The City of Dusk

by Tara Sim

Overview

"Tara Sim's adult debut is a glorious tapestry of magic and murderous gods and a perfect entry for anyone looking for a new series starter." —BuzzFeed News

DARKNESS FALLS. GODS RISE.

The Four Realms—Life, Death, Light, and Darkness—all converge on the City of Dusk. For each realm there is a god, and for each god there is an heir.

But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once vibrant and thriving metropolis. And without it, all the realms are dying.

Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs—Angelica, an elementalist with her eyes set on the throne; Risha, a necromancer fighting to keep the peace; Nikolas, a soldier who struggles to see the light; and Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue with a reckless heart—will become reluctant allies in the quest to save their city.

But their rebellion will cost them dearly. 

Set in a world of bone palaces and shadow magic, of vengeful gods and defiant chosen ones, The City of Dusk is Tara Sim's crackling adult fantasy debut.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316458894
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	03/22/2022
Series:	The Dark Gods , #1
Pages:	576
Sales rank:	38,362
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Tara Sim is the author of TheCity of Dusk (Orbit), as well as the Scavenge the Stars duology (Little, Brown) and the Timekeeper trilogy (Sky Pony Press). She can often be found in the wilds of the Bay Area, California. When she’s not writing about magic, murder, and mayhem, Tara spends her time drinking tea, wrangling cats, and lurking in bookstores.
 

Editorial Reviews

01/24/2022

In this slogging first outing of the Dark Gods trilogy, Sim (Ravage the Dark) offers up a clunky secondary world fantasy where the heirs of four noble houses must work together to protect the eponymous city from demonic invasion. Each house descends from and worships a god of the realm: elemental-addicted Angelica Mardova’s family serves Deia, god of life; stubborn Risha Vakara’s serves Thana, god of death; god-forsaken Nikolas Cyr’s serves Phos, god of light; and wild Taesia Lastrider’s serves Nyx, god of shadows. When Taesia’s brother, Dante, is linked to a group of Conjurers trying to seize magic for themselves and is arrested, the four heirs take up Dante’s plan to reopen old portals to their gods, a decision that hinges unconvincingly on immature Taesia’s supposed charm. Though the cultural specificity of each family and the casual diversity of the city freshens things up, it can’t cancel out the awkward, backstory-heavy prose; uncomfortable, mechanical sex scenes; haphazard worldbuilding; and slow-moving plot. This is only for Sim’s most devoted fans. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Literary. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Tara Sim's adult debut is a glorious tapestry of magic and murderous gods and a perfect entry for anyone looking for a new series starter."—BuzzFeed News

"Lovers of epic, dark fantasies, rejoice! There’s literally a lot here to love at 512 pages, including immersive writing that excellently builds this magical world, badass queer characters, and an interesting plot. Fans of A Darker Shade of Magic and All of Us Villains will want to pick this up sooner rather than later."—BookRiot

"Through its generous number of perspectives and gorgeous prose, Tara Sim proves herself again to be a talented worldbuilder and detailed storyteller."—Locus

"A delightful, complex, intimate yet explosive debut adult fantasy novel." —Strange Horizons

"Recommended for fans of large scale fantasy sagas with diverse, frequently queer protagonists." —Booklist

"Fantasy readers will appreciate Sim's attempt to create an expansive world in the vein of A Darker Shade of Magic or Gideon the Ninth....There's a lot to love here." —Kirkus

"A good fantasy, with a cracking ensemble cast and a wonderful world."—Grimdark Magazine

From the Publisher

2022-02-08
As warring houses prepare for the death of an heirless king, a handful of young mages attempt to fix their world via forbidden magic.

Taesia's world is dying. Five hundred years after the Sealing divided the Four Realms, supplies in the hub city of Nexus have begun to dwindle, and the Cosmic Scale of magical energies that once flowed freely between the Realms is now dammed up. As a spate of magical crimes stokes the public's fear of demon-summoning Conjuration magic, Taesia, the ne'er-do-well heir to House Lastrider, finds herself caught up in a conspiracy when her brother, Dante, devises a plan to use Conjuration to reverse the Sealing and restore order to their world. Dante's unexpected arrest for the murder of a public official leaves Taesia without his guidance, however, and she must work to finish what he started. Of course, as readers might expect, neither Dante nor his sister has an adequate grasp on the ramifications of their choices. Also at work are a bevy of magic users from other Realms, some of whom are angling for a shot at the throne. Although fantasy readers will appreciate Sim's attempt to create an expansive world in the vein of A Darker Shade of Magic or Gideon the Ninth, awkward infodumping crowds out any room that may have been left for character development. Perhaps more unsettling is the seemingly unending parade of names—from those of the unwieldy cast to the largely unexplained fantasy monsters—which will leave readers longing for an index. There's a lot to love here, but the novel's most interesting plot points and side characters get lost among the weeds.

An ambitious work of fantasy that unfortunately overcomplicates an intriguing world full of murder and mayhem.

Kirkus Reviews