A Review of Tara Sim’s The City of Dusk (Orbit, 2022)

Posted by: lsobiesk

Written by Stephen Hong Sohn

Edited by Lizzy Sobiesk

I originally wanted to read Tara Sim’s The City of Dusk (Orbit, 2022) because I thought it was a duology and the second in the series had just come out. Unfortunately, as I came to learn, after reading both in sequence, that there is indeed a third in the series, and now I hope I will not forget all that I have learned. Let this be a lesson to you all! In any case, let’s let the official marketing description get us situated, as per usual: “DARKNESS FALLS. GODS RISE. 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 But the gods have withdrawn their favor from the once vibrant and thriving metropolis. And without it, all the realms are dying. Unwilling to stand by and watch the destruction, the four heirs—Angelica, an elementalist with her eyes set on the throne; Risha, a necromancer fighting to keep the peace; Nikolas, a soldier who struggles to see the light; and Taesia, a shadow-wielding rogue with a reckless heart—will become reluctant allies in the quest to save their city. But their rebellion will cost them dearly.” 

 

This excerpt is pretty pithy. There are a bunch of other major characters. For instance, some of the houses have multiple heirs. Taesia has a brother Dante, who could also be an heir, as well as a younger sister named Brailee. When Dante gets jailed (due to the assumption that he was engaging in an outlawed practice called conjuration), the expectation is that Taesia would become the heir. Risha also has a younger sister named Saya. Nikolas is still dealing with the death of his little brother Rian. Despite the battle over who will eventually rule over Vitae, the “once vibrant and thriving metropolis,” the four heirs are not necessarily interested in becoming the sole ruler. Indeed, they often hang out with each other and in some cases seem more interested in figuring out how to fix Vitae rather than being a powerful leader. Well into the novel, Sim introduces another important character named Julian, who is a “beastspeaker,” which is a person who is able to communicate with animals. Here, I will provide a major spoiler warning, so look away unless you want to find out major plot details. Julian, as readers discover, is also an heir, but of a fifth realm that had not been spoken about and had been destroyed, called Ostium. The five heirs must find a way to work together to figure out how to undo something called the Sealing, which is the word used to describe how Vitae is now cut off from other realms, which is leading to each realm slowly dying. The best date to undo the Sealing is Godsnight, so they target that specific event in order to try to undo the Sealing. What the heirs do not realize is that the Gods of each realm have been planning all along to cement their own powers and that the heirs are only meant to be conduits that they are ultimately going to be taking over. My major critique of this text and the next is the pacing: I found myself impatient with some of the exposition. There is a quite a lot needed because of the world building and the background is needed to understand what has gone on with the Gods. The other issue that exacerbates the pacing is the use of third person, which shifts consistently between at least five characters. Sim’s strength is that she goes all in with her world building, giving texture to the four different houses through their unique powers. The conclusion is also quite cataclysmic and easily pushes you into reading the next.

 

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