The Sunbearer Trials

The Sunbearer Duology, Book 1

By: Aiden Thomas

Narrated by: André Santana

"Listeners will be captivated by the detailed descriptions of the cities within Reino del Sol and the fantastical beings who inhabit them. Santana keeps the tension in his narration taut as Teo wrestles with both physical challenges and his own feelings of inferiority." - AudioFile Magazine

Welcome to The Sunbearer Trials, where teen semidioses compete in a series of challenges with the highest of stakes, in this electric new Mexican-inspired fantasy from Aiden Thomas, the New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery Boys.

“Only the most powerful and honorable semidioses get chosen. I’m just a Jade. I’m not a real hero.”

As each new decade begins, the Sun’s power must be replenished so that Sol can keep traveling along the sky and keep the chaotic Obsidian gods at bay. Sol selects ten of the most worthy semidioses to compete in the Sunbearer Trials. The winner carries light and life to all the temples of Reino del Sol, but the loser has the greatest honor of all—they will be sacrificed to Sol, their body melted down to refuel the Sun Stones, protecting the world for another ten years.

Teo, a seventeen-year-old Jade semidiós and the trans son of the goddess of birds, isn't worried about the Trials . . . at least, not for himself. His best friend, Niya is a Gold semidiós and a shoo-in for the Trials, and while he trusts her abilities, the odds of becoming the sacrifice is one-in-ten.

But then, for the first time in over a century, the impossible happens. Sol chooses not one, but two Jade competitors. Teo, and Xio, the thirteen-year-old child of the god of bad luck. Now they must compete in five trials against Gold opponents who are more powerful and better trained. Worst of all, Teo’s annoyingly handsome ex-best friend and famous semidiós Hero, Aurelio is favored to win. Teo is determined to get himself and his friends through the trials unscathed—for fame, glory, and their own survival.

A Macmillan Audio production from Feiwel & Friends.

©2022 Aiden Thomas (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“One of the best fantasy novels I have ever read. Aiden Thomas is masterful in their ability to not only build such a brilliant world but also characters who you love and want to root for. The Sunbearer Trials is a force to be reckoned with and has completely changed the game.” —Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, New York Times-bestselling author of Ace of Spades

“Aiden Thomas fully knocked me out with THE SUNBEARER TRIALS, delivering charming queer characters, thrilling magical trials, and an immersive fantasy world full of intricate details. This book is a triumph and I could not get enough!” —Xiran Jay Zhao, New York Times-bestselling author of Iron Widow

"The world of the Reino del Sol is consciously and emphatically queer and ­diverse. Readers who have aged out of Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan Presents will ­delight in the mythology that Thomas has created, while readers who enjoy the ­competition structures of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass or Amanda Foody’s All of Us Villains will love reading about the challenges the heroes face." —School Libarary Journal, starred review

so good!

Aiden Thomas seems to only write gold. this story is no exception. the world is a place I don't know much of, so the mythology was really fun to explore. The story has a familiar track to follow but there are plenty of twists and interest points to make it fresh and fun. def a must read.

Blown away

As an avid spicy fiction reader, I need a story to really captivate me with it is not adult fiction. Aiden Thomas does just that with their natural world building, unique characters, and vivid descriptions of the environment. I am reading all of his books now.

Amazing story

One of my favorite books the story and characters are fantastic. The world building is so fascinating that I just want to know more. Can’t wait for the next book!

Another 'hit' for Aiden Thomas, but...

I absolutely loved Thomas's Cemetery Boys, so when I saw this on pre-order, it was with caution that I bought it and waited for it to be released. There are great things about the book, and a few annoyances that took the rating down to 4 stars rather than 5. So let's start with the great.

Fantastic storyline: Teenage demigods from the land of Sol compete in the Sunbearer Trials every decade to keep Sol 'alive' and to keep the Obsidians at bay. The Obsidians are the Titans. So 10 competitors must compete and 1 will win the right to be Sunbearer and 1 will lose all and be the sacrifice to keep Sol alive and the Obsidians at bay. The demigods don't get a choice. Sol chooses the 10 who will compete. The premise is top notch and I absolutely love. how Thomas weaves this wonderful world where gods have children (demigods) with humans and those children often carry with them gifts from their godly parent. Teo has wings and can talk to birds. He also bleeds jade, which is the color of his caste. The gold caste bleeds gold.

The teens in the trials who do bad things ACTUALLY are judged for them - I LOVED this point because the one thing that drives me crazy is when books have people doing cruel things and authority looks away. Here, Sol does not look away.

The best thing about the universe was the way being trans or alternative binary was normal. Gods ran the gamet of sexuality and gender. Demigods who came out as non-cisgendered were given a gender party where they revealed who they were and their families celebrated it. This is such a wonderfully inclusive book where every gender, every sexuality is welcomed and accepted. The 10 heroes who compete are made up of golds and jades, some cisgendered, some trans. One was deaf which was another wonderful inclusive point.

It was incredible except... IT tended to drag. Teo was so fixed on his anger at Aurelio and his fixation on it sometimes became too much. It was a definite case of over-angst. If someone loves lots of angst, they'll love it. I don't like extreme angst.

Some of the scenes went on too long. For example, most of the trials took a single chapter. The fourth trial took 3. I ended up fast forwarding through those chapters.

Too many names. We got an info dump of names in a short amount of time. So many names. I'm talking dozens and dozens of names. Gods and demigods. I still don't remember who most of them were or what they stood for, even though that info dump was given to us too. And, since I listened to the book and didn't read it, it would have been nice if the twins had names which weren't so similar. I kept mixing the names up and trying to figure out who was being talked about half the time.

It wasn't until the final trial that I understood that the grading wasn't per trial but an overall score. That would have been nice to understand earlier on. Then again, with my mind full of so many names, I might have missed it. But in the final trial, we never learned where most everyone ended up. We know who became Sunbearer and who became the sacrifice. And we know where Xio and Niya ended up. But the rest? We should have found out where everyone ended up.

The narrator did a good job. He did wonderful at pronunciation. I may need to slow it down next time to listen. Maybe I can pick out the nuances in names better. For instance, sometimes he called the goddess Diosa Luna and sometimes, the way it was pronounced, it came across as Dios Aluna. It took me till the end of the book to realize he was referring to the same goddess with an unfortunate pause sometimes between the dios and the A.

Teo's ability to talk to birds at the beginning - especially his friendship with the two birds who helped him deface a poster -made me think there was a lot going to happen between him and his bird friends. Unfortunately not. The fact he could speak to birds only came up once more in the whole book.

Even with all that, I look forward to the 2nd book and hope it will come out relatively soon. The full arc of the story was reached. Yes, it left us off in prep for the next. book but it didn't leave us hanging, which I appreciate.

With Aurelio having taken a stand against Mommie Dearest, I hope his personality will be further flushed out in the next book. He was a pretty one-dimensional character. Yes, we knew why, but now that issue will be gone and he can come into his own.

I also hope we'll see a lot more of the Obsidians. In just the short amount of time we got them at the end of the book, their sharp personalities leapt off the page. I hope we'll see a lot more of them. And find out what happened with Xio and his father.

There is a lot of stuff to fill the second book. I was thrilled when Thomas didn't use the trick he had his hero in Cemetery Boys use to save others. Would it have worked? Yes. But it was nice to see the author doesn't rely on one trope to save the day.

A definite 4 stars across the board. A great book and one I hope to continue in book 2 soon.

BRUH! READ THIS BOOK

This book is the most AMAZING thing EVER! I have never read-I have read better. BUT ITS AMAZZZZING! Like first of all the author created his own world, like you do you dude, I’m proud. Then all the queerness and gayness in this is over the top (WHICH IS A COMPLIMENT AS A NON STRAIGHT PERSON!) and literally like 5 people in this book are straight, so you know I ate that up. YOU KNOW I DID! And then the PLOT TWIST! BRUH! I literally was in love. And Aurelio is so hot it literally makes my eyes hurt. And then the part with his wings???? Don’t even. And Niya? She might as well be the whole reason I’m alive. Like you go girl. And XIO! HES BASICALLY NICO DI ANGELO!!!! AND I LOVEEEE NICO DI ANGELO!!!!

JUST READ THIS BOOK AND PUT YOURSELF OUT OF YOUR FRICKIN MISERY!!

Fantastic and entertaining

I have been begging for trans representation as casual as this! Amazing and beautiful

♥️♥️♥️Amazing🥰🥰🥰

Narrator did amazing with all the voices. He really brought the story and suspense to life. The story itself was like The Hunger Games mixed with Coco. Aiden Thomas never disappoints and I love their world building 🥰🥰🥰 Left on a cliff hanger. I can’t wait for the next book 📕

Mythos and Mayhem!

This book was so much fun! it was so good and the mythos behind the story was really interesting! I loved it and I can't wait for book 2! I was definitely not expecting it to end the way it did! Aiden Thomas is a GIFT!

Incredible

Absolutely recommend to everyone it is an amazingly told story full of well rounded characters

Nice repackaging of themes

Games-to-the-death themed stories seem to pop up from era to era. Thomas manages to give it new twists, particularly the supernatural powers of demigods, in addition to other more conventional matters such as unfair distribution of preparation and opaque rules primed for rigging. Thomas also increases the appeal for the contemporary audience, by having contestants taking selfies and giving them backstories dealing with gender fluidity. [Readers should be old enough to understand terms like douchebag.] Also, the modern audience wants someone who challenges traditional patterns, not someone who chooses to live within them, and this book is no disappointment. It raises the question, What would you do if suddenly transported back to 16th century Aztec society and asked to perform the deeply important ritual of human sacrifice - without the transgression of moral and ethical colonialism?
Readers also need some identifiable antagonist beyond the contestants (President Snow?), and the big reveal leads us to the next book. I might read it, but I don’t have a hankering to reread first book. There is no pleasure in it.