Notorious Sorcerer

Name: Notorious Sorcerer
Brand: Hachette Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Davinia Evans
ISBN: 9781668620007

Author: Davinia Evans

Narrator: Kirsten Foster

Unabridged: 14 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 09/13/2022

Categories: Fiction, Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Dragons, Urban, Humorous Fiction

Synopsis

In a city filled with dangerous yet heavily regulated alchemical magic, a man from the slums discovers he may be its only hope to survive certain destruction in this wickedly entertaining fantasy. Welcome to Bezim, where sword-slinging bravi race through the night and rich and idle alchemists make magic out of mixing and measuring 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 an 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 Bezim into the sea.

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

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

"From the razor-sharp social climbing to the glimmering alchemist's library to the hidden realms beneath it all, I loved getting lost in this dazzling debut." —Shannon Chakraborty

About Davinia Evans

Davinia Evans was born in the tropics and raised on British comedy. With a lifelong fantasy-reading habit and an honours thesis in political strategy, it was perhaps inevitable that she turn to a life of crafting stories full of sneaky ratbags tangling with magic. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with two humans (one large and one small), a neurotic cat, and a cellar full of craft beer. Dee talks more about all of that on Twitter as @cupiscent

Reviews

Goodreads review by Krystal on December 29, 2022

Wow. I loved this! The story follows Siyon, a bit of a street urchin with a curiosity for alchemy. Bezim is a city that practices this art that involves connection to the three other planes of existence: Aethyr, Empyre and Abyss. No magic here, kids, just pure unexplainable science. Siyon delves to......more

Goodreads review by Olivia on June 15, 2022

A brilliant alchemical recipe! Notorious Sorcerer is a delicious melange of my favourite things, remixing historical magic with class consciousness. I couldn’t put it down. I should start this review by saying that I am one hundred percent this book's intended audience, and if you are another would-b......more

Goodreads review by Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) on September 15, 2022

3.0 stars I went into this one looking for a fun witty urban fantasy, but I would not use those descriptors for this novel. I found this one a bit disappointing. The characters plot and a magic system that were average at best. It just lacked that "something" that makes a book special. I've heard oth......more

Goodreads review by Natasha on September 12, 2022

Notorious Sorcerer is a high octane, epic fantasy filled with sword fights, roof top hijinks, alchemy and a reluctant hero just trying to protect his home (and people) that I couldn’t get enough of! It’s set in Bezim, where warring tribes fight for control of the streets—a place where magic is techn......more

Goodreads review by Meredith on April 05, 2024

Oh wow, I loved this book. It's probably one of my favorite reads of the year for me (and I'm up to 130 or so reads so far this year, so that's no small feat!) I found the pacing to be extremely good -- everything lingered for as long as it needed to, but momentum was never lost. It gave just enough......more

Quotes

"Very rarely do I read a fantasy city so wondrously realized as Bezim. From the razor-sharp social climbing to the glimmering alchemist's library to the hidden realms beneath it all, I loved getting lost in this dazzling debut." —Shannon Chakraborty, author of The City of Brass

"A delightful and fast-paced ride full of flashy swordplay, high society, and thrilling magic. Reading Notorious Sorcerer made me feel like I was ten years old again and discovering adventure fantasy for the first time. Sheer, glorious fun!"—Freya Marske, author of A Marvellous Light

"A brilliant alchemical recipe! Notorious Sorcerer is a delicious melange of my favourite things, remixing historical magic with class consciousness. I couldn't put it down."—Olivia Atwater, author of Half A Soul

“Notorious Sorcerer feels like a dream you don’t want to wake from, with beautiful and broken people chasing elusive magic along a knife’s edge in a beautiful and broken city. I devoured it and want more!"—Melissa Caruso, author of The Tethered Mage

"Notorious Sorcerer has everything I want in a fantasy novel: a picaresque hero to make my heart sing, a refreshingly new kind of magic, and a waggish sense of humor. If you like a healthy dollop of rollicking fun with your epic fantasy, this is the book for you."—Megan Bannen, author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

"Notorious Sorcerer is a real delight, with compelling characters and wonderful worldbuilding that sucks the reader in and keeps them engaged from beginning to end."—Mike Brooks, author of The Black Coast

“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

"[An] energetic epic fantasy debut...Evans trusts readers to untangle the rules of her expansive world with minimal exposition...the witty prose, endearing characters, and sense of playful whimsy throughout keep the pages turning. This is a charmer." —Publishers Weekly

"Intricate and fascinating — I would eagerly read more tales of the city of Bezim."—Marie Brennan, author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent series