I love fantasy and different interpretations of magic systems, so when I saw this I was immediately intrigued. I tried reading this in a few different formats a few different times, but every time I can't get past the first few pages. Something about the writing and voice just doesn't work for me.

I loved this book! It was fun and fast-paced and exactly was I was hoping it would be! Thee characters had good depth and I found myself caring about them and excited to get back to the book, thinking about it while I was doing other things. Always the mark of a great read!

I don't usually think of fantasy world thrillers about alley rat heroes as having a lot of dazzle and flash, but this book sets a new standard. Fast pace, top drawer writing, engaging characters, a sly sense of humor, and a winking vibe made this high energy tale a lot more entertaining and satisfying than I expected from a debut.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t a good fit for me. At the very start, there’s a lot of confusing descriptions of what’s happening & what the protagonist is seeing. Something happens that apparently doesn’t usually happen within the book’s world, and it isn’t made clear to the reader why it doesn’t usually happen

It was overall very confusing to start & i didn’t get very far

This book was so much fun to read! I found myself grinning a lot, gasping, sighing, and doing all the surprised facial expressions. The world building was great, the writing was completely immersive, and the characters were completely relatable. Fast-faced and full of adventure, this fantasy world is worth the trek! Totally excited to read the next book!

Welcome to Bezim, where sword-slinging bravi race through the night, and where rich and idle alchemists make magic out of mixing and measuring the four planes of reality.

Siyon Velo, Dockside brat turned petty alchemist, scrapes a living hopping between the planes to harvest ingredients for the city’s alchemists. But when Siyon accidentally commits an act of impossible magic, he’s catapulted into the limelight—which is a bad place to be when the planes start lurching out of alignment, threatening to send the city into the sea.

It will take a miracle to save Bezim. Good thing Siyon has pulled off the impossible before. Now he just has to master it.

3.5 out of 5
This is a pretty solid first book within a series. I always thought that this book gives a -VE Schwab vibes. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy!

Wanted more from this one! Overall still a great read but felt like it was missing something to really make it stick out!

2.5

I really wanted to love this. It was pitched to me as a witty urban fantasy with a disaster bi main character. While that description is technically true, the book didn’t work for me the way I thought it would.

I liked following Siyon a lot and I really liked following his relationship with Izmirlian and his dynamic with Zagiri, but I didn’t like the sections in Zagiri‘s sister’s POV, which made the pacing feel really uneven to me. I also struggled a little with the worldbuilding. It felt like Evans had built out a cool world but wasn’t able to explain or show it in a way that made sense to me so I was left feeling a little unanchored in the world.

This book is light and fast-paced, and despite the steep learning curve of the worldbuilding, I do think it has an interesting world. Unfortunately I found there was not enough time to sit with the characters and world as all of the scenes seemed design to move the plot forward and that’s just not to my preference.

All Siyon wants is to be a real alchemist in a world where you need to be born into the right family for the practice to be safe. Alchemy is technically illegal, but the rich can dabble at their exclusive Summer Club without fear of repercussions, and industry relies on alchemists for efficiency and quality. Siyon runs with the bravi, swashbuckling performers who run the rooftops at night and get into fights with one another for the entertainment of their loyal following around the city of Bezim. Siyon isn't much with a saber, but he can delve the other three planes (really just two since one inexplicably denies him admittance) of existence for alchemical materials that can't be gotten anywhere else. He trades not only for money but for lessons, for access-- anything that can nudge him closer towards his impossible dream. But if you're capable of impossible feats, those dreams aren't truly out of reach.

Siyon catches a fellow bravi when a showy ruckus up a clock tower sends her falling to her would-be death. And neither he nor any book-learned alchemist has any idea how he did it. With this public display, Siyon becomes a wanted man. And the inqs (inquisitors) especially start breathing down his neck when the prefect's son vanishes in a powerful poof of alchemy that he shouldn't have been able to do. All alchemists, starting with those lacking in the buffer of privilege, start to find their activities curtailed, their livelihoods challenged, and their very lives endangered as the inqs cast around for people to blame.

Siyon's act of heroism earns him a hiding spot among the upper class that wouldn't have welcomed him under normal circumstances. One family opens their arms to him (to varying degrees) for saving Zagiri Savani from plummeting to her death. And this brings me to the other three main POVs in Notorious Sorcerer. Zagiri's bold nature finds an outlet beyond general mayhem as she has her eyes opened to the injustices of the city. Her sister Anahid, bitterly trapped in a high-profile marriage, starts to consider what she wants with her life... and it takes her to back rooms and card games with heaps of money on the line. Izmirlian has run out of anything new to feed his rampant curiosity on this plane of existence and is looking for an escape that only an alchemist can offer, but all have failed in trying to set him free. Until Siyon shows up with his irreverent, untutored power. Siyon lives with Anahid and her reclusive, by-the-book alchemist of a husband while working on Izmirlian's commission. And he must dodge the inqs even as society feels on the verge of collapse and the universe is ~certainly~ on the verge of collapse. The planes of existence keep shifting out of alignment with one another, giving the alchemists multiple reasons to panic.

My favorite part of Notorious Sorcerer is the way it questions funds of knowledge and who has the privilege to claim what framework of thinking is correct and what type of investigation is valued. While not quite about academia, we have a magical science where the institution behind its study sets rules and limitations on how its practitioners think, denigrating those who approach alchemy with feeling or instinct instead of books and privilege-soaked history behind them. Another pro is that while it's not necessarily a romantic fantasy, the main romantic plot we have available is queer (specifically Achillean). It burns fast and bright, so I would have liked a bit more oomph from its development. I felt like it was just ~there~ rather than providing the emotional crescendo it seems I was meant to experience. At least the other POVs don't focus on romance, so the book doesn't default to that type of relationship when others can carry the character growth.

What held me back from digging in fully relates to the shallow romance. I felt that all the POV characters filled a specific role and motivation without embodying anything particularly complicated. While Anahid was my favorite to read, I still think she was lacking in nuance outside the basic tropes that sustain her. Izmirlian made the least sense to me, but I think that's a matter of distance from his experience more than anything else. But the writing didn't stir me to empathy all the same, and that impacted my lack of investment in the characters' relationships by extension.

Notorious Sorcerer is a fascinating fantasy debut with high stakes and political commentary on classism. Since character-driven fantasy is my bread and butter, I wanted to feel more connected to the characters and their relationships. That's what held me back from full enthusiasm about an otherwise enjoyable read. Thanks to Orbit for my copy to read and review!

NOTORIOUS SORCERER was an absolute delight of a book. Multi-POV, lots of characters messing up and sometimes making questionable decisions and not knowing what to do and oof, it was Relatable™ let me tell you. I think this book really captures that space of being an adult but not feeling ready to be an adult, and having to take on responsibilities anyway. But also with magic. Because why not make it more complicated?

I especially loved the worldbuilding. It was the sort that didn't hold the reader's hand and allowed me to drop into the world, a visitor to this strange place. I didn't always understand everything but found I didn't need to. If it was important, we were reminded without being beaten over the head with information.

The characters were equally interesting and always up to something, each representing a different part of the greater city culture. While Siyon was clearly the protagonist of this particular story, the other characters were clearly given just as much time and consideration in the crafting of this book.

Also, did I mention the dash of queer romance? It was lovely, I wanted more, but am content with what we got nonetheless.

While the ending of this book wraps up nicely enough, you can bet I have the sequel, SHADOW BARON, on my radar!

***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book for review.***

Very fast paced fantasy centered around alchemy and magic. A lot of action. Book is so fast paced that it can be confusing at times. You lose some of the world building as a result. Good book overall as far as story and characters, just confusing sometimes due to pacing. Thank you NetGalley!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

Thank you to Orbit Publishing, Davinia Evans, as well as Netgallery for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. These options are my own.

This books story dives right in, so much so that for the first 30% of the story it feels as if you are attempting to play catch up. But the magic system in this world is very interesting! Very much a planes magic system. I liked the different magical planes as well as the different alchemy elements that came from them.

I found the first half of the book very confusing / struggled to figure out the world building that was happening. The alchemists are illegal but they also aren’t. It was tough to get into the world and how it worked. It also took me a hot second to place where this story took place / what kind of cultural atmosphere it was, I felt the world building around that could have been handled better. More cultural description early on would have helped someone place the stories location.

I love a fast paced and action packed story. But I found that this story jumped forward and we didn’t get the chance to linger and see how the story was affecting the characters.

I find that swearing has it’s time and place in a story / narrative. Most of the time it’s used to accentuate the story or a key part of it. But I found that this book had quite a bit of swearing up front, so much so that it took the impact of it away from the story.

Fav Quote: “There was something thrilling about chasing an idea through paper, in a different way from chasing over rooftops or across the planes.”

Would I buy a paper copy of this book? No
Will I read the next book in the series? No

Books with portal magic and different planes of existence have been something that I’ve really been getting into lately and this one was interesting. The magic and world building were really unique and so imaginative. I really liked the idea of needing elements from these other planes to be able to do alchemy and that it was really dangerous to attempt to get these elements. Also, the idea of being able to get lost in the space between these planes added an extra level of danger to the whole thing.

Siyon is an underdog character, a ‘dockside brat turned petty alchemist,’ and I love underdog stories. So that ticked another box for me. He is going against societal norms by trying to become an alchemist and piecing together the knowledge on how to do alchemy on his own. With an unlikely band of people helping him, he’s using his little bits of learning and sheer determination and gumption to try to solve the mystery of why the planes are destabilizing and wreaking havoc on the world.

There were a few times that I got a little lost when the ‘science’ behind alchemy was being explained, but it didn’t detract from the overall story or my enjoyment of it. I was still able to follow along relatively easily and had a fun time with this book and the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit Books and Davinia Evans for an e-arc of Notorious Sorcerer in exchange for an honest review.

This was a bit too young/YA for my taste, but involved a thoroughly interesting magic system and therefore was still an enjoyable and interesting read.

"Vibrant, explosive, deliciously dangerous, and impossibly fun." —Tasha Suri

"A brilliant alchemical recipe!" —Olivia Atwater

"I loved getting lost in this dazzling debut." —Shannon Chakraborty

A wickedly entertaining fantasy debut bursting with wild magic, chaotic sword-fighting street gangs, brazen flirting, malevolent harpies, and one defiant alchemist.
Welcome to Bezim, where sword-slinging bravi race through the night, and where rich and idle alchemists make magic out of mixing and measuring the four planes of reality.

Siyon Velo, Dockside brat turned petty alchemist, scrapes a living hopping between the planes to harvest ingredients for the city’s alchemists. But when Siyon accidentally commits an act of impossible magic, he’s catapulted into the limelight—which is a bad place to be when the planes start lurching out of alignment, threatening to send the city into the sea.

It will take a miracle to save Bezim. Good thing Siyon has pulled off the impossible before. Now he just has to master it.

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion from NetGalley.

I had a really hard time following the plot and characters. I can’t say it grabbed me. I only finished it out of obligation.

I’ve picked this up several different times but it’s just not for me. I like being thrust into a world but this one gives almost no context and asks an awful lot of the reader to put things together. The pacing is slow and I really struggled to connect to any of the characters. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy but it’s just not for me

-Unique plot line
-I found this to be slow and not able to capture my attention most of the time
-Feels like an average plot line when it ends up being executed