Venezuelan American author Gabriela Romero Lacruz conjures an enthralling new world of gods and monsters in her first novel, The Sun and the Void, a sweeping epic fantasy inspired by South America. Reina is half human, half nozariel--a formerly enslaved bipedal species with prehensile tails--and an orphan. She answers a summons from her grandmother, a powerful sorceress, in the hopes of finding family and a home. Her grandmother serves a wealthy, powerful family of valcos, a vanishing people with antlers and a gift for geomancia, the magic of earth metals. Reina begins learning magic under her grandmother, who longs for a successor "for the legacy [she's] building." Reina admires the kind valco lady of the house and her beautiful young daughter, and will do anything for their approval. When tragedy strikes, Reina's grandmother convinces Don Enrique, head of the valco family, that he can undo the damage by raising a dark god. Elsewhere, half human, half valco Eva Kesaré chafes at the restrictions placed on her by her family, who discourage her from practicing geomancia. Her attempts to break their chokehold on her life will force her path to intersect with Reina's. Both of them engage in a struggle between rival gods that will shake the foundations of the world.
This spellbinding fantasy focuses on political intrigue and family rivalries as well as both friendly and romantic relationships between the women characters. Lacruz develops Reina's world with intricate alliances and histories, fearsome monsters, and opposing religions. This ambitious, thrilling series opener pulses with vitality and imagination. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads