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andreadwrites's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
krover's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. It has all the makings for a good book. The concept is great. But it just flopped. The entire book felt like it was leading somewhere that it never got to. This is more a prequel to a book than a book. The characters got very minimal attention to development and so many storylines got dropped at the end of the book. I think it was meant to get you to read the second book but it left me so wanting and incredibly unmotivated to read the second book.
malignantcactus's review against another edition
3.0
Ehhhh. I DNF'd this about 30-40% in. It's fine. I'm just so uninterested with the book I don't want go force myself to finish it. I may come back to it in the future.
wammi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
alyanna_dm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Best book I've read recently and probably my favorite of the year. Intricate worldbuilding, and the plots all weave together perfectly to create the ending. Sometimes multiple POVs can get confusing but this was well done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Torture, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death and Racism
Minor: Genocide
nathaliagoncalves's review against another edition
4.0
No momento só sei que achei que gostaria mais do que gostei
booksandhalohalo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
kmihane's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
1.0
mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
2.0
One of the people in the SF/F book club I'm in described this as a very long prologue and that is an exceedingly apt descriptor.
Black Sun is a middling book. I wasn't bored, but I was never overly invested either. It piqued my interest enough that I wanted to know what was happening, but I wanted to know because I was curious moreso than I actively cared what occurred - if that makes sense.
There's a rundown at the beginning of all the relevant characters. In hindsight, the entire book was basically just that list as all the facts provided on that page is all that we learn in this book. Outside of Serapio, who at least gets several flashbacks to set up his motivations, no one else gets a similar level of development. And even when the other characters do it's typically confirmation of something previously established or something you didn't need confirmed instead of new, relevant or interesting information.
For example, there's a flashback chapter early on of Nara's background which led to her becoming Sun Priest. This look into Nara's family history is completely useless as this is something that comes up several times naturally as the story progresses. Why waste time on this aside when as the reader I could just use context clues to reason it out? It's not like this flashback gives me any further insight into her character. Nara is a class traitor; that much is clear from the synopsis.
When I think of the events of this novel so much of it was fluff. This book could have easily been only 200 or so pages rather than the near 500 it actually is. I'm struggling to even figure out why it was so long when nothing of consequence was ever going on. It was an endless cycle of the same material regurgitated in a different way. Relevant, plot progressing details were small and buried underneath a ton of extraneous knowledge.
All the characters were shallow because, again, everything you could learn or needed to know about them was a blurb on page one.
I found Nara difficult to care about because her cause was not well explored. My understanding is that she wanted to restore the Sun Priest to its former position of significance in the community, but to me the whole system seemed unnecessary so I couldn't root for her. Yes, it was corrupt so it could use a revamp like she wanted, however, I didn't feel as if it was essential in the first place thus, its devolution felt like a natural progression in their society.
Serapio was supposed to be reserved which made sense considering his background but it harmed the believability of his relationship with Xiala because he was such a stone wall. He never told her anything about himself yet she found herself falling for him. Why? What exactly is appealing about a man whom you can tell is purposely obfuscating his life? She literally didn't know anything about him that wasn't visual until the last quarter of the novel. Serapio has never known kindness so him falling for Xiala is understandable. Her reciprocating with nothing to go on is ridiculous.
The ending was anticlimactic. It was clearly done in such a way as to pave the way towards the sequel giving no regard to the story it was presently communicating. I've read plenty of sequels that manage to function as standalones whilst in the confines of a series so I know it can be done.
I did like the world building for the most part. A lot of effort was clearly put into making the culture and politics of the respective regions make sense. And I always enjoy casual queer representation because I appreciate it becoming more normalized especially in a book of Black and brown characters in a fantasy setting. It's nice that it's becoming more commonplace. Though, I will say that it's not particularly prominent so don't go in expecting too much.
There are also two characters who are part of a third gender and use alternate pronouns which I've only read in one other book before so that was cool to me specifically. It was interesting how I had to recalibrate my perception of characters without the gendered descriptions. I never really thought about how gendered my imagination of a character can be regardless of how the character is described. Going forward I'm going to try to be less rigid in my interpretation of characters unless the book purposely calls for it.
Basically, this book is all build up, no payoff. I'm still interested in the sequel because it's entirely possible the next book will be better since the foundation will have been laid. However, if you don't want to take the chance I certainly wouldn't blame you.
Black Sun is a middling book. I wasn't bored, but I was never overly invested either. It piqued my interest enough that I wanted to know what was happening, but I wanted to know because I was curious moreso than I actively cared what occurred - if that makes sense.
There's a rundown at the beginning of all the relevant characters. In hindsight, the entire book was basically just that list as all the facts provided on that page is all that we learn in this book. Outside of Serapio, who at least gets several flashbacks to set up his motivations, no one else gets a similar level of development. And even when the other characters do it's typically confirmation of something previously established or something you didn't need confirmed instead of new, relevant or interesting information.
For example, there's a flashback chapter early on of Nara's background which led to her becoming Sun Priest. This look into Nara's family history is completely useless as this is something that comes up several times naturally as the story progresses. Why waste time on this aside when as the reader I could just use context clues to reason it out? It's not like this flashback gives me any further insight into her character. Nara is a class traitor; that much is clear from the synopsis.
When I think of the events of this novel so much of it was fluff. This book could have easily been only 200 or so pages rather than the near 500 it actually is. I'm struggling to even figure out why it was so long when nothing of consequence was ever going on. It was an endless cycle of the same material regurgitated in a different way. Relevant, plot progressing details were small and buried underneath a ton of extraneous knowledge.
All the characters were shallow because, again, everything you could learn or needed to know about them was a blurb on page one.
I found Nara difficult to care about because her cause was not well explored. My understanding is that she wanted to restore the Sun Priest to its former position of significance in the community, but to me the whole system seemed unnecessary so I couldn't root for her. Yes, it was corrupt so it could use a revamp like she wanted, however, I didn't feel as if it was essential in the first place thus, its devolution felt like a natural progression in their society.
Serapio was supposed to be reserved which made sense considering his background but it harmed the believability of his relationship with Xiala because he was such a stone wall. He never told her anything about himself yet she found herself falling for him. Why? What exactly is appealing about a man whom you can tell is purposely obfuscating his life? She literally didn't know anything about him that wasn't visual until the last quarter of the novel. Serapio has never known kindness so him falling for Xiala is understandable. Her reciprocating with nothing to go on is ridiculous.
The ending was anticlimactic. It was clearly done in such a way as to pave the way towards the sequel giving no regard to the story it was presently communicating. I've read plenty of sequels that manage to function as standalones whilst in the confines of a series so I know it can be done.
I did like the world building for the most part. A lot of effort was clearly put into making the culture and politics of the respective regions make sense. And I always enjoy casual queer representation because I appreciate it becoming more normalized especially in a book of Black and brown characters in a fantasy setting. It's nice that it's becoming more commonplace. Though, I will say that it's not particularly prominent so don't go in expecting too much.
There are also two characters who are part of a third gender and use alternate pronouns which I've only read in one other book before so that was cool to me specifically. It was interesting how I had to recalibrate my perception of characters without the gendered descriptions. I never really thought about how gendered my imagination of a character can be regardless of how the character is described. Going forward I'm going to try to be less rigid in my interpretation of characters unless the book purposely calls for it.
Basically, this book is all build up, no payoff. I'm still interested in the sequel because it's entirely possible the next book will be better since the foundation will have been laid. However, if you don't want to take the chance I certainly wouldn't blame you.
valelee's review against another edition
3.0
I felt blue balled, I need answers but I also don’t care enough. I love the concept, don’t love the execution. 3.5