Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans

Title: Notorious Sorcerer

Author: Davinia Evans

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Hachette Australia/Orbit

Published: 13^th September 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 430

Price: $22.99

Synopsis: A delightful debut secondary world fantasy set in a city that’s bursting with imaginative alchemical magic, sharp banter, and a compelling queer romance perfect for fans of The Tethered Mage and Strange the Dreamer.

‘Notorious Sorcerer is a firework of a fantasy novel: vibrant, explosive, deliciously dangerous and impossibly fun. A must-read debut’ Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne

Welcome to Bezim, where tribes of sword-slinging bravi race through the night, and where rich and idle alchemists make magic out of mixing the four planes of reality.

Siyon Velo, Dockside brat turned petty alchemist, scrapes a living hopping between the planes to harvest ingredients for the city’s alchemists. But when Siyon accidentally commits and act of impossible magic, he’s catapulted into the limelight – which is a bad place to be when the planes start lurching out of alignment, threatening to send the city into the sea.

It will take a miracle to save Bezim. Good thing Siyon has pulled off the impossible before. Now he has to master it.

A dazzling fantasy debut bursting with wild magic, chaotic sword-fighting street gangs, brazen flirting, malevolent harpies and one defiant alchemist.

~*~

Welcome to Bezim, the Burnished City, where alchemists are idle  but use their time to mix the four plains of reality into magic, and where tribes who use swords race through the night – and where Bezim will soon be put in danger when Siyon, who was once a Dockside brat, and now works as an alchemist, casts magic that that sends him into the limelight as the planes misalign – and Bezim is under threat as the city lurches towards the sea. Siyon needs to fix his mistake, and with the help of Anahild and Zagiri, he seeks to do so, and ensure he can rescue Zagiri from the peril he is in. But to do so, and to ensure everyone safe, it will take another act of impossible magic – but is Siyon, a Docklands and fisher-clan boy, who is simply running errands across the four planes for the alchemists, able to do so? Or will something or someone stop him?

Set in an imagined version of an ancient Byzantine city, Notorious Sorcerer starts off lightly – and the deeper the story goes, the more complex it becomes, with lots of strands and threads flying around. This indicates that this is going to be a series – so for me, it made sense that some things were left open so they could be resolved in later books. Amongst all the banter between friends and lovers of all kinds, there was a light-heartedness that helped move the heavier themes along. This gave the illicit magic and feelings that someone was always in danger, that there was never going to be much settled for anyone, a sense that it would be an ongoing threat, but one that will hopefully be resolved by the end of the series.

I liked that each character had flaws – Siyon was very much act first, and think later, whilst Anahid was more measured and deliberate, with Zagiri falling somewhere in between. In a sense, this meant that they measured each other out, and were able to work together where necessary. And what makes this book feel relatable are the class and gender conflicts, and the nuances that show the world of Bezim isn’t easy for anyone – that there are obstacles that can prevent all from what they want, even if they are rich.         This could be a mirror to our own world, where there can be all sorts of barriers put in place for people, and sometimes, some people have more barriers than others. There are wonderful layers to this world that ensure it is complex and nuanced, that there are all sorts of ways of being a part of this world, which I think works well and sets up the rest of the series in a really interesting way. This will be a great read for young adult and adult fantasy fans.