The Sunbearer Trials

Hardcover, 416 pages

English language

Published Sept. 6, 2022 by Feiwel & Friends.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-82213-0

(1 review)

“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 …

“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.

3 editions

inkwing reviewed The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (The Sunbearer Duology, #1)

A combination of the Hunger Games and Mexican mythology

4 stars

A world where, every decade, it is up to ten of the gods' children (Golds and Jades) to save the world from the Obsidians by competing against each other in The Sunbearer Trials: the winner will be selected as the Sunbearer, the loser will be sacrificed in order to save the world.

An epic competion that reminded me strongly of the Hunger Games, but had its own twists and rules. A coming of age story about underdog teenage Teo and his struggles to prove himself to others and himself, too. I really liked the story, the setting, and the characters, although most of them have some potential to evolve even more.

It is a young adults book, so I was sometimes bored or frustrated with elaborate teenage struggles and stubbornness, but overall I enjoyed the book.