We follow the journey of the heirs of four houses, ruled by gods and magic leading up to Godsnight where the king will announce his successor. The gods have retreated from their realm and magic is dying, along with the sun. As the people believe that Godsnight will help the heirs bring back the magic, they find that their gods have lied to them.

This book is incredibly dense, full of world-building and multiple characters to follow. While I didn't have an issue with the pacing, I found it difficult to follow along with the different POVs as I couldn't differentiate between the characters' personalities and was only barely recognizing each character by the time we resumed their storyline. It was clear that there was one end goal to reach, Godsnight, but the backstories and situations that each character was in felt a little too drawn out, I did enjoy that it was gritty and dark and some characters were morally grey, but because I didn't emotionally connect with any of the characters or feel the need to root for their success, I'm not sure if this is a series I will continue.

Found this to be a fun fantasy read and enjoy the all characters. I found the world building a bit complicated at times but still interesting. Can’t wait to read book 2

While I am very appreciative to be able to have read an ARC of this book, I could not get into it. I was lost with some of the different family and rival dynamics and couldn’t follow the magic system as easily as I had wanted to. the writing style was brilliant and the author’s idea for this book were genius, I just couldn’t get into it.

Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, City of Dusk was middle of the road for me. I really enjoyed the first half of the book and I thought the characters and their abilities were interesting. I felt like the story was very intriguing and I think a lot of fantasy lovers will enjoy this book. But as I kept reading and got closer to the end, I realized it wasn’t really for me. I started to lose interest in the plot towards the end and I felt like there wasn’t much character development. I even started disliking a lot of the characters towards the end, and the character I liked the most wasn’t in the story as much in the second half. That being said, I do think there is a lot of potential for this story as it built up to the sequel. The story ends kind of abruptly, leaving a lot to be resolved in books 2 & 3. If you have interest in high fantasy stories involving gods, a kingdom and dark magic vibes, I’d recommend checking it out.

Book Review
The City of Dusk
by Tara Sim
Publisher: Orbit Books
Published Date: 03/22/22
Audiobook Narrator: Nikki Patel

Synopsis:
Four Gods, four noble houses, four house heirs, each with their own agendas.

Five hundred years ago, the portals to the worlds of Solara, Noctus, Mortri, and Vaega were closed off. With the closing of the portals, the blood heirs to each of the four Gods formed noble houses thus beginning a political race to take over the throne. In the current time, as Godsnight, a night when the barriers are at their weakest gets closer, the heirs to the four noble houses begin to realize that something is wrong and that they must work together to unseal the portals and bring balance back to their world.

Thoughts:
I have complicated feelings about this book. I loved the premise. Four noble houses with God's blood vying for a throne but the complexity of the story as a whole overwhelmed and confused me. I found that although the audio narrator did her best to distinguish between each of the main characters, Angelica, Nik, Taesia, and Risha, it was still hard to distinguish them. I also found that the only character that was truly memorable for me was Taesia.
I found that the atmosphere was hard to picture at times, which could also be due to the jarring swap between characters. This swapping between characters occurred from chapter to chapter but also within chapters which made it hard to follow.
On the positive side, the writing for this book was well done. I liked Tara Sim's writing style. I also felt that the plot was well executed. Because of the four perspectives, there weren't any lulls or overly dry parts of the story. Each element felt like it had a place. I do think the one thing this book lacked for me was intrigue. Although each character worked within a logical framework, I think the way the author swapped between perspectives, even midchapter, made the story hard to follow and affected the overall intrigue level of this book for me. Ultimately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I had hoped I would. Will I continue in the series? Yes. I think there is enough of a story that I will probably continue and hope for improvement. Perhaps on a second read, this book will feel less confusing, and I will have an improved opinion.

This book was wonderfully written, and a very engaging introduction to a new world.

I really liked how the conversations between Taesia and Dante was used to establish the world building, and how natural it all felt. The powers and magic system were super fascinating as well, and I really enjoyed how the introduction of this magic system was shown to shape their society and social norms. Can’t wait for the next installment in this series!

Thank you so much to Tara Sim and NetGalley for the ARC! I really enjoyed it.

thank you NetGalley for the arc !!

I loved the concept, got confused with the execution so I wasn't able to finish the book.

The characters were definitely enticing, as well as the different POVs but the plot started confusing me a lot, to the point that even halfway in I was unsure of what was happening. I might pick this up one day again but until this is a DNF.

This was one of the books I had most anticipated, and it was a little bit of a disappoint for me. The characters were a little flat, and a few times contradictory with not a lot of reason to pin it on growth. There are a few other aspects that we are told happened, but don't really see played out - specifically how the parents pit the main characters against each other. My biggest issue here though is a world-building issue - the timing of it was wrong to me. The magic was closed off from most of the world 500 years ago, and there has been little trace of it or the gods sense. Especially because this apparently caused a finite amount of magic left within the world, it felt like it would have made more sense for the cut-off to be much more recent. Tara Sim does fill these five hundred years with lore, but it felt more like it was to fill a gap, rather than why we needed a five hundred year gap from the magic. A light and easy read, but just not what I went to it looking for,

4.5 stars

I loved this New Adult epic fantasy. It follows six different perspectives and each one is unique, captivating, and compelling. The world that this story is set in is fascinating and very complex, plus you also add numerous different types of magic along with gods, it is a riveting story. I loved the characters, some I rooted for, others I loved to hate. They were shocking at times and there was never a dull moment. Two characters completely capture my attention, and I am dying to know where their storyline is going to go, I cannot wait. The writing was great, and the descriptions and layout, especially some of the fights, were amazing. There was great drama and complex romantic relationships, as well as familial ones, which drew you in. The only reason this was not a full five stars was because of the info dump at the beginning. There were so many perspectives, types of magic, and several gods it was so much to keep straight and at times I would feel overwhelmed and get confused. Needless to say, after the first 75 pages the storyline smoothed out and drew me completely in. Please go read this book, I highly recommend it!
Trigger warnings: gore, death, murder, substance use.
I received this advanced ebook, via Netgalley. This review is my own honest opinion.

Hmm I think I’m going to give this a second chance when the sequels come out because I feel like it might be a victim of mood reading. During the first chapter I thought I was going to love it but something just didn’t click for me. I got halfway through and thought both ‘I’m already halfway through has anything happened’ and ‘🤯 I’m only half through’. I expect adult fantasy to be slow but normally there are other things to keep you interested, character or dialogue or world building and I felt like there was nothing that really engaged me. Normally, I would have put it down and came back later but since it was ARC I didn’t do that.

Unfortunately this book is a DNF for me. The plot hadn’t been introduced’m by page 35 and only half the protagonists had been introduced. Way too slow for me, unfortunately.

First of all the cover is so pretty and dark. I love book covers. I also love fantasy. The City of Dusk is the first book in an epic fantasy trilogy. This is a longer book, so if you like larger books you will enjoy this one. In The City of Dusk there are four realms with four gods. Four houses with four heirs. This book follows four heirs. There is complex world building, political intrigue, and magic! An amazing magic system. I am looking forward to seeing where this series goes.
*thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

Overall, I enjoyed this one! There was fantastic queer representation. Even though it is advertised as adult, it reads more as YA or a crossover novel. The characters were endearing, and the prose was really good.

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the ARC. I enjoyed the concept of this book - four Houses with different types of magic inherited from the four gods. It was kind of dark in a good way and involved things like necromancy, murder, demons, possession, etc. There are quite a few characters to keep up with and they each have their own POV - I think it was beneficial to see every side of the story but they also tended to jump around a lot which was a little distracting at times. Some POVs were more interesting than others but I really liked Taesia and Julian.

There was a lot of action at the end and many plot twists that I didn’t see coming, but I do think that it would have kept my attention more if it was a bit shorter. I’m not sure if I 100% grasped the entire situation with the realms but I understood enough for it to make sense. Overall I thought this was a good start to the series and I would continue reading.

I thought, The City of Dusk, was decent. I thought it was well written overall but was a little long and slow in some places. I did also enjoy the diverse cast of characters.

Great combination of mystery, fantasy, and darkness. The magic system is quite interesting and the imagery is strong. I thought it was a tad long for a first installment, but I found myself enjoying it anyway!

This is a great fantasy. The world building was deep while being easily understandable. I loved the magic building. The atmosphere was the perfect amount of spooky and dark.

I've been trying to work my way into fantasy with books that aren't overly saturated with super complex world building and magic systems so I don't bite off more than I can chew. While I think this was a good place to start, I just had a pretty hard time getting through it. This book has all the ingredients for something I should love, but it just fell a little flat for me. There are some really interesting ideas and plot points at play here, but I think that the pace and the sheer length of the book makes it hard to stay invested in the characters or their story arcs. I also struggled with this reading too much like a YA story, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it was not what I was looking for out of an adult fantasy.

Big thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4612235716?book_show_action=false

Thank you to Orbit Books for the opportunity to read this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The City of Dusk by Tara Sim is a gripping, thoughtful, and explosive debut adult fantasy, the first in a trilogy. A self-described “goth fantasy,” it is epic in scope, refreshingly queernormative and diverse, features multiple points of view that are equally compelling, and it was a story I could not put down.
I very much enjoyed this book. The worldbuilding — the architecture, the vivid cultures, the gods and the four realms — was quite immersive, the plotlines and mysteries kept me guessing and invested, and I loved the characters, their relationships, and the arcs they go through. The prose was enchanting, compelling, but also straightforward. I also loved the book’s structure of the dramatic personnae and the epigraph at the beginning, the prologue and epilogue, and the alternating viewpoints. There is necromancy, familiars, gods, defying destiny, love, hate, morally grey characters, and an ending that made me want to immediately read the next instalment.
I would highly recommend this book to fans of epic (and diverse) fantasy.

I wrote a full, in-depth review for Strange Horizons here: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/the-city-of-dusk-by-tara-sim/

Thank you to Orbit Books, Netgalley, and Tara Sim for an advanced review copy of The City of Dusk in exchange for my honest review.

The City of Dusk is the first in a new Adult Fantasy series by Tara Sim. It follows the four heirs of the noble houses of Nexus. The heirs are descendants of the gods of Life, Death, Light and Darkness who each ruled over their own realms when they were more accessible to the mortals, years ago.

The magic system in this novel is highly confusing. There are also multiple places mentioned in this book for which I am still unsure if they are within the same realm being discussed or outside of it. Maybe they are neighbouring cities? Basically, I had a hard time following the setting and system in this book.

The City of Dusk – with a title like that, has a darkness about itself to show for it. This fantasy series is extremely dark. So dark, I don’t think I could picture the sun even when Taesia was sitting in it.

I liked the character/group dynamics in the story however no individual character really stuck out to me or made me root for them. I also liked the slight twists and turns in the story because they were pretty much out of the blue which made them unpredictable which I always appreciate.

Overall, I was disappointed and felt the story to be extremely slow and long and pretty confusing.