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Black Sun Volume 1

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Black Sun Volume 1

Written by: Rebecca Roanhorse
Narrated by: Cara Gee, Nicole Lewis, Kaipo Schwab, Shaun Taylor-Corbett
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About this listen

 Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Series!

From the New York Times bestselling 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 bestselling author of The City of Brass) and most original series debut of the decade. Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Historical Indigenous Creators Women's Voices World Literature Native American

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What the critics say

"This epic fantasy, which includes political upheaval, taboo magic, and a hint of romance, is narrated by an array of textured voices. In this intense, adventurous story, inspired by pre-Columbian civilizations, every voice is clear and grave. While Cara Gee and Nicole Lewis are slightly warmer in tone than Kaipo Schwab and Shaun Taylor–Corbett, make no mistake—all the narrators remind us that everything is at stake in this fantasy. Having four narrators for overlapping storylines may seem like a lot at times, given the numerous characters and the constant movement within this adventure. But each voice is distinct and drives the story forward, leading to an explosive ending."
All stars
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I think this was a very good story. very intriguing concept and I feel like the cultural bits were exciting to explore. I think it could be longer though there were some parts where I thought more of the interactions could be shown or explained.

Grabbed me instantly.

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epic, beautifully written and read. 5 stars for all. Please ms roanhorse keep writing and producing these awesome stories.

epic, beautifully read

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While I wasn't blown away by the story, its unique style/setting (and the excellent narration) was definitely enough to keep me interested throughout this audiobook.

The setting is conceptually, culturally, and linguistically inspired by Indigenous Central/South American peoples, histories, and mythologies, which is a nice change from the Medieval European archetypes that tend to dominate the fantasy genre. This gave the story a freshness that made up for a general lack of depth in certain areas/characters.

There were a couple of characters belonging to a third gender that used its own unique pronouns (shay/sheer, as opposed to she/her or he/him), and while I'm not opposed to this philosophically or ideologically, I did find it somewhat confusing, or even annoying, especially at first. There seemed to be no reason for it, and no real discussion/commentary of the nature of sex/gender (even though there was also another minor character who was transgender), so I'm not sure what the author was going for here.

Regardless, an enjoyable listen overall, and I'll be listening to the rest of the trilogy for sure.

Good, Fresh, Unique Fantasy Setting/Story

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Love the uncolonized vision Roanhorse has created. It’s a definite “free your mind” experience based on an Indigenous perspectives, values and cultures.

Can’t wait for the next instalment

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This book is good, but compared to Trail of Lightning and especially Storm of Locusts, I found myself disappointed.

Maybe it was the points of view. There are four in the book, one introduced so late that I never connected with him as a character but only saw him as showing parts of the story the others couldn't. The crow god was the most fleshed, past and present melding seamlessly to form a complex picture of who he is and the sort of people who would try to manipulate him. I hope those machinations show in the sequel, because they fell flat here.

The sun priest was the least fleshed. Here was what purported to be machinations and political intrigue but was really just finger pointing that conveniently thwarted a plan with no real intention to do so. I was intensely disappointed in this "political maneuvering".

I was also disappointed by the disability rep. It wasn't good rep at all, but rather a regurgitation of stereotypes of the blind "overcoming" their disability. He was still blind in the end, but the work arounds so he could see and move through the world without difficulty annoyed me. Even the (mermaid) captain, whose body parts are prized for magic, had only one joint of her littlest finger removed. It wouldn't do to have the love interest be disfigured in any real way. (Shocked gasp!) Come to think of it, maybe I'm more angry than disappointed.

Disappointing

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