The Sunbearer Trials is the most fun I've had with a book in months

 

Today I’m talking about The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas. I’ve actually previously read, and really enjoyed, Cemetery Boys by Thomas and, fun fact, Cemetery Boys was one of the inspirations behind the novel I’m working towards querying. But, yeah, I’m actually talking about The Sunbearer Trials which has been one of those books that I was really confused about when the UK release of the book was. Like I could tell when the US release was, but it was one of those that had a really murky release date for the UK. Still, I read it and here we are.

Our magical fantasy blurb says welcome to the Sunbearer Trials, a competition between ten of the very best semidioses, where the winner will be celebrated, and the loser will be sacrificed. Teo, the seventeen-year-old trans son of the goddess of birds, isn’t worried. As a Jade, it’s unlikely he’ll be chosen to compete in the Trials, and even if his best friend Niya competes, she’s a born-and-bred Gold semidios with unparalleled abilities. But for the first time in over a century, Sol chooses two Jade competitors, Teo – and Xio, the thirteen-year-old child of the god of bad luck. With the odds stacked against them, Teo is determined to get himself and his friends through the trials unscathed – for fame, glory, and their own survival.

Now because I loved Cemetery Boys so much, there was definitely part of me that had high hopes for The Sunbearer Trials. However, saying that, when it comes to books, I’m not the biggest fantasy fan. I mean that in the sense that there’s a specific kind of fantasy that I do and don’t enjoy, and I don’t know how to describe which is which. I don’t know how to explain it other than I don’t like it when fantasy is too fantasy, but I don’t know how to specify what would consist of “too much fantasy”.

Anyway, there’s a little preface that opens this book that tells you how the world works and was formed. To dumb it down, this god died, and these seven sun stones keep these villainous, traitorous gods at bay. Then chapter one opens up with Teo and his bird companions defacing an ad for the Sunbearer Trials which, even though at their heart is a ritualistic sacrifice, have become a televised and sponsored event. Very much The Hunger Games vibes, but less apocalyptic. Also, Teo is in public school with humans, love that, too. Gods and half-gods need humbling, so I loved seeing that personally. Teo also gets asked whether he’s nervous about being chosen for the trials, and he's convinced he’s not going to get picked which obviously means that he’s going to get picked.

Chapter two has Teo go into a burning building and almost save the people until some of the water gods turn up and do the job for him. Teo does in fact run into the two, Aurelio and Auristela, and mentions that he hasn’t spoken to Aurelio in years, lovingly setting up some drama for us. Teo also gets set up as a serious little shit very early on. I really liked Teo as a character. I don’t know what it is, but I just love the way that Aiden Thomas writes his characters in general, they all seem to have so much personality and, even if they’re gods, they feel real. I’m just honestly a huge fan of Thomas as an author, I feel like that’s all I can say.

And by the end of chapter four, Teo, Xio and Niya, the three besties of the book have all been chosen for the trials. Honestly, it wasn’t a surprise when Teo got picked. However, I feel like had he not been picked, then the book wouldn’t have even happened, or would have been a lot less exciting than it was. How else would the book have gone if he didn’t get picked? Would he just have had to sat and watched all the trials going on from the side? I guess it could have been a thing where one of the others chosen couldn’t have competed for some reason, then he gets called in as a backup, something like that?

Still, speaking of the trials, they were really fun to read as well. So, the trials have ten competitors, and the competitor that finishes first overall in the trials becomes the Sunbearer, and the person who finishes last overall becomes the ritualistic sacrifice. Slay, a concept, and also literally slay because they get sacrificed (I’m hilarious, I know (jk)). But it wasn’t just how quickly a competitor finished a trial that they were ranked, it was also how they approached the trial. So, their speed could have been absolutely dogshit, but if they approached it smartly, then they could end up ranking pretty highly compared to someone who just speedran it. I’m not going to give spoilers as to what happens, but the first trial was to climb this mountain within ten minutes while hitting ten specific checkpoints, the second was, to dumb it down, was a fantasy form of capture the flag, and the third was fantasy freeze tag.

There were a couple of times when I was reading this that I had to remind myself that the characters competing in the trials themselves were, I believe, all teenagers. Because I’d read something and wonder how someone could react the way that they did, but then I’d use my brain for half a second and remember, “Wait, they’re a teenager and that makes perfect sense for them”, and the kinds of reactions they’d have were normal, especially towards the end of the book. And, obviously, you don’t get to know everyone that’s competing in the trials, I think there were too many of them to all be given the spotlight, but I feel like the ones that needed the space got it.

The ending, well, not the ending, but an event close to the end of this book kind of had me gagged, I won’t lie. I’m not going to spoil it but, and I’m going to talk about this more in the next paragraph, the end of the book nicely set up what is clearly going to be in the next book. You know how some books that are a series will end leaving a bunch of things open? This one didn’t, I’d say it closed most everything it should have done, and the things that were left open were things for the next book. Like I didn’t, personally, feel like anything was particularly unsatisfying.

I will say, I’m not personally a fan of books that go over multiple books. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but like a story that goes over multiple books. Like series. I prefer a book that starts a story and ends it within one book. That is just personal preference however, and it’s not me saying that stories that are a series, going over multiple books are bad by any stretch (it was actually The Hunger Games trilogy that got me back into reading), I just like a contained thing. It’s how I like limited series when it comes to TV shows as well. I’d rather just watch a contained thing.

All that being said, I will absolutely be reading the next book in this series, are you kidding? This book was so much fun. I had to look back through my notes on my phone, because I keep a list of every book I’ve read through the year, and the last book I had even anywhere near as much fun reading this year was Out of the Blue back in June. As of me writing this up, I don’t think the next book in the series has been announced, but I shall be waiting.

Okay, bye!