Rebecca Roanhorse’s Black Sun

What is the most interesting fantasy you’ve read recently? I’ve read many good ones, but one of my favorites so far this year has been Rebecca Roanhorse’s Black Sun. The book is the first in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy. It is also the first Indigenous fantasy that I’ve read. I love the way Roanhorse integrates Pre-Columbian mythology and ideas into this sweeping fantasy.

It was a good book to read in Disability Pride Month because one of the central characters is blind. It informs the book in a lot of ways. However I do have some commentary on the blindness portrayal which I’ll go into later.

Synopsis

The book follows Serapio of the Carrion Crow clan. He was blinded by his mother in a religious ritual. He is supposed to become the new incarnation of an ancient Crow God. Years later, when he starts to leave his home and head back to fulfill a mission his mother and tutors put forward for him. To kill the Sun Priest of Tova.

Captain Xiala, a woman with ties to the ocean, is hired to transport him to the city of Tova by a man named Balam. Xiala crew mutinies after they learn she has magical powers. Serapio, who has become fond of her, saves her from the crew with his army of crows.

In Tova, a woman named Naranpa serves as the Sun Priest, head of the Watchers. The citizens of Tova are made up of four clans. These clans are Carrion Crow, Golden Eagle, Winged Serpent, and Water Strider. They are all considered something called Sky Made and they are linked with magical beings and powers. In contrast to this are the clanless people called the Dry Earth.

Naranpa comes from the Dry Earth people originally, but has risen through the ranks to become Sun Priest. She is looking to try some new things when it comes to her position and the way the Sun Priest interacts with the clans. Her ways are unpopular with some of the more traditional people in the city.

When the head matron of Carrion Crow dies questionably, things start to unravel. Her son comes home and tries to prevent his clan from working against the Watchers. But as Xiala and Serapio arrive in Tova things become more serious. Will Serapio fulfill his destiny? And what will happen to Naranpa and the Watchers when the eclipse finally comes around?

Review

Black Sun has been on my TBR for at least a year. I haven’t read Rebecca Roanhorse before, but I’ve heard about what a great writer she is. I’m SO glad I finally picked this book up. It was a little slow at the start, but that was mostly character and world building.

All of the characters in the book are well-written. I think my favorite would have to be Serapio, not just because he’s the main disabled character in the book. But because he has an interesting moral quandary.

He has been taught since he was a child that he had a duty to help his people gain revenge against the Sun Priest for a wrong that the Watchers did against his clan in the past. He even has teachers who help hone his skills through questionable methods.

His interactions with Xiala are some of my favorites. They are both wary to start out with and slowly grow fond of each other, so fond that Serapio questions his mission. My only issue with the book (and it doesn’t stop Black Sun from being five stars) is that Serapio falls a bit into the mystical blind person trope.

Now I don’t know enough about the Pre-Columbian cultures that this book is based on to know if that is just a standard stereotype, but from what I’ve read, it tends to be something that comes up with blind people in fantasy. Again, I’m not saying it’s not well done, just commenting on the use of the trope.

I’d give this book five stars for the excellent plotting and characterization. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, and this is certainly one of my favorites for the year. I’m so glad I gave this series a chance for Disability Pride Month.

About the Author

Rebecca Roanhorse is a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning speculative fiction writer. She lives in Northern New Mexico with her family.