From the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Resistance Reborn comes the first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic
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.
NOMINATED FOR THE 2021 HUGO AWARDS AND THE 2020 NEBULA AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL
Black Sun does the thing epic fantasy keeps promising and rarely delivers: it feels new. Roanhorse blows up the medieval-Europe template, and the worldbuilding grabs you before the plot does. Meridian draws on pre-Columbian American inspirations, with crow mythology, clans who ride giant beasts and a sun priesthood.
The structure gives it drive. Four viewpoint characters, Serapio, Xiala, Naranpa and Okoa, head toward the same eclipse in the same city, so a clock is ticking from the start. For an epic fantasy, it goes down remarkably easily, an excellent doorway if enormous genre novels usually send you running. The price is a romance some readers find rushed and a flashback-heavy timeline that takes effort. This is a first volume, and it ends on a cliffhanger.
Kirkus gave it a starred review and heard a major new epic-fantasy voice. Publishers Weekly admired its handling of politics, trauma and redemption. The Hugo nod is deserved, but the real draw is Meridian; the grumbles are narrower, aimed mostly at the rushed romance and jumpy structure.
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Find Black Sun Rebecca Roanhorse in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
4 books in catalog
Speculative fiction has seen a dynamic expansion in Indigenous-centered worldbuilding through works that reinterpret traditional mythology and post-apocalyptic futures. Author Rebecca Roanhorse rose to prominent acclaim in speculative fiction with her award-winning short stories and epic fantasy novels, including her debut novel Trail of Lightning and the Between Earth and Sky trilogy starting with Black Sun.
Born Rebecca Parish on September 23, 1971, in Conway, Arkansas, Roanhorse grew up in Texas and later moved to Northern New Mexico, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and dog. She gained immediate recognition in the speculative fiction community with her 2017 short story "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™", which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Short Story. In 2018, she published her debut novel Trail of Lightning, launching The Sixth World series and winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (now the Astounding Award), alongside Locus and Hugo nominations.
Roanhorse expanded her narrative work across multiple media franchises and formats. She authored the media tie-in novel Star Wars: Resistance Reborn and the middle-grade fantasy Race to the Sun for the Rick Riordan Presents imprint. Beyond prose fiction, she has written comics and video game narratives for Marvel Comics involving characters such as Echo, She-Hulk, Werewolf By Night, Moon Knight, and Chee'ilth. Her screenwriting work includes episodes for FX's mystery series A Murder at the End of the World and the Disney+ Marvel series Echo. Her original literary projects have been optioned for screen adaptation by Amazon Studios, Netflix, and AMC Studios, and she has served as guest editor for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Roanhorse's writing frequently draws upon Indigenous cultures, Navajo mythology, and pre-Columbian historical inspirations to reconstruct classic fantasy and science fiction tropes. Her narratives feature complex character motivations, political maneuvering, and fluid explorations of identity, power, and survival. Whether constructing post-apocalyptic landscapes or elaborate pre-Columbian epic fantasy realms, her work blends mythic storytelling with modern genre sensibilities.
Between Earth and Sky
