The City of Dusk by Tara Sim

Name of Book: The City of Dusk

Author: Tara Sim

ISBN: 978-0-316-45889-4

Publisher: Orbit

Part of a Series: The Dark Gods

Type of book: Fantasy, elements, gods, heirs, powers, anxiety, adult mixed with young or new adult, life, light, shadows, death, sealing the realms, mysteries, secrets 

Year it was published: 2022

Summary:

Set in a gorgeous world of bone and shadow magic, of vengeful gods and defiant chosen ones, The City of Dusk is the first in a dark epic fantasy trilogy that follows the four heirs of four noble houses—each gifted with a divine power—as they form a tenuous alliance to keep their kingdom from descending into a realm-shattering war.

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But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once vibrant and thriving city.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

Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs—Risha, a necromancer struggling to keep the peace; Angelica, an elementalist with her eyes set on the throne; Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue with rebellion in her heart; and Nik, a soldier who struggles to see the light— will sacrifice everything to save the city.

But their defiance will cost them dearly.

Characters:

Main characters include Taesia an impulsive and powerful second child of the house of Lastrider. She has shadow powers and at first is fun loving but then she begins wrestling with idea of duty and freedom. Nikolas is a reluctant heir who has light powers and who suffers from grief and anxiety over death of his little brother. He is heavy on duty and often fears he is not enough for his family and those he is charged with keeping safe. Angelica is an elementalist but is locked away from her talents and often requires instruments to access her powers. She wants to follow her mother's plans and misses her father a lot. Risha has powers of death and has understanding of her place. She is loyal to those she is close to and for her duty equals breathing. Julian is a hunter who can speak to animals and who also is struggling with getting through life. There are plenty of other characters such as parents, siblings as well as royalty and other family members but it will take me too long to disclose them all.   

Theme:

THE importance of untold stories 

Plot:

THE story is written in third person narrative from Taesias, Angelicas, Rishas, Julians and Nikolas points of view. At first the chapter headings, indicated by the heir symbol would give impression of who is speaking, but then as more and more action piled up, the headings didn't match up to the speaker and I had to wonder why they were there. I also would like if in future books, the author could work a bit more on the chemistry between the characters and their paramours. ( in my opinion, Angelica and her paramour were written very well, I liked the spark and chemistry I felt between them!) Other characters, however didn't have that spark with their respective paramours. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

Tara Sim is a YA and adult fantasy author found in the wilds of the Bay Area, California. When she's not writing about magic, murder, and mayhem, she drinks tea and wrangles cats.

Opinion:

It has been awhile since I immersed myself in fantasy. A very long while,( let's say last fantasy series I read were either R.A. Salvatore books in high school, or J.R.R. Tolkien and I didn't like J.R.R. Tolkien upon my recent reread...)  and after reading this gem, I am beyond thrilled that I decided to begin reading fantasy again. This is a highly inclusive novel that features main characters who are bisexual or lesbian or gay, and instead of it being an European styled fantasy novel ( it did have quite a bit of that to be honest,) there was also a heavy influence of South Asian culture and while the novel was filled with plenty of action and complications, there is definitely a psychological aspect to them as well, especially towards the end when a lot of details are dared to be revealed. I look forward to reading books 2 and 3 whenever they come out and learning more about the world our heroes inhabit. I also am of opinion that the whole sealing up the realms from one another is a subtle reference or study to climate change.  

This was given for review 

4 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.)