Tova, a celestial event promises to bring life-altering changes through three individuals. Xiala is a sea captain on the run from her past and with the ability to soothe the seas with her Song. Down on her luck, she gets an offer to carry a “harmless” man across the seas for an abundance of gold. The proposition immediately puts Xiala on edge; she’s lived long enough to know that a job that pays that well is never that simple.

Blind and scarred, Serapio has endured years of cruel training to bring to life to the Crow God, a god of shadow and violence that promises to destroy Tova in revenge for a massacre against its people. To do this, Serapio has to get to Tova in time for the solar eclipse, but this is the first time he has been out in the world and the more time he spends in it, the more he questions what he’s fighting for.

Meanwhile, Sun Priestess Naranpa is doing her best to bring the clans of Tova together as classism threaten to divide them. Clawing her way to the top from the poverty-stricken childhood home, Naranpa has seen where the Sky Made clans have failed and wishes to correct the system from the inside. However, those born with power prefer for her to be gone permanently.

The three walk a destined path that will change the world as they know it – but is it for the better?

This was my first step into adult fantasy in a while. Often the genre, the worldbuilding can feel overly complicated but Roanhorse sets up a world that’s easy to step into, similar to the likes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I love that the magic is interwoven in the different lifestyles and how the clans revolve around different animals like crows and eagles, along with mythical creatures like water serpents and sirens. Yet, what makes the story so good is the way it mixes the fanatical elements with painfully realistic problems.

Xiala being taken advantage of, undermined, even harmed because of her ancestry while also disagreeing with societal expectations; Serapio having to fight for a culture he doesn’t fully understand or is apart of; Naranpa trying to balance doing the right thing and playing the game of politics to stay in power, these are problems we see and/or live through every day. You watch these characters trying to survive without losing themselves. It makes you root for the characters because it’s so understandable and relatable. It makes the story resonate so well, especially with the world we currently live in. Plus, the powers are pretty cool too.

Now, I don’t like suggesting series for the Audacity Book Club. 1) It causes the expectation that we’ll do the next books in the series and 2) sometimes the following books aren’t as good. However, this one was too good to keep to myself. So, whether you only read this book or decide to keep up with the entire series, prepare to be pulled in and swept away by this stunning narrative.

I hope you enjoyed Black Sun. I'll be sharing all my thoughts during upcoming annual Drunk Book Review with founder, Jessica Wise. Feel free to comment your thoughts below and, until next time, don’t forget to read audaciously!