First of all, I want to thank Saga Press for the ARC of this book they gave me. Two years ago. Which I just finished. Whoops.
I’ve heard Roanhorse’s name a lot in the past few years, and have the opportunity to hear her speak at a few panels at World Con in DC this past December, where she impressed me. (I also may have avoided going to anything where I might get to speak to her out of guilt for the unread ARC of Black Sun.) I’m also always ready to read a book that isn’t Eurocentric in its origins, so I was happy to finally transfer the title of “ARC I Feel Most Guilty Over Not Having Read” to In the Black by Patrick S. Tomlinson (published October 2020).
Anyway. This book was creative, original, and well-written, but for some reason it just didn’t click for me. Every time I picked up the book, it was easy to read and engaging. But when I put it down, I found I didn’t think about it all that much. I would think to myself, “I don’t think I really care about any of the characters. Except for the priestess, and crow guy, and the sailor lady … wait, I think that’s literally all the main characters.” I really can’t say why it didn’t click for me, when it appears to tick all the checkboxes for a book I’d love. I think this was probably a “It’s not you, it’s me” situation.
The book is inspired by the Americas pre-1492. I’m no expert, but I think this was based mostly on the cultures of central and northern Mexico. There are three main characters: the high priestess of the ruling sect of priests, who is reform-minded and concerned that her and her brethren are out of touch with the people; a man who was raised to be the avatar of a repressed god, on his way to challenge the aforementioned priestess; and the sailor who was hired to get him to the holy city.
It’s essentially two different stories that are mostly independent of each other. On the one hand, you have the priestess engaged in political struggles with the other religious figures in their tower, trying to get them to see their position is more precarious than they believe. And then you have the crow guy and the sailor lady making their way towards the holy city, a danger the priestess and her allies and enemies are all unaware of. Of the two, the crow guy and sailor lady are the more prominent, and (I found) more compelling.
I will say that all my “this isn’t quite clicking” complaints don’t apply to the climax of the story, which is just terrific. I’m not quite certain if I’m going to pick up the sequel or not; I’m going to give it a few weeks and see how much interest I feel.
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