A Race to Save Their World:

From the description and the reviews, I expected to love “The City of Dusk” by Tara Sim. It’s a fantasy novel with a well developed magic system, an interesting world, and vivid descriptions and prose. 

That said, at the twenty-five percent mark, I seriously considered not finishing the book, but I continued, hoping I’d connect with the characters.

The novel is told from several points of view, some probably unnecessary. There are four main characters, each represent one of the noble houses of Nexus: Mordova, Vakara, Lastrider, and Cyr. Each house worships a different god, and the nobles receive their magic from their gods’ powers.

In politics, the four houses struggle for power and influence. The king is a non-magic ruler, and each of the main characters vies for the king’s favor.

It’s a fantasy, so of course, there’s something wrong with the magic and the kingdom, which I won’t spoil for those who want to read the book.

What I Liked:

There’s a lot to recommend in this book. Especially if you like interesting magic systems, vivid descriptions, and political intrigue. I enjoyed Sim’s prose, descriptions, world building, and the complex magic system.

That said, those aspects also slowed the story. Backstory, details about the magic, the political system, and the four families, especially in the beginning of the story, overwhelmed and slowed the plot and the character development. 

What I Wasn’t Crazy About:

I like well plotted stories with action and fantastic characters. If characters are exceptional, I’m fine with a slower moving story. If the characters aren’t exceptional, then I want plot and action. For me, this book didn’t deliver in either category. 

The plot was plodding with a few spirts of action. There were some moments of excitement and intrigue that pulled me into the story, but those were inconsistent.

There are four primary characters, each with a point of view: Angelica Mardova, Risha Vakara, a necromancer whose blandness clashed with my idea of necromancy, Nikolas Cyr, and Taesia Lastrider, who is the most interesting and developed character in the story. The other characters had lackluster personalities. 

Except for Taesia, the characters were so similar that I was probably a third of the way through the book before I pictured separate characters. Also, it didn’t help that there were several minor characters with points of view, so the primary characters had less space devoted to them. 

Recommendation:

If the blurb sounds interesting, give the book a try. Lots of reviewers disagree with my view and love “City of Dusk.” Everyone’s tastes differ. Read some other reviews and make your decision.

A special thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for an ARC copy of “The City of Dusk.”

DNF 9%

I have loved all of Tara Sim’s previous novels so when I heard she was doing a queer adult fantasy, I was so excited and knew I needed to have it! Sadly I could not get into this book and the idea of picking it back up fills me with anxiety. I think it’s a fascinating premise and the characters were interesting that I met up to 9%, but it wasn’t grabbing my attention in a way that made me wanna know what happens. I may pick this up again at a later date, especially as I have loved Sim’s previous books and want to see her tell more stories.

My god, what a fantastic opening for a new dark fantasy series. This book is perfect for any reader looking for a dark, adventurous plot full of mystery and complicated characters. This book felt medium paced for me, which was a marvel considering how much world building was required for this unique magic system built on centuries of myths and legends. The story was also an excellent mix of plot and character driven moments that kept you right on the edge of your seat. It was fascinating to watch this cast of complicated characters change so drastically from beginning to end because of the morally grey situations they were placed in, and some characters surprised me in such a way that I wasn't sure if I loved them or was terrified by them (in the best of ways). And, even when some characters were at their worst, Sim was able to make you understand their actions and even root for them to an extent. It seemed as if the character's flaws and choices took the lead as what kept you on the edge of your seat, but I also would have stayed without that for the incredibly dark and intricate society that the story takes place in with all its secrets and lies. This book was one of the best books I have read this year and I cannot wait to see where these characters go next, and who they become over time.

I really struggled to get into this book. At the beginning the multiple POV's confused me and I couldn't quite figure out what was going on plot wise as I was trying to navigate between different characters and learn about who they were. HOWEVER, once I had a solid grasp on who they were and what was going on, I was hooked into the story. I really liked the world building and the magical system in this book, but at times it did seem like the plot wasn't really moving forward properly. This was a really long book, and I feel like a lot of it could have been trimmed down, especially considering it is the first installment in a series.

The ending got me though, and I am going to be not so patiently waiting for the sequel.

I have to agree with many of the reviews saying that while this book ticked off many epic fantasy boxes, it didn’t culminate in a truly satisfying whole. I’m also gonna be over gods’ wars and the like for a hot minute. 😅

pros:
- detailed world building: challenging with so much upfront, but the most successful aspect of the book for me. The influences of many ancient cultures made for clear House, country, and Realm identification
- we love to see everyone is gay/bi
- more POVs than the core 4: I enjoyed the wider insight into the world through Julian (fave character) and Dante, and the subtle building toward many of the twists through their POVs
- the (sadly few) moments of humor: in a book that felt like it took itself a bit too seriously, the funny bits were super welcome

cons:
- for being marketed as adult, the tone of the characters was definitely more YA: vague sex scenes and F bombs do not an adult story make
- the theoretical details of the magic systems started to bore me after the 50% mark. I found Ostium / the pocket realms still hazy and uninteresting around 83%
- was able to call most of the twists ahead of time
- aside from Julian, I didn’t find the characters terribly unique: for a 500+ page book the character development needed to get as much attention as the world building, imo
- the amount of issues and relationships left unresolved at the end

Overall fine, I enjoyed parts of it, but I don’t think I’m interested enough to commit to the rest of the trilogy.

Took me a while to get through this book and understand the 4 POVs that went with it.
Enjoyed the characters and the spares. Each had unique personalities and their own screw-ups.
The ending was like what?!?
Can’t wait for the next book!

This book should've been absolutely everything I loved combined in one book, and in some ways it definitely was, but it just didn't hit for me. For a 500-page book, there honestly just wasn't enough time to fit in everything.

This book's greatest strength, it's intense world-building that goes so deep you can sink into it, is also its greatest weakness, purely because it comes at the cost of everything else. You can have the most intriguing world, but if there are no characters to meet it on that same level, your whole story just loses its purpose. You can have the tastiest cake base, but if your frosting is bland, you still won't want to eat the cake. And that's not to say the characters were bland or cookie cutter necessarily, maybe it would've been better if they had been! Instead, these interesting, flawed characters were just not given the space they needed for me to care about them. There is always so much going on that we never get the calm moments where we bond with our characters, where we begin to feel for their relationships and care about them meeting their goals. Instead, we are just constantly given either action or world building, but no character development. Add to that the extensive side character catalog that gets very difficult to keep track (because again, none of them are given enough time to become memorable), and you have a massive pool of characters but not a single connection to any of them. And this only is worsened when all the romances start building up, because you barely feel invested in any of them (except for the straight relationship, because that actually occurs between two main character, so you have a bit more build up there at least). Really, this book could have just been so good if the priorities were balanced a little better.

But even with all this, I still saw so much potential in this book, and this series, and it does make me excited about the future of this series. I love the twists that were revealed as the story progressed, even if some were a smidge predictable, and I honestly always love when gods play a role in stories like this. There's just so much going on here, in a good way this time, and I can't wait to see where all these threads go next. Hopefully the characters get a bit more room to breath in the next book, as most of the set-up is done now, and we can start to form actual connections with them.

Overall, there were a lot of good pieces here, but the combination of them all just didn't make a perfect piece for me, unfortunately. Despite it all, I do have plans to finish this series, and I am tentatively excited to see where it all goes next!

I was very excited to read this one. And It's good! It does read more like YA rather than adult. But the prologue had be HOOKED. Just the right amount of mystery, imagery and darkness. It's an immersive writing style that just crafts a beautiful story. The magic system is cool and the world-building is unique. I was worried that the different heirs would be overwhelming, but Tara does a wonderful job crafting these characters. Definitely would read the next one.

Excellent start to a fantasy series. The world building and society dynamics were some of the best I've read with lots of unique ideas supported by detailed descriptions.

The characters are complex and flawed making the action, adventure, and morality issues even more believable.

I'm really excited to continue this series in the future.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I admit some of it was predictable, but not in a way it ruined the story. I liked the different point of views and how different each character was. I liked the different magic and I liked how it re enforced the gods being terrible. I cannot wait for the next book, and I hope the next book delves more depth in each character.
.

Thank you Orbit and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really liked the vibe, themes (dark fantasy, come on, of course!) and setting. BUT I thought it was a bit predictable. I will definitely be reading the next one, but I felt like there was just **too much**. I didn't understand completely all the magic systems, and there were a lot of characters to keep up with (I'm bad with names as it is). I feel like some of the info. dumping could have been carried into the sequel maybe? Again, I enjoyed the overall vibe, and will be following the rest of the story - but I'm thinking this is one of those books you have to get through to get to the better parts of the story.

4.25*

This definitely made me feel dumb more than once, it was great anyways. The world building felt pretty heavy but it's high fantasy and a first instalment so that is to be expected. The conflict was super complex as well. Other than that I thought the main characters were great, really enoyed their relationships, and the rep as well. This author writes such good romance :)

I had to DNF this book. 25% into the book, and it still could not keep my interest. The multiple POVs switching off constantly definitely had to do with that. I prefer more so that when a book is multi POV, the other POVs are introduced after the main POV is established. It allows for the reader to connect to the story further. It also is ridiculously long I feel like because of SO MANY POVs. I did like the magic systems that had been introduced and two of the like 6 POVs a ton but it was not enough for me to keep suffering.

The Prologue of The City of Dusk was phenomenal and had me hooked from the beginning but my interest waned as I continued reading. I loved the plot of the story but the pacing, world building and characters needed some development. The story was meh for me so I could take it or leave it.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this book early. Unfortunately once again, I didn't make it quite on time.

This book... was not for me. Honestly, I should have just DNF'ed it because I knew early on that this was NOT working for me, but I was reading it with my friend so I felt obligated to continue.

For starters, this book is LONG... Like unnecessarily long. I love chunky books, especially fantasies, but this was just massive for the sake of being so. Also, this is NOT an adult fantasy. Even though the characters ages say they are adults, their behaviors (dear god, their attitudes, the way they talk, and the almost trope-y love stories make them all super annoying) and the general themes in this story are definitely suitable for a young adult audience.

I feel bad giving this such a low review, because in theory and based on the synopsis, I should have LOVED this book, which is what I was honestly expecting. I just feel like it was so... messy. The ending especially. I feel like the author just had so many ideas and wanted to just kind of cram them all in before the last page and because it was reveal after reveal none of them had any impact (but that may also be just my negativity and personal opinion because I did not connect to any of the five main characters, side characters, and truthfully just really wanted to story to be over at this point).

The biggest issue is the pacing and tone of the book. It is very long and there was definitely some parts that could have been cut to stream line the story. It’s strange because I’ve definitely read longer books but even in their most “slow” moments I was entertained. The ending is very strong and I really enjoyed where the story is going. So I think I’ll keep reading for sure.

Like other have noted, parts read like a YA book. Especially with the main character Taesia. I think she’s the author’s favorite which is ironic because of the few people who I’ve heard talk about this book, she’s the most frustrating character to read from (I agree.) I personally prefer Risha or Angelica’s pov but that’s all subjective.

I wanted to give this a higher rating but it definitely needed to be chopped down. I hope the author really hones in on the storytelling because this is adult fantasy and I think she could really push more so the writing reflects that.

I had been extremely excited to read this one after seeing the blurb and it being marketed as a dark adult fantasy with queer characters. However, it didn’t deliver in the way I wanted it to. It was definitely YA in my opinion and there were too many characters that didn’t feel fully fleshed out. It also felt like a setup for the next book rather than being well rounded in its own right. For being so long, I wanted there to be more reasoning behind things. So much was left to figure out in the end that it kind of got muddled in my mind. Most of the characters didn’t have much development and that’s why it felt more like an extremely long prequel to me. I did enjoy parts of it, especially the epic fights and learning a new magic system. I’m interested to see where this leads the characters in the future, especially Taesia who I loved reading. The inner relationships were definitely the thing keeping me going and what I’m looking forward to. For me, this was a 3.5/5.

I received a digital copy of this book free from Books Forward Friends and Orbit Books in exchange for an honest review.

This was everything I needed in a fantasy! The houses, the magic, the gods, the political scheming. I will say in the beginning, understand the city, the country, the world, and then the other realms made my head spin. But I LOVE a book with a map and a cast of characters and Tara Sim provided. Once I got the hang of it, the story blew by like a breeze. I loved the diversity of the cast of characters and the relationships between them all. I loved the mystery of it, the dark fantasy elements and it’s an understatement that I am excited for the next book.

I actually have very conflicting feelings about this book. I absolutely love the concept for this story, and it felt unique compared to a lot of other fantasy I've come across. The fact that every house has its own distinct magic system really caught my attention. I feel like it can be hard to pull off a magic system like that, while also making it feel cohesive within the story, and I feel like the author handled this really well. The main conflict of the story also kept me interested throughout the book, because while I could predict some aspects, a lot of developments throughout the story still managed to genuinely surprise me. By the end of the book I was in awe at how different the final moments were compared to anything I had expected.

That being said, I still struggled to get through this book at many points. While I found the plot and magic to be interesting, I was frequently frustrated with some of the characters that we follow in the book. I understand that there is a younger cast of characters here, and many of their actions do make sense for their age, but I still struggled to like a few of them throughout a decent portion of the book. By the time I finished the book, many of those characters had started to grow on me. Some things they did still frustrated me but I could at least appreciate their gradual growth over time.

The pacing of this book also made it a bit harder to get through at times. There is a lot to explain due to how complex this universe, but that unfortunately made many parts of this book feel really slow and like they dragged on. I actually had to put the book down on more than one occasion and take breaks before returning so it wouldn't bring on a reading slump of sorts. While I criticize the pacing, most of the information we got during the slower bits still felt important to the story, so I'm not sure how much better that could have been handled.

Overall, despite how negative this review might sound, I'm really glad that I read this book now that I finished it! The entire end of the story was so full of action and kept me on the edge of my seat wondering how the various conflicts would be resolved. I even read the last 20% of this book in one short sitting after having to spread out my reading of the first 80% because I was so invested at that point. This first book answered many questions, but also created so many more to the point where I'm actually genuinely excited for the sequel now.

I definitely think it's worth it to at least give this book a chance, since I found the payoff to be genuinely worth the slower parts throughout the middle of the book. If you're worried about this book reading too young, it did have a slight young adult feel throughout it, but still felt adult enough for me to read, and I generally don't enjoy young adult as much myself.

I'd rate this book 4/5 stars, mostly due to the ending making up for any other issues I had earlier in the story.

I need the next book in this series immediately!!! The characters were well done, and the worldbuilding was lush. I loved the focus on politics.