Book Review of Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans

 

Name of Book: Notorious Sorcerer 

Author: Davinia Evans 

ISBN: 9780316398039

Publisher: Orbit 

Part of a Series: Burnished City 

Type of book: Fantasy, empire of Bezim, alchemy, traveling planes, self discovery, books, forbidden magics, impossible feats, creatures from other planes, secret club 

Year it was published: 2022

Summary:

Since the city of Bezim was shaken half into the sea by a magical earthquake, the Inquisitors have policed alchemy with brutal efficiency. Nothing too powerful, too complicated, too much like real magic is allowed–and the careful science that’s left is kept too expensive for any but the rich and indolent to tinker with. Siyon Velo, a glorified errand boy scraping together lesson money from a little inter-planar fetch and carry, doesn’t qualify.

But when Siyon accidentally commits a public act of impossible magic, he’s catapulted into the limelight. Except the limelight is a bad place to be when the planes themselves start lurching out of alignment, threatening to send the rest of the city into the sea.

Now Siyon, a dockside brat who clawed his way up and proved himself on rooftops with saber in hand, might be Bezim’s only hope. Because if they don’t fix the cascading failures of magic in their plane, the Powers and their armies in the other three will do it for them.

Characters:

Main characters include Siyon Velo, a young man who was born on dockside, and literally clawed his way to his position. He is extremely ambitious, loyal and will not give up easily. He also has an affinity for natural "magic" and will do whatever he can to become educated about it. Zagiri Savani is a younger daughter who desires to see and experience more of life than the role prescribed to her. She is loyal and resourceful to those she cares about.  Anahid Joddani is Zagiri's older sister who has an extremely unhappy marriage and who is trying to discover herself. Quite often one senses a fear she has inside towards herself but at the same time she can best be described as a blooming flower. She and Siyon Velo compose most of the story. The last character is Izmirlian Hisarani, a vain and beautiful youth who desires to be disconnected from the Mundane Plane. At the same time he has also proven himself as an ally and will do what he can for Siyon Velo. 

Theme:

While guard rails are useful, what can be more useful is to experiment and veer off a broken path.

Plot:

The story is in third person narrative from Siyon Velo's, Zagiri Savani's, Anahid Joddani's and Izmirlian Hisarani's points of view. Most of the story is told from Siyon Velo's point of view. The world itself had a delightful blend of alchemy and fantasy, but it seems as if little went into the creation of alchemy and of how it works, at least from my point of view. (I do understand the necessity of tether, but of little else.) The strength is definitely the character  and personality of of Siyon Velo as he is our guide through the city of Bezim, but the fleshing out part might need to be worked on a lot more. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

Davinia Evans was born in the tropics and raised on British comedy. With a lifelong fantasy-reading habit and an honours thesis in political strategy, it was perhaps inevitable that she turn to a life of crafting stories full of sneaky ratbags tangling with magic. Dee lives in Melbourne, Australia, with two humans (one large and one small), a neurotic cat and a cellar full of craft beer.

Opinion:

To be honest, I think I had different expectations from the story than what I read, and the novel didn't meet these expectations. When starting a fantasy series, I am expecting a full introduction to the way the world works, and I also would like detailed information on how it works. While in here I managed to grasp a bit as to the problem (the planes are out of balance) I couldn't grasp nor understand the workings of the world, which is sad because honestly, this had been a delightful Disney's Aladdin-esque story, except the fact that the love story is M/M pairing (when I found out, I literally jumped for joy because I wanted to see a M/M pairing in a fantasy novel.) Basically, I grasped the main idea, but there was little in supporting sentences to understand. I also would have loved more of the Mundane world. 

This was given for a review 

3 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)