I first heard about Rebecca Roanhorses‘s upcoming novel when I spotted the cover on Twitter — and, like all good covers, John Picacio’s artwork caught my attention and made me want to find out more about the book.
The first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, Black Sun is “inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic.” Check out the 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.
Crafted with unforgettable characters, Rebecca Roanhorse has created an epic adventure exploring 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 the most original series debut of the decade.
This sounds really interesting, and I’m looking forward to reading it. Black Sun is due to be published by Saga Press in North America and in the UK, on October 13th, 2020.
The author’s acclaimed, award-winning Sixth World duology is also published by Saga Press in North America, and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK.
Civilian Reader 