To Be Divine: Between Earth and Sky, a trilogy by Rebecca Roanhorse

 I’ve written in the past about my enjoyment of fantasy fiction that isn’t based on Western European history and mythology. Rebecca Roanhorse has many writing credits, but I first found her work when I picked up a copy of Black Sun, the first book of the Between Earth and Sky trilogy. In it, I found a world rich in influences from pre-Columbian cultures. 

What is pre-Columbian? It means anytime before Christopher Columbus made his journey to the Americas. We are taught that the people and their cultures that existed before this monumental event were not developed, were amoral, and worth less than the people who “discovered” their shores. In fact, there were rich traditions, advanced land conservation and farming techniques, and many other things that I can’t even begin to touch on here. 

That’s why stories that draw from these traditions are so important to help expand our empathy and experience life outside of our typical world views. 

Photo by Solaris Books

The books are, in order,  Black Sun, Fevered Star, and Mirrored Heavens. Each book has multiple points of view from characters on all sides of the conflict and includes time shifts back and forth to explain some of the events that lead up to the main story. Three characters become a primary focus as they represent incarnations of deities. Naranpa is the Sun Priest, leader of the city of Tova, where four clans hold sway (and even a clanless group who lack the protections and resources that the clans provide). Each group has their own leaders, their own inner politics, and their own guardian beasts. Serapio has been trained since he was a child to be the incarnation of the Crow God, meant to bring down the vengeance of the Carrion Crow clan on the rest who had betrayed them. Xiala begins the story as the captain of a ship, a woman who was raised on the ocean and has run from her past. 

There are many other players in these novels, of many different clans, politics, genders, and sexualities. The conflict of the novels is centered in the politics of prophecy, religion, and godhood. Identity plays a huge part for several of the characters, as they change throughout the series. Each character has an identity crisis of some sort - some with more dire consequences than others. But, this identity is never tied up in their gender or sexuality, because in Roanhorse’s world (as in Pre-Columbian cultures) being queer did not make you an “other”. It was simply a part of life, and there are always more important concerns. (The concept of “queerness” is inherently tied in colonization and the idea that one group’s ways are better or more moral than another’s). 

Each character both embraces and defies their expected paths in ways that carry the story forward while not bogging it down in past decisions. The flashbacks are used more to broaden what we know about the characters, about their personalities, and why they are who they are. A larger part of this series is really focused on how people act without having all of the information, when feelings overcome fact, and when people are in unprecedented times. Change is inevitable, but the changes that come may not be what everyone wants, so we see especially in the conflicts of the Clans and their want to remove Serapio from the board. 

Roanhorse has a gift for writing that makes a reader feel engaged with the work, and hopefully helps us learn a little bit about the cultures that had so much taken from them by the greed and entitlement of others. History has always been written by the victors, and because of that, people who don’t have a special interest are often bereft of the rich cultures and histories that make all of us unique. This is especially important in a time when our differences are being weaponized and threatened. We need more works like this.

Remember, my loves, that when you have come to the end, and the darkness seems endless, I shall be here with a mug of your favorite beverage and a new recommendation, should you need it.