Black Sun

A quick-paced, plot-tight read of indigenous fantasy, of which there needs to be much more of. But at the same time — it was almost too quick-paced, and too plot-tight.

The points I enjoyed:
— The character voice of Serapio. The gentleness combined with the “doomed to be a monstrosity and what is that, truly?” question was wonderful to read, whether in flashback or in present day.
— The way each chapter was woven together. It truly was an air-tight plot. It flowed seamlessly one point into the next. Everything did have a purpose, however strong or weak that purpose was in the actual narrative.
— The world. Reading about a pre-colonial world that wasn't “we're stuck in a period piece” was a breath of fresh air. You could smell and taste the rich traditions. There was no shying away from what others might deem as “harsh” or “backwards” or “grotesque.” (Leaving out details to avoid spoilers.)
— The ending. I was relieved it didn't end the way I thought it would — or rather, the way that we were led to believe that we were doomed to read, so to speak.

The points that missed for me:
— The other character voices. Although I enjoyed all of them as concepts, what they could do, and how their arcs sustained them — their voices weren't unique enough for me to grasp. If I didn't have dialogue tags every sentence, I would have no idea who was speaking because after a while, they all blended together and sounded the same. Naranpa and Xiala mirrored each other in their voices (frustrated, coming from rough backgrounds, had enough and taking action) — and Okoa was not there long enough for me to connect to, and was overshadowed by Serapio until the end. Serapio was the strongest for me.
— The air-tight plot. It read quickly. I've seen some perspectives indicating that the beginning was slow and painstaking — but I didn't find that to be the case. I found it to be the right pace; and then, the rest of it after they were established, characterisation was cast aside for the sake of the plot moving quickly. There were times where I wished the writing had lingered. On the environment, on the action outside of the POV, on the characters' emotions, just lingering in general. I felt like I would just get comfortable sitting in someone's POV, and then, we would switch or something else would happen. I felt a bit like I was underwater without a lot of air to breathe in.
— The world. Because I could taste its richness, I wanted to taste more. I got a clear picture, again, in the beginning and sometimes in the middle — but otherwise, I found the descriptions to err on the side of blandness. I'm not sure if there was a lot cut to meet word-count or page-count, but I think it was cut to a fault, if that's the case. This could have benefitted from being a fantasy of truly epic proportions — The Wheel of Time length, LOTR length. Let us have flesh.
— The writing style. Not in the sense that Ms. Roanhorse has a weak voice; she has a strong one and a commanding one. However, despite this being marketed as adult ... it read as YA to me.

It was good, and I will read the sequels in the series to come. But it left me a bit on the “...damn” side instead of the “wow!” side.