Black Sun is a contender for Best Fantasy Novel

Publisher- Solaris

Published – Out Now

Price - £8.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook

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

From New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Roanhorse comes 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.

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.

Fantasy often looks at the end of eras. The end of Middle Earth, various Dark Lords’ reigns, or various warring families. I like the examination of a world that can be changed for good or ill. What leads to change and who will push for it? In Black Sun Rebecca Roanhorse delivers a fascinating world. A unique set of characters and then firmly smashes it to pieces beginning the new Between Earth and Sky series.

The story starts with a young boy named Serapio being told by his mother that he is about to become a god against his father’s wishes. She marks his skin with a knife and sews his eyelids shut then vanishes for good. Ten years later we meet in the seaport of Cuecola Xiala (a woman with unusual magics) sleeping off her drunken night in jail. She is bailed out by the unusual Lord Balam who hires her for an urgent sea voyage across the dangerous sea in 19 days so she can deliver an unusual visitor to the capital of Tova – who we soon learn is Serapio a man who though blind can see through the eyes of crows.

In Tova an unusual astronomical event known as Convergence is coming when earth, sun and moon will all align. The four High Priests of Tova (the Sun, Knives, Succour and Records) plan for the event but are getting frustrated by internal and external politics. Naranpa has been working hard to put the Priests back into the public eye and gain their respect once again but finds some in the orders seem determined to put her back in her place. Outside the priesthood the four clams of Tova – The Carrion Crow, The Water Strider, The Golden Eagle, and The Winged Serpent are unsettled. Mysterious deaths are taking place and some factions in the Crow Clan still wish to retaliate after a Night of Knives when their leaders were savagely cut back. They pray for the return of their God. As the days count down to Convergence the pieces are being moved to accommodate a huge change to society.

What struck me so powerful about this story was the great mix of plotting, character and with a knifeworldbuilding Roanhorse creates in this volume that uses societies based around pre-Columbian American civilisations. For those that love world-building that is organic there is tonnes to enjoy here. I suspect for many readers we will not be familiar with the structure of these societies, so Roanhorse successfully finds a great way to explain this by placing the characters in various strata of societies so that we get understand the real relationships between each other through the personal history of characters rather than through excessive exposition. One of the most interesting dynamics is that between the Priesthoods and the Clans that rule in Tova. For years, a religious ran society but one where the balance of power was once again shifting towards the civilian. The Civilians that host armies of giant beasts such as crows or water striders (that can pull a boat across a river or attack navies). This puts Naranpa’s story at the heart of the Tova sections of the book. She was promoted to the role of Sun Priest unexpectedly as she comes from a clanless i.e., poor community. She finds that the other clans are beginning to get in her way and her once lover/friend the dangerous Priest of Knives Iktan is not sharing xir secrets. Clan leaders mysteriously die almost as if someone wants to create the perfect recipe for discontent. Fans of palace intrigue in fantasy will love these sections.

The other half of the story focuses on Serapio and Xiala travelling to Tuva. Serapio’s scenes are the most supernatural as we meet the blind boy being taught various skills by a trio of unusual and not particularly safe tutors all preparing their charge for a hidden future event. These sections give us the feel of the epic of ancient powers awakening and a very long game of revenge being played on Tuva. Serapio is unusual as they don’t at all come across as a villain just someone trapped in a history they cannot escape. This works even better then for when he meets Xiala she also has an unusual history coming from the mysterious Teek community that live far off in the sea – known for their ability to control the sea. With her superstitious non-Teek crew Xiala is feeling under pressure moving them into a dangerous area known for storms and knowing many feel Teeks are actually bad luck. Here rather than epic fantasy we move almost into a sword and sorcery thread of an epic voyage and the dangers of the sea (and a dangerous crew) mixed up with magic. I really loved these sections as they helped me to get to know these two characters who have a fascinating relationship with each other and also it gives us depth for understanding exactly how powerful both can be as well as concern as to what Convergence will mean for them.

Roanhorse very carefully adds depth to the world as the story builds to quite a powerful finale. We meet criminal underworlds, secret societies, secret agents and see street fights and rebellion. Many first volume tales in a fantasy series are very linear – here is the big problem and here are the people who will fix it/break it. What I really appreciated was Roanhorse avoids that - this isn’t yet a tale with an obvious villain it’s a big circle of dominos falling for the last ten plus years and dramatically each chapter shows us how Convergence gets closer and closer. It’s a pressure cooker that we can see is fractured and only needs a little push in a few places to finally explode. By the end, the world is very different and yet also not yet fully formed making me especially keen to see what happened next and I can’t easily predict what happens next.

This is a brilliant complex piece of fantasy giving us both characters t I invest in and a huge puzzle of a world to solve. It was a delight to walk through; get to know and explore the strange relationships between people and clans. I feel like I’ve only just scratched the surface and there is a lot more to be told. Highly recommended and definitely an excellent piece of fantasy readers of epic fantasy should pick up.