Scan barcode
A review by chaotic_reading
The City of Dusk by Tara Sim
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
In the City of Dusk, Nexus is a nexus for the Four Realms – Life, Death, Light, and Darkness; each are ruled by a god and represented by a House. For reasons seemingly unspecified, the gods have withdrawn their favour the effect is catastrophic for the respective realms. Unwilling to be bystanders in their own demise, the four House heirs’ team up to save their city.
If you like vivid and rich worldbuilding, intriguing magic systems, and a diverse band of misfits (can they be misfits if they’re technically noble?) in a high fantasy world – this book is for you.
I want to start by saying the concept for this book is so cool and what primarily sold me on reading this ARC. It’s my first Tara Sim book, but fantasy is one of my favourite genres and the synopsis really sold me.
I really only have three critiques, and they are all for my personal preference:
First, I believe this book is marketed or tagged as adult fiction, when really I think it would do better as YA. The characters are in their early 20s, but their characterization reminds me more of those in YA novels. I think aging down the characters slightly – to perhaps 18/19 – would be more consistent in their characterization and behaviour.
Second, I found the chapters to be excruciatingly long. The description was really intensive, and while at times that was fantastic, other times it bogged down the reading experience. Add in that there were several different POVs happening simultaneously and it was sometimes difficult to stay engaged.
Lastly, and this point kind of builds on the previous one, I think a good portion of this book could have been edited down; to about 420-450 pages. This is the first book in a series, so I totally understand and appreciate the necessity of good worldbuilding, flushing out characters (especially in a multi-POV book), etc. However, there is a difference between need and want when including some info/scenes and I think <i>The City of Dusk</i> pushed that envelope a little too far.
I’m not sure at this point if I will continue with the series because of my current opinions on the structure/writing of book one, however the story is intriguing me enough to consider giving book two a shot when it is released.
I would recommend this book to others with the prelude that the main thing is the writing isn’t bad, there’s just <i>a lot</i> of it.
<i>Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.</i>
If you like vivid and rich worldbuilding, intriguing magic systems, and a diverse band of misfits (can they be misfits if they’re technically noble?) in a high fantasy world – this book is for you.
I want to start by saying the concept for this book is so cool and what primarily sold me on reading this ARC. It’s my first Tara Sim book, but fantasy is one of my favourite genres and the synopsis really sold me.
I really only have three critiques, and they are all for my personal preference:
First, I believe this book is marketed or tagged as adult fiction, when really I think it would do better as YA. The characters are in their early 20s, but their characterization reminds me more of those in YA novels. I think aging down the characters slightly – to perhaps 18/19 – would be more consistent in their characterization and behaviour.
Second, I found the chapters to be excruciatingly long. The description was really intensive, and while at times that was fantastic, other times it bogged down the reading experience. Add in that there were several different POVs happening simultaneously and it was sometimes difficult to stay engaged.
Lastly, and this point kind of builds on the previous one, I think a good portion of this book could have been edited down; to about 420-450 pages. This is the first book in a series, so I totally understand and appreciate the necessity of good worldbuilding, flushing out characters (especially in a multi-POV book), etc. However, there is a difference between need and want when including some info/scenes and I think <i>The City of Dusk</i> pushed that envelope a little too far.
I’m not sure at this point if I will continue with the series because of my current opinions on the structure/writing of book one, however the story is intriguing me enough to consider giving book two a shot when it is released.
I would recommend this book to others with the prelude that the main thing is the writing isn’t bad, there’s just <i>a lot</i> of it.
<i>Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.</i>