The Sunbearer Trials is a planned duology by Aiden Thomas, the author of Cemetery Boys. It is followed by Celestial Monsters.
In the fantasy world of Reino de Sol, there exist three kinds of gods, the Golds, the most powerful of them and the greatest responsibilites, the Jades who are weaker than the Golds, and the Obsidians, who were imprisoned in the sky long ago when they tried to enslave humanity, forcing Sol to sacrifice themself to them.
In modern times the gods live with humanity, ruling over their own cities while the semidiose children of the Golds protect humanity as Heroes.
Teo is the troublemaking trans, semidiose son of the Jade bird goddess Quetzal, who has doesn't have much ambitions in life when he's unexpectedly chosen to be one ten semidioses to compete in the Sunbearer Trials, a series of trials held every ten years to determine the new Sunbearer, the one who performs the ceremony necessary to keep the Obsidians sealed away every ten years, while whoever comes last is the Human Sacrifice used for the ritual.
Without much experience, Teo teams up with his fellow competitors best friend Niya and his cousin Xio to ensure they don't come in last and be used as the sacrifice, while learning things about his other competitors and a possible dark secret occurring during this years trials.
The Sunbearer Trials contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Lumbre has very high expectations of her children, demanding they always be the best and treats them coldly when they fail to meet those expectations. She also repeatedly burned Aurelio's arms in an attempt to make him fireproof.
- Alien Blood: The color of blood for the gods and their children depends on what kind of God they are, Golds having gold blood and Jades have green blood. When Xio reveals his true colors he does so by cutting his palm and revealing he has black blood for the Obsidians.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Since Niya is the daughter of the earth god she has the ability to manipulate stones and metal, which she primarily uses to instantly create various weapons and shields.
- Divine Ranks: The gods' responsibilities and their powers are that Golds are the top, Jades are below and the Obsidians were the bottom until they were imprisoned. The gods duties are also structured similarly, with Teo mentioning how his mother the Jade bird goddess Quetzal reports to the Gold animal goddess Fauna.
- Dumb Muscle: Ocelo is incredibly strong, capable of lifting and throwing boulders by themself, but they are a "meat head" who is easily tricked and relies on nothing but brute strength for every problem with no regard for strategy.
- Emotion Bomb: All of the children of the goddess Amor can manipulate people's affection when touching them, and Dezi's specialty is "addictive contentment", where he fills whoever he's touching with such contentment that they are powerless to do anything but just stand there.
- Fantasy Pantheon: Sol first created the earth god Tierra, before they then together created the three types of gods: the Golds, the Jades and the Obsidians, dividing the responsibilities of serving humanity between them, with the Golds getting the broadest and most powerful ones, the Jades getting smaller ones, while the Obsidians burrowing themsleves within the earth instead, before they tried to enslave humanity.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: The most powerful and important gods are known as the Golds.
- Handicapped Badass: Dezi is deaf and he is still a powerful Gold who does well in the trials.
- Homosexual Reproduction: It's stated that gods don't have to follow human biology and reproduce with whoever they want, with Niya having two biological dads.
- Human Sacrifice: Whoever comes last in the Sunbearer trials is chosen to be sacrificed by the Sunbearer to renew the Sol stones to keep the Obsidian gods imprisoned. It is considered a great honor. Auristela is chosen to be the sacrifice but Teo refuses to kill her.
- Jerkass Gods: The three Obsidian gods, Venganza, Chupacabra and Caos were jealous of how Sol favored humanity and enslaved them by stealing Sol's heart. Sol sacrificed themself to imprison them in the sky, with the Sunbearer ceremony being necessary to keep them from escaping and trying to re-enslave humanity.
- Jerk Jock: Auristela and Ocelo are both incredibly strong and athletic and are both jerks who treat anyone who's not a Gold with disdain as thoguh their not worth their time.
- Lesbian Jock: Niya is extremely buff and strong body builder and she frequently gushes over how hot several women are and says "No hetero" at one point.
- The Mole: Xio is actually the son of the leader of the Obsidians, Venganza and he was trying to become Sunbearer so he could refuse to do the sacrifice and free the Obsidians.
- The Night That Never Ends: When the Sol stones run out of energy and free the Obsidians it also causes the Sun to go out, plunging all of Reino de Sol into the dark.
- Non-Heteronormative Society: The society of Reino de Sol fully accepts LGBT+ people, with having two same gender parents being completely normal and trans people being openly celebrated for finding their true selves.
- Our Alebrijes Are Different: Aljebeijes exist here as Mix-and-Match Creatures and are kept in sanctuaries and zoos. The second trial revolves around taking aljebries cubs from a nest away from their mother. It turns out they don't need to forcefully take the cub, because if they slowly walk up to the cub they might just voluntarily come to them and the mother will allow it.
- Pieces of God: When Sol sacrificed themself to seal the Obsidians, they were split in to several pieces known as the Sol stones and they need to be recharged every ten years to keep the Obsidians imprisoned. After the Obsidians escape, Tierra comes up with the plan to reform Sol.
- Playing with Fire: Aurelio and Auristela both have fire powers due to being children of fire goddess, with Aurelio being capable of controlling and manipulating fires while Auristela can create fires at will.
- The Power of the Sun: When Sol sacrificed themself to imprison the Obsidians they became the Sun itself to hang in the sky. When the Sol stones run out of energy and frees the Obsidians, the Sun also goes dark as well.
- Required Secondary Powers: All children of Lumbre are fireproof to help keep them safe from their fire powers. Aurelio however is an exception, as he isn't fireproof and he needs to be very careful with his powers.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The three traitor Obsidian gods were imprisoned in the sky thousands of years ago for them enslaving humanity, with the Sunbearer ceremony being necessary to recharge the Sol stones to keep them imprisoned. At the end of the first novel when Teo refuses to sacrifice Auristela they're freed.
- Semi-Divine: The majority of the main cast are all semidoses, the half mortal children of various gods, such as Teo who is the son of the bird goddess Quetzal, Niya the daughter of the earth god Tierra and Aurelio and Auristela being the twin children of the fire goddess Lumbre.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: The Gold semidioses spend most of their time training to become Heroes at the Academy and when they do go out any place they're closed for mortals so they can't interact with them. When Teo askes them if they've ever actually stopped and talked to a mortal other than a priest none of them can answer.
- Shock and Awe: Atzi, the daughter of the weather god Tormentso has the ability to create and shoot lightning bolts at will, though doing so tires her out very quickly.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: As part of Teo's powers of being the son of the bird goddess he can communicate with birds, with all of them being quite excited to speak to him.
- Supernaturally-Validated Trans Person: Teo's wings are plain brown like a female bird's, giving him dysphoria whenever he looks at them, but when he accepts them as a part of himself they change colors into much more vibrant colors, the same as male birds.
- We Used to Be Friends: Back before Aurelio went off to the Academy to become a Hero, he was best friends with Teo, but the next they time met Aurelio just ignored him and only hung out with other Golds, causing Teo to show disdain for him now. This is because Aurelio was being pressured into only associating with Golds by his mother and tries to re-connect with Teo during the trials.
- Winged Humanoid: Teo has full sized bird wings on his back as part of his powers, allowing him to fly. He does experience gender dysphoria looking at them though, since they're dull and brown as female bird, so he keeps them under a binder most of the time. When he uses his wings to help Xio in the first trial they change to the vibrant colors of a male bird because he accepted them being a part of him.
