Synopsis:

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 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.

Review:

Rebecca Roanhorse knows how to write. The world she created is inspired by the Pre-Colombian Americas, and I absolutely loved reading a story with these inspirations – something different from the European-style settings we usually get.

The tale is filled with culture and history, prophecy, politics, seafaring, gods and magic. With so much woven into a story you might think that it would be info-dumpy, but it was not at all. The information unfolds naturally as the story progresses and you receive what you need to know through the eyes of each of the POV’s.

These POV’s are made up of four characters, all so unique to each other and each one memorable and compelling. Roanhorse has managed to create characters that you don’t know fully how to feel about. Should you like them? Should you dislike them? Serapio especially caused me to question this – he is on a dark path but somehow I was feeling sympathy towards him. Each character evolves as the tale progresses too and I ended up fully invested in all of their individual lives.

As I mentioned before, the setting is inspired by the Pre-Columbian Americas, and Roanhorse has done a phenomenal job at bringing that world to life. I felt like I was there in the story myself, experiencing the seas, the skies and the cities along with the characters.

The first half of the story is slower than the latter half, but it builds nice and steadily without dragging. The ending though was swift and explosive, and left me reeling and reaching for book two immediately!