Black Sun

Black Sun is Rebecca Roanhorse's 2020 epic fantasy launching the Between Earth and Sky series, creating a richly detailed secondary world inspired by pre-Columbian Indigenous cultures of the Americas where gods walk among mortals, celestial magic shapes power structures, and a prophesied solar eclipse becomes the convergence point for vengeance, political machinations, and destinies set in motion generations before. Following multiple POV characters whose paths lead to the city-state of Tova during the days before the eclipse, Roanhorse delivers epic fantasy that breaks from Euro-centric medieval settings whilst maintaining the political complexity, magic systems, and character-driven narratives genre readers expect, proving that Indigenous-inspired cultures provide compelling foundation for epic storytelling.

The novel follows several primary perspectives converging on Tova

Serapio has been prepared since childhood for a specific purpose, his life shaped by prophecy and the determination of those who raised him to fulfill a destiny tied to the coming eclipse. His journey toward Tova forms one narrative thread, revealing his nature, his purpose, and the forces that have made him into something more than simply human.

Xiala is a Teek sea captain with magical abilities related to her people's connection to the ocean, hired to transport a mysterious passenger to Tova before the eclipse. Her perspective provides outsider's view of the world's cultures and conflicts whilst her own background and abilities become increasingly significant as the journey progresses.

Naranpa serves as Sun Priest in Tova, navigating the complex political and religious hierarchies of the city whilst dealing with tensions between different factions, clans, and the legacy of past violence that continues shaping present conflicts.

Roanhorse structures the novel with the solar eclipse as countdown, creating urgency as characters move toward convergence whilst their individual chapters reveal the world's cultures, magic systems, and the historical events - particularly a massacre generations before - that have shaped current tensions. The pre-Columbian inspiration manifests in architecture drawing from Southwestern and Mesoamerican cultures, social structures reflecting Indigenous governance systems, and magic tied to celestial bodies, totemic animals, and relationships with gods who are present forces rather than distant abstractions.

The city-state of Tova itself becomes a character, with its clans - Carrion Crow, Water Strider, Golden Eagle, Winged Serpent - each possessing distinct cultures, powers, and perspectives on the city's politics and religious structures. The tensions between clans, between the priesthood and secular powers, and between those who remember past injustices and those who wish to move forward create the political complexity driving conflicts beyond the personal journeys of individual characters.

The world-building extends beyond Tova to include other cultures and locations - the Teek and their ocean magic, different city-states with their own customs and powers - creating a sense of a broader world whilst keeping focus on the convergence happening at Tova during this particular moment.

Roanhorse doesn't shy from moral complexity - characters have legitimate grievances, understandable motivations, and make choices that serve their own goals and peoples even when those choices harm others. The exploration of vengeance, justice, and whether past wrongs can ever be truly addressed or only avenged provides thematic depth alongside the magic and political intrigue.

Themes of prophecy and destiny, vengeance versus justice, cultural memory and trauma, gods' roles in mortal affairs, power and its costs, and identity shaped by purpose run throughout the novel.

The ending provides resolution whilst setting up the series' continuation, with consequences from choices made and prophecies fulfilled reshaping the world.