I can’t help the automatic comparisons between The Sunbearer Trials and the Hunger Games. Both in title and in plot, they are, on the surface, quite similar. A group of young people is chosen to compete in a contest, one that will result in at least one of them dying, sacrificed to the gods. The Golds all train for years to be chosen and almost all contestants are Golds. Except, this year, two Jades are chosen.
Thomas does an exemplary job at explaining the history and culture of this beautiful world he’s created. The gods, the semidioses, are all incredibly vivid in my mind. Like Teo, I do wish we would have spent more time in the different cities.
Thomas is my go-to for queer characters. The sheer variety is astounding, far more than most novels I’ve ever read. The gender affirming joy I feel for Teo is just so wholesome and beautiful. Teo is my new vision of trans joy. This is not a coming out story and Teo is very comfortable in his body. He’s on hormones and has had top surgery. There’s the little problem of his wings still presenting as female wings, but that dysphoria is short lived. I absolutely love his wings and how they’re described. He’s not amazing at using them right away, and the aches and pains from the trials are always there. They don’t magically disappear, even with gods and magical powers.
The first two trials are timed to ten minutes and they fly by, too fast. If there’s one thing I struggle with in this book, it’s the pacing of the trials. There’s just not enough time devoted to them. Not enough time in the cities and not enough time just hanging out as a group of competitors. It’s not until the end, when death looms, that the competitors come together and really begin to learn about each other. I would add about a hundred more pages of these semidioses just hanging out and exploring the different cities, and I wouldn’t be mad about it. Just give me all the cozy times, please! That being said, Teo’s closest friends were well fleshed out and I appreciated them immensely.
I would recommend this book to fans of Thomas’s other works, of course. Fans of adventure and mythology. Anyone who needs more queer books in their life (which is everyone, honestly). Aiden Thomas knocked it out of the park, again, and I look forward to the sequel more than I can say!
Thomas does an exemplary job at explaining the history and culture of this beautiful world he’s created. The gods, the semidioses, are all incredibly vivid in my mind. Like Teo, I do wish we would have spent more time in the different cities.
Thomas is my go-to for queer characters. The sheer variety is astounding, far more than most novels I’ve ever read. The gender affirming joy I feel for Teo is just so wholesome and beautiful. Teo is my new vision of trans joy. This is not a coming out story and Teo is very comfortable in his body. He’s on hormones and has had top surgery. There’s the little problem of his wings still presenting as female wings, but that dysphoria is short lived. I absolutely love his wings and how they’re described. He’s not amazing at using them right away, and the aches and pains from the trials are always there. They don’t magically disappear, even with gods and magical powers.
The first two trials are timed to ten minutes and they fly by, too fast. If there’s one thing I struggle with in this book, it’s the pacing of the trials. There’s just not enough time devoted to them. Not enough time in the cities and not enough time just hanging out as a group of competitors. It’s not until the end, when death looms, that the competitors come together and really begin to learn about each other. I would add about a hundred more pages of these semidioses just hanging out and exploring the different cities, and I wouldn’t be mad about it. Just give me all the cozy times, please! That being said, Teo’s closest friends were well fleshed out and I appreciated them immensely.
I would recommend this book to fans of Thomas’s other works, of course. Fans of adventure and mythology. Anyone who needs more queer books in their life (which is everyone, honestly). Aiden Thomas knocked it out of the park, again, and I look forward to the sequel more than I can say!