Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse

 

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse was recommended  in the New York Times.  This is the first book of the Between Earth and Sky trilogy.

Started: 10/22/2020
Completed: 10/25/2020
Recommendation: Mildly Recommended
Recommended By: New York Times

Review:

 At base, I guess, this is an adventure novel.  There is plenty of action.  There is duress.  There are both minor and major difficulties overcome.  This book might be sufficiently stand alone if the trilogy never comes to fruition.

I like that this book leverages the Mesoamerican mythos.   Despite, however, being in a wholly different environment, it does not feel that way.  The rooms are made of stone, but other than that descriptor, it is not clear how they are different.  One of the major characters has a terrace outside his room, but there is no discussion of the wind and rain whipping into the room or any kind of covering that keeps it out.  It is as though there is a glass door.

The time aboard ship in a large reed canoe does not feel different from being in a small steamboat.   The dimensions are all smaller, that is true, but there is no feeling of the oars pushing the boat forward (the captain listens to the lap of waves against the hull to determine direction--this seems mindbogglingly difficult in a reed canoe with so many people as the hull would be quite thick).  During a storm oars are used as outriggers without any explanation of how the oars are actually attached to the canoe.  It is unclear what the boat moves with without the oars or if it just drifts in response to the storm (equally unclear is why removing heavy trade goods that could serve as ballast would be a good idea).  There are references to a tiller, but that seems impossible on a reed boat...a steering oar seems more likely.  There is no talk of anything to keep the beat for rowers who row for days at a time (some singing might work).  It just feels unlikely.  There is no talk of maintenance of a reed canoe (which is likely required constantly) other than to put resin in places (again, an unlikely way to seal a reed canoe which generally seals because the reeds expand).

The book also features lots of bright mono-colored clothes, but aside from white this is not supported in the Americas.  I imagine it would be hard to keep such multi-colored clothing clean.  Black clothing seemed to be reserved for warriors, so it is odd that one of the characters who wore black was not viewed as a warrior.  Clothing was used to distinguish clans (but, like Scotland, this was based on the combination of colors and the weave).

It is easy to find fault and there are plenty of fantasy novels that are not period accurate and who also feature windows that never let in wind and rain.  Being locked in a room and forgotten for days doesn't seem to involve a privy in those books as well.  I guess a fantasy is about being immersed in something alien and different, which is fine if it is truly alien and different and not an effort to be something that used to be real.