Early Review – The City of Dusk (The Dark Gods, Book 1) by Tara Sim (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: ‎ 713 pages
Publisher:‎ Orbit
Release Date: March 22, 2022
ASIN: ‎ B098NJ89Q7
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Dark Gods series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars

“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But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once vibrant and thriving city.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.”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in The Dark Gods series by Sim. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: This was incredibly well written and I thoroughly enjoyed the detailed descriptions, complex world-building, and intriguing magic here. This is truly a fantasy of epic proportions and I respect the effort that went into building this story.

This is the story of four potential heirs to the throne: Taesie (who can wield swords and shadows with equal deadliness), Angelica (who wields the elements), Nik (who wields light) and Risha (a necromancer who can control the dead). When things start to spin out of control they will need to decide if they will work together to stop the destruction or if they fight each other for a chance at power.

I am a huge Sim fan and this was my least favorite book by her so far; that’s not to say it was a bad book…I just didn’t like it as much as her other books. I felt like the first half was very slow and the characters weren’t as engaging and personable as her characters usually are. There also weren’t any touches of humor; this book takes itself very seriously. I still enjoyed this, it was just long and at points you really felt that length.

I think part of the pacing issue is caused by the large number of viewpoints we jump between; this made it tough to engage with any one character and drew out the storyline. I enjoyed all the viewpoints we read from, it just made things move slower and feel longer.

I never wanted to stop reading this because I love Sim’s writing style; it flows beautifully and her descriptions are amazing. But, I did have some times where I had to put the book down and rub my eyes and sigh, thinking “Oh my goodness is this book ever going to end.”

My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this. It is a beautiful epic fantasy with really cool magic and excellent world-building…but…I didn’t love it. I do plan on continuing the series and hope that the next book is a bit tighter and maybe has fewer POVs. I would recommend this if you are a fan of Sim’s writing style or if you enjoy epic fantasy with intriguing magic systems.