i received an arc of this title in exchange for an honest review. thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this book in advance of its release.

4.5 stars!!! this one was slightly slow going at the beginning, but about the 15% mark i was like oop this is getting interesting

it took my forever to read because i've had a rough month health wise and like i've been really tired so reading hasn't been a priority but honestly i'm so glad i got the chance to read this one!!!! i am interested to see how the rest of the series plays out, especially considering the ending and now that everyone is scattered all over the place/maybe dead? i need to know what happens next!!!!

there were a lot of moments where i was wanting to shake some of these characters so hard for their decisions, but i really like most of the characters that we follow!!! is anyone surprised that julian is my favorite???? i'm not surprised :) i need the entire next novel to be about him and taesia pls <3

sometimes going from character to character was a bit jolting, but i think overall, it was necessary for the story. it isn't a full 5 stars because there was some pacing issues, especially near the end. i felt like a lot of what was taking place in the last few chapters was going by so quickly i could barely keep up with what was happening, but maybe that was just me? or, if it was intentional, it may be fixed before the published final copy.

The City of Dusk is the first in a new epic fantasy series by author Tara Sim, an author I'd previously enjoyed for her Scavenge the Stars duology (Review of the first book Here). That duology was a really well done YA fantasy (sorta) take on the Count of Monte Cristo, although its second book very much felt like it kind of rushed through the ending (especially with how many pieces it has juggling in the air) so that the story could fit into a duology instead of a trilogy. But naturally it made me want to read more from Sim, so I was excited to get an early look at this book.

And well, The City of Dusk may be a much longer book than either book in the Scavenge the Stars duology, as you'd expect from epic fantasy, but it has many of the same pluses and negatives as that series. The book features four-five main characters, from whose perspectives the story gets told, each of whom have their own issues and wants even as they ostensibly want the same thing in a fantasy world that is seemingly dying due to being cutoff by their gods. But each of them, as well as a number of other characters, and the antagonists, have so many things going on that it's hard sometimes to keep track, and some character interactions feel like they should get a larger amount of pagetime, and the book just doesn't have enough for it all, leading to a climax that feels insanely hectic and a bit too confusing, at least to me. Still the character work is generally very good, and I liked so many of the characters, so I'll be back for the sequel to see if it improves (like another epic fantasy trilogy that this kind of reminds me of).

More specifics after the jump:



-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
For ages, the four Realms - Vitae, the Realm of the Elements/Life; Mortri, the Realm of Death; Solara, the Realm of Light; and Noctus, the Realm of Darkness - were all connected with the Nexus realm, particularly to the city of Vaega at its center, the City of Dusk. People from all the realms traveled between each other, and upon people dying, their spirits traveled from the nexus to Mortri for rest.

And then years past, the gods of each of the realms broke the connection and placed a barrier around the Nexus, trapping the living from the realms inside the Nexus, and preventing the dead of Nexus from passing on. And to those in the know it is very clear that the result is inevitable: that Nexus is dying from its loss of connection.

Inside the City of Dusk, there stands a monarchy as well as Four Houses descended in part from one of the four gods, each gifted with their god's magic from their lost realms. The Houses are supposed to hate each other, but their current heirs - Risha, a necromancer desperate to open the ways; Angelica, an elementalist who wants power but can't seem to access it without a crutch; Nik, a soldier of Light who can't measure up to the power of his dead brother; and Dante and Taesia, shadow wielders who wish to upend the monarchy and help the common people and realm refugees - are far closer to each other than anyone realizes. And so when a forbidden and heretical magic offers the possibility of breaking the barrier, they make a plan to work together....even if they each intend to use the magic for their own ends.

But this magic is forbidden for a reason and more people than they realize have plans for Nexus and this magic, plans that will put all of the city at risk and threaten to destroy everything that they each care about.....
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The City of Dusk is a story that jumps between a number of third person perspectives - most commonly that of Risha, Angelica, Nik, and Taesia, but a number of others show up as well, with one additional character sort of joining those four as main characters by the book's second or third act. It's a style that jumps frequently between viewpoints within a single chapter (as opposed to the classic each chapter narrated by a single character whose name appears at the top style) and really helps exemplify how chaotic and hectic this book is - this is a book with a lot of characters and factions with various interests, for good or bad, all squabbling and sometimes outright fighting over the same goal, and the constant shifting really helps make clear how everything is in fact all over the place, no matter what any one character thinks.

Of course there is such a thing as too chaotic, and The City of Dusk manages to generally (see below) not go too far in that direction thanks to its tremendous characters, all of whom are really interesting, different, and easy to care about. All four of the original main characters are distinct in their characters, their wants and desires, and how they were shaped by tough childhoods that were not helped by their parents - and two of them, Angelica and Nik, have downright emotionally abusive parents, while the other two Taesia and Risha just have parents who put pressure on them (and try to marry off Risha against her will). In Angelica, you have a young woman who has been told that she should be more easily able to use her power without the crutch of the instruments she loves, and a mother and god who browbeat her about it and push her into trying for a position of power she barely realizes she doesn't really want. In Nik you have the boy who feels guilty for his brother's death, a death that broke his mother with grief, and left his father - who always hated him for lacking in power - bitter and angry that Nik is all that's left, leaving Nik unable to accept his grief and always hoping somehow he'll be able to prove himself better. With Risha, you have a girl desperate to do anything to break through the barrier to let through the adrift spirits, despite each attempt coming in failure, whose only solace is how much she loves her friends. And with Taesia you have the girl who cares so much about everyone, especially those who have been cast off by their system of nobles and Houses, and whose savior complex is only reined in by her older brother, such that when he's taken away, Taesia has no one to stop her from acting recklessly with her power, and boy does she have a good amount of power with her shadows.

They're a quartet - and really I should also expand that to include several other characters except this review is going to be too long if I do - that has a lot of pressures, to go along with not a lot of experience, which results in them doing some very very often stupid and reckless things. And I don't mean stupid in like childish teenage pranks, because these are teens with complexes about their roles in life, their roles as saviors and powers, and way too much magical power that can be used to lethal ends....and that absolutely is used to those ends. The result is that the four of them, as well as those other characters, are constantly screwing things up as they try and figure out a way to better their world, to figure out who is behind the clearly evil schemes playing out, and to figure out how to deal with it all.

The result is a plot and setting that is very strong at times, with themes of nobility vs commoners, of refugees and their treatment, of blood and heirs and of duties to one's people vs duties to one's self, etc. etc. This is a world that may be dying, but that doesn't stop oppression, or people liking power games that may not matter, or for people having what are basically religious squabbles, how love and caring can turn to darker thoughts, and more. There's a lot of really good stuff here in it all. I should also mention that it's a very queer-normal world, with non-hetero relationships and queer characters being something utterly normal to see in the narrative without anyone beating an eye at them.

Unfortunately, there's basically too much stuff, and the book can't really hold it all, even as big as it is. While each of the characters' individual actions generally make sense and fits, they're occasionally incredibly abrupt in how those actions are taken, and the reactions of other characters to those actions often feel like they're missing some connecting tissue - for example, two characters are lovers from the start, and in a seemingly good relationship, until one does something incredibly dumb and the other acts like it's only the latest in a series of betrayals of his trust, even though we haven't seen any other prior such betrayals. Two of the major characters get minor characters as love interests, only those minor characters disappear for so long it's easy to forget who they are (especially one of those two, who basically reappears as a potential love interest after his introduction like a hundred + pages before with nary a mention beforehand). And then there's the ending, in which all the antagonists' plots are revealed, with a ton of competing motivations and schemes, and honestly while after a reread I have a decent idea of what actually happened in the end, I'm still a bit unsure as to why they so happened and why the antagonists acted in that fashion.

Still I had a similar reaction to another epic fantasy doorstopper last year, M.A. Carrick's The Mask of Mirrors, and I tried the second book in that series and found I loved it. And there's enough characters I like here, and enough promise, that there's a good chance this will follow that. So I'm gonna stick with this, and others may want to give this a shot too.

First of all I’d like to thank Netgalley and Orbit books for allowing me to read an ARC of The City of Dusk in exchange for an honest review.

The City of Dusk follows the four heirs to the noble houses of Vaega, a magical realm that was long ago sealed off from the remaining ones. You meet Taesia and Dante Lastrider, Angelica Mardova, Risha Vakara, and Nikolas Cyr, as they try to fix their dying kingdom and save themselves from an inevitable fate.

The multiple POVs in this book do a good job of conveying the chaotic and contradictory views and plans each of the characters have. In some cases I’ve seen multiple POVs muddle the story until it’s hard to tell one character from another, but this is not the case in The City of Dusk. Each of the characters have very distinguished and fleshed-out voices that come through clearly in their respective chapters. From desperation to stubbornness, to a slow spiraling descent, each of the characters have clear motivations and objectives. This makes it even more interesting when they clash or begrudgingly align to face the bigger enemy. I could feel the pain and betrayal when they turned their backs on each other, but I could also feel the love and dedication when they were most needed. Even the chapters that are narrated by side characters are very distinct and it helps give backgrounds to these characters, and shows the reader just how they are handling the events of the main story.

There are also a few plot twists in the book that I thought were really well done and the execution was so good I physically stopped reading and kind of just sat there re-reading the last paragraph to fully grasp it. The big pot twist that comes towards the climax of the book was one that I sort of started to guess at a chapter or two before the actual reveal but that didn’t detract from the impact that had on the story.

Another thing I really enjoyed in the story was the queer representation that was tied in so casually that it didn’t feel like a main component to any one character. It was nice to see characters that were queer without that being their entire storyline, and that part of them didn’t make them less powerful than any non queer counter parts. There is also a fair amount of cultural representation in the book as well, which again was really nice to see. It was important to include these characters and to again give them stories that didn’t directly revolve around who they were.

The magic and world building was another really interesting faucet of the book, and unlike a lot of fantasy it didn’t feel difficult to understand. It was nice to have the world building steeped in the story rather than dropped on you in the first few chapters. To me this lends to a more authentic and interesting story because you can fully immerse yourself in it without being overwhelmed. The magic system itself was a lot of fun exploring alongside the characters, and it leaves me yearning for the next book. I liked the idea of each of the heirs having access to their own sorts of magic, which made them both revered and feared. I look forward to seeing what Angelica and Nikolas can do in the coming books!

I always enjoy a good book with interesting magic elements and well placed corruption arcs, and this book delivered on both of those fronts. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can not wait for it to come out in stores because I know I will be going to pick a copy up and desperately wait for the sequel!

"The City of Dusk" is Tara Sim's first adult fantasy book, and it takes its cue from many other common adult fantasy works: multiple POVs, a thorough pantheon system, magic, and a diverse cast all initially interested me greatly as I began this work. Unfortunately, while this was a lot of fun, I'd hesitate to call it "adult" - it reads YA, from the simplicity of the sentence structure to the depth of nuance as characters grow and change throughout the book. I couldn't really pinpoint *exactly* what it was that read so YA, but I forgot it wasn't YA several times until there was a sex scene or a particularly juicy swear thrown in.

So with that in mind - this book is loooong, and the POVs change up quite a bit. While the central characters are easily identifiable, some additional POVs were just unnecessary to the action and served as padding to me. The pacing initially throws you directly into the middle of it - which was wonderful! But the pacing slowed down again until around the 30% mark.

All in all... this was fun, but too much like other things I've read for it to really stand on its own as unique. I think people seeking a New Adult fantasy might really love it! It just wasn't really for me.

This book was everything that I didn’t expect it to be. It starts off wonderfully with an intro of the 4 houses and the characters who’s POV’s we mainly follow. The interactions between the 4 heirs were great- it gave a greater insight into their personalities and histories; this was an important part of the role these characters would play later in the plot. Taesia was by far my favourite character- her sass and passion to do right by her brother was refreshing. The magic system was very well explained and was very easy to understand.

There was wider range of representation; I particularly enjoyed the references to south Asian culture with the clothes and food specifically- it was an accurate depiction that wasn’t diluted down to play up more western culture. There was also a brief mention of LGBT+ representation but it would’ve been wonderful to have a bit more in depth descriptions and plot for this.

Overall, it was an amazing book and a confirmed purchase when it comes out. Can’t wait to read further books in this series!

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review the novel. I am rating this book with my own opinion and have not received anything in return.

Full review closer to publication date!

I'd like to thank the publisher, Orbit Books and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lush world building, dynamic characters and a setting that encapsulates me with the same awe and fanatic as Avatar the Last Airbender, Castlevania and The Dragon Prince.

This is a perfect read for anyone looking for diverse characters in a fantasy setting, fast paced writing, great world building, the exploration of religion, aristocratic politics and finnicky, mischievous gods.

A full review will be posted to my Goodreads after the publishing date!

Unfortunatley not for me, I had a very difficult time understanding what was happening from the get-go and found it extremely confusing to be constantly jumping around different characters who had very similar internal voices. None of the characters really stood out to be, they all quickly blended into one, and their motivations weren't strong enough for me to latch on to any of them (I'm a character reader). I didn't really feel like there was a plot happening at all until about 20% of the book passed, and by then I had already completely lost interest. I did really enjoy the worldbuilding, but I quickly got confused with all the houses and names, and I couldn't really keep track of where we were at any given time because the environments all felt the same. I hate to say this because I was really looking forward to the book, but this one was just... underwhelming.

The City of Dusk
by Tara Sim
Fantasy
#ARC #NetGalley

Four young people born from the bloodlines of gods, they each are gifted with powers from their 'birth' gods: a necromancer, an elementalist, a shadow, and a soldier of light. These heirs, while each in line for the throne of the city that connects the four realms, (but is now cut off from them due to their gods' wrath and war between each other,) they forge an alliance to save their city from a destructive magic and to reopen the gateways to the four different Realms so to stop their city's slow death caused by the closure of the gates.

My description matches the writing, a circular smorgasbord of words that circle around and around and doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Each chapter is about one of the four MCs, along with introducing other characters that may or may not be really important to the story, but sadly with all of the words, all of the characters blend in with each other, and there was only a couple of these characters that stood out enough for me to recognize, but the writing was so circular that I fell asleep countless times while reading this story. There wasn't enough action or 'life' in the story or the characters to keep me awake.

But the storyline, once I finished reading the book, was good, but it was too much work to get to the end so it wasn't enjoyable at all to get to the end. It was interesting but poorly presented. There were too many extras, but not enough details or life in the characters, setting, or tone for it to live up to how good the story could have been.

And sadly, this is the first book of a series.

I was given an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

2 stars

This is my first time reading anything by Tara Sim and let me tell you, it did not disappoint!!

The City of Dusk follows four main houses, each having their own respective powers. There are conjurations occurring and nobody seems to know why when conjuring has been outlawed for many years. The houses vie over who is to become heir for King Ferdinand - who's without an heir to the throne. Those same houses try to deal with conjurations, being heirs, and their own power in this fantasy.

~I thought the beginning build up of information took a long time, especially with it taking up 20% of the book, but it paid off well for the ending. I thought I knew what was going to happen and sometimes it rang true, but then something else would pop up and flip it on its head. There is heavy amounts of detail according to each house and power, so if you're not one to like that sort of writing or fantasy then - be warned.

~My god I was on the edge of my seat the last half of the book. Things kept coming and never stopped coming. Once I thought I had something figured out, it turned into something completely else. The fight scenes oh my god. I wish I could see it animated or on television cause oh my god. It gets pretty gruesome in this book and I loved it!!

I'd definitely recommend this if you like:
~ political intrigue
~ plot twists
~ heavy detail oriented writing
~ wrathful women and cinnamon roll men
~ lgbtq+ representation and south asian representation
~ multi pov
~ powers of the gods granted to mortals
~ grim/gruesome scenes with elements of body horror

I'll be waiting for the next one, it will be most anticipated cause I need to know what's going to happen after that ending man.

Disclaimer: I received The City of Dusk as an ARC through NetGalley and I'm voluntarily leaving this review.

I absolutely loved the character development and interactions between the main characters. The plot twists added much to the overall story, making this a fun, well balanced book. This book had me hooked from the first couple of chapters and I have not put it down since then.

Let me just start by saying that I feel extremely lucky to have been able to read an ARC of The city of Dusk.

This was a strong, beautifully written fantasy novel that feels mature and developed. The world building alone was truly a masterpiece.

The characters were so diversified and the different point of views were truly loveable and flowed seamlessly with the plot development.

And what a plot! the synopsis doesn't even give out half of it, monumental, The hurricane of feelings that this story made me feel is truly remarquable, there was fear, stress, laughter and even romance! This book really had it all

I love a good epic/high fantasy, and the description of this book sounded so good. And like something that I would really enjoy. As anyone knows, adult fantasy often comes with a lot of worldbuilding. It's got the time for it, and the need for it. From the first moment we are thrown into a vibrant world, wherein not too much is explained. In this you sort of must figure things out for yourself.

Compared to other fantasy books the beginning of this was quite intense, and it was the setup of the characters and their future. We dove right on it. However, once we get past the beginning the pace of the book slows down. And I felt a lot of it wasn’t necessary to be honest.

We have multiple POV characters (which I thought overall was done well), and I felt that the characters were all individualistic which is nice. They all had personalities even if I didn’t always like them. Characters don’t have to be likeable after all. I enjoyed the family relationships some of the characters had as well, such as Dante and Taesia.

The one thing I wished is that she had stuck with the same POVs throughout the entire book, and not added or dropped any at random parts. It was a lot of POVs and it did work; because it was bringing together what was to happen at the end.

We get to about 35% and the pace does pick up a little bit. We start to see more of the plot come together (and then some of the plot fall apart...and not be picked up at all the rest of the book). But the overall plot was solid, and it was quite epic.

I found certain aspects of the book frustrating. (The parts with Dante, because he and Taesia are pretty much my favorite characters).

I think this is a good start to the series, I’m still not totally sure what to make of it. Like, I liked it. I did! But at the same time I didn’t love it, and I cannot put my finger on what that dividing line is.

Yes, the ending was epic. But some of the buildup just wasn’t there for me the way I wanted it to.

I really enjoyed the writing in this book; I think it was superb, and I think Sim is a great storyteller. I just don’t know if I just wasn’t vibing with this book...or something else. Either way, I think this is a great start to a series that I think I will pick up more of as they come out.

I am torn with this one. The balance scale of my review is solidly in balance here–neither loved it or hated it–I merely liked it. On one hand, this book has some great world building, charismatic and likable characters, and the way it grabbed my interest right out the gate was perfectly done. Yet, on the other hand...mid-book it was as if someone put on the brakes. Or to use another comparison, reading this book was like running a mile. You start out strong, only to struggle mid-way through before seeing the end and plow towards the finish line. That said, I still liked the overall plot, imagery, and characters in this book. I may be giving it a 3 star, BUT its more like a 3.75 star. I will most definitely be reading the next. A BIG thank you to Orbit publishing and NetGalley for the eARC copy.

Besides the fact that I think Tara Sim has a fantastically unique story here and she has a fabulous writing style, I just enjoyed the journey. Even at the moments that I became frustrated with Dante, I was pulled in by the family ties between he and Taesia. I wasn't a fan of the absurd number of POV's this book accumulates. I am a minimum of 4 kind of reader and this one had like seven, I think. It was, at times, hard to overcome the feeling of being pulled in too many direction.

A great start to an epic story.

It's stories like "The City of Dusk" that truly make me re-fall in love with fantasy as a genre.

You ever read the synopsis of a book and immediately know you’re going to love everything about it? Yeah, that was me when I first heard of City of Dusk by Tara Sim - and I was freaking right! This was exactly the sort of adult fantasy book I’ve been craving for a while now with characters that I instantly fell in love with. I’m talking I loved every single POV which is a rarity for me. Of course, I had some I loved more than others (charming Dante, terrifying Taesia, and sweet boy Nik being my top 3) but I was never bored with any character and each one played an equal role in the story.

And the story! The world-building! I honestly cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy just to look at the map of this massive world the author created. Let me just sing the praises for the different sections corresponding with each god; the Houses and their political squabbling for power; the Heirs and their desires, their fears, their dreams. I didn’t see certain twists coming, leaving me gasping in shock, and giving me a healthy dose of fear for certain characters (PLEASE DON’T BREAK MY HEART TARA SIM PLEASE). I loved the diversity with the characters so so so much. Like I said, this was exactly the fantasy novel I had been dying for for a while now and I’m so so glad it delivered everything I wanted and more.

City of Dusk is absolutely a new favorite book for me (not just for 2022 but in general) and I am shaking with excitement (and FEAR) for what comes next in the sequel. This will be the book I spend the rest of the year pushing into the hands of my friends and sisters to read.

Get ready.

This is my first review of an ARC. I really enjoyed this book, although it took me a little while to get acquainted with the characters and places (which is true with any true fantasy novel!)
This reminds me of a grown up version of Tamora Pierce's Emelan series, so if you enjoy that feel it's an excellent choice. A couple of big twists that I did NOT see coming!!

Highly enjoyable read and definitely recommend for fantasy readers!

Revised review. This book had so much potential but the writing style didn’t work for me at all. I found it to be too young adult. This is perfectly fine, but I just felt that the characters were lacking and I didn’t like any of them. Unfortunately not my favourite book, might work for someone else though.

To begin with, before going into the actual review, I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me an e-arc copy of this book.

Now, without further due, the review of Tara Sim's The City of Dusk (The Dark Gods book 1).

This epic fantasy series takes place in the Four Realms, a world that was separated into fragments and abandoned by the Gods that created it. In this story, we follow characters that are heirs to the magical Houses: Taesia the shadow mage, Risha the necromancer, Angelica the elementalist, and Nik the light magician.

And, may I say, they have their scenes in the book that shows what kind of characters they are plus how the world works from the politics to the magic. (OMG, the magic scenes are great).

From a series of crimes to trying to stop the world from going to Hell, from both the gods and the people, this first book in the series by the author of Scavage the Stars will give fans the much-needed Game of Thrones fill until the next book comes out...if ever lol.

Before I finish the review, I have seen people comment that this is YA Fantasy and not adult...to be honest with you guys, this feels like New Adult Fantasy which is fine with me, especially with the plot and the cool worldbuilding.

5/5 stars, a 🐉, and a 👑.

Absolutely enjoyed every line in this book! The characters, the world building... Every thing was done so well I couldn’t stop reading!! Taesia was my favorite, I need more of her POV! I also loved the diversity in our characters, so many shades and colours ❤️ it truly made my heart happy! The banter had me laughing out loud, the romance was sweet and the stakes so stressful! All in all, I really enjoyed it 😁