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A review by laelyn
The City of Dusk by Tara Sim
2.0
So I know Tara Sim is a known author, but I honestly haven't read any of her books. I was drawn to "The City of Dusk" because the premise sounds so incredibly cool and unique and I was instantly intrigued. It's definitely not a bad book, on the contrary. I wanted to love it, but in the end there were just too many things I personally didn't enjoy.
The world Sim builds in this first book of her new series is a complex and fascinating one, with different realms and gods and heirs, lots of magic and a good dash of political intrigue. The world building is at times too convoluted, but in general it's well done. The potential of exploring these other realms is VERY intriguing so there's a lot of stuff to do in further novels set in the same world. The writing is good, too, and fits the story. And the characters, in theory, are so intriguing and different from each other, with so much potential for character development and interesting relationships.
Sadly, my biggest gripe with the novel is that I just could not connect to these characters at all. They could be great but in the end, they fell flat. I didn't feel anything for either of them and felt like they weren't as fleshed out as they needed to be. The relationships between them are... just not very interesting mostly? I do like that romance isn't much of a subject at all in this novel, and I also like the diversity of the cast, but that's pretty much all I like about them. Taesia really really wanted to be a new favorite character but she's just too On The Nose - still, I think she's easily the most memorable of the bunch.
The magic system is just... too much. There don't seem to be any fixed rules, and there's wings and necromancy and elemental magic and shadow magic and gods and what not, and at times it almost feels anime-esque in the way it's described. It's all over the place, just like a lot of the world building in general.
The pacing is really slow and the first half of the novel draaaaags. I admit I kind of skimmed through a few pages because nothing substantial was happening.
Still, this has potential, and the last about 20% of the book are action-.filled and really fun. It wasn't enough to change my mind on my reading experience, and I don't think I'll read the sequel, but I can still see this having a lot of fans.
2.5 stars.
Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for the arc!
The world Sim builds in this first book of her new series is a complex and fascinating one, with different realms and gods and heirs, lots of magic and a good dash of political intrigue. The world building is at times too convoluted, but in general it's well done. The potential of exploring these other realms is VERY intriguing so there's a lot of stuff to do in further novels set in the same world. The writing is good, too, and fits the story. And the characters, in theory, are so intriguing and different from each other, with so much potential for character development and interesting relationships.
Sadly, my biggest gripe with the novel is that I just could not connect to these characters at all. They could be great but in the end, they fell flat. I didn't feel anything for either of them and felt like they weren't as fleshed out as they needed to be. The relationships between them are... just not very interesting mostly? I do like that romance isn't much of a subject at all in this novel, and I also like the diversity of the cast, but that's pretty much all I like about them. Taesia really really wanted to be a new favorite character but she's just too On The Nose - still, I think she's easily the most memorable of the bunch.
The magic system is just... too much. There don't seem to be any fixed rules, and there's wings and necromancy and elemental magic and shadow magic and gods and what not, and at times it almost feels anime-esque in the way it's described. It's all over the place, just like a lot of the world building in general.
The pacing is really slow and the first half of the novel draaaaags. I admit I kind of skimmed through a few pages because nothing substantial was happening.
Still, this has potential, and the last about 20% of the book are action-.filled and really fun. It wasn't enough to change my mind on my reading experience, and I don't think I'll read the sequel, but I can still see this having a lot of fans.
2.5 stars.
Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for the arc!