Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing a book that I’ve been waiting so long to read, The Dawn Throne by Tara Sim. This third book in The Dark Gods series was delayed for a bit, and I’ve been dying to see where the story would go next. If you missed them, be sure to go back and read my reviews for The City of Dusk and The Midnight Kingdom. Did this new installment live up to the years’ worth of hype in my head? Read on to find out!
In this thrilling new installment of the Dark Gods Saga, each of the heirs desperately attempt to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives. But gods don’t stay defeated for long, and soon an old enemy threatens the very existence of their realm.
In the aftermath of the chaos and tragedy of Godsnight, the recovering heirs struggle to determine their next moves. But when Phos, the god of light, stages an attack on their home in a bid for cosmic control, the heirs decide to take the fight to Phos’s own realm of Solara.
Yet Solara hasn’t gone unscathed. The realm is being terrorized by a mythic villain named the Sunslayer, an assassin targeting those in Phos’s bloodline, whose methods are troublingly familiar. As tensions run high and the Solarians prove reluctant to trust outsiders, Nikolas, Rian, and Julian set off to capture the Sunslayer to forge a delicate truce. Meanwhile, Angelica, Risha, and Dante search for a way to defeat Phos for good. But with adversaries closing in from every direction, the heirs will need to trust in one another if they want to survive long enough to take down a god.
That is, if they can survive the Sunslayer first.
***Thank you to Orbit Books for providing an advanced copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***
The Dawn Throne was definitely worth the wait! It was really cool to finally visit Solara, and I appreciated that the plot wasn’t quite as all over the place as the previous two books. This story felt more focused with all of the characters determined to accomplish the same goal even when they were separated. All of the energy was directed toward destroying Phos, first on getting to Solara and then to figuring out how to kill the god. The singular mission made this story the tightest one yet without compromising on the individual characters’ arcs or reducing the number of POVs.
While the plot of The Dawn Throne was tighter than its predecessors, it did still suffer from some pacing issues at times. A lot of time was spent on meetings and planning, which slowed things down quite a bit, especially in the first half of the book. The quieter moments did have some great character work, though, and they were balanced out with a lot of really exciting action sequences when things did get going. The slower bits also provided the space for describing the current state of affairs in Vitae for the different houses and the political and day-to-day atmosphere on Solara. So, I didn’t mind that things weren’t action, action, action all the time.
As for the characters, there continued to be a ton of POVs in The Dawn Throne. lol. Risha was the standout for me in this story, though. She had to deal with such a personal loss while also trying to figure out the ramifications of the changes to her powers after absorbing Jas’s soul. Ultimately, her story became one of deciding if the ends justify the means and whether the cost of losing herself is worth doing whatever it takes to achieve her goals. Dante was another character with a really fascinating arc. His relationship with his demon progressed in such interesting ways, and I’m even more curious now to see how their story ends. The rest of the characters all had great growth, as well, but I’d be here all day if I commented on each of them. I will say, though, that in many ways this was Nik and Rian’s book. Their relationships with their god and their father were central to their stories, and their emotional baggage was a central catalyst for important pieces of this story.
I really enjoyed getting to see the world of Solara in The Dawn Throne. Sol’s schemes had wreaked havoc on this world in ways I hadn’t expected, which meant so many of its people suffered. I thought everyone on the world would be ardent worshippers of the god, but I was surprised to find things were more complicated. It provided a brilliant backdrop for a conversation about faith, and I enjoyed how those themes were weaved throughout the narrative.
All in all, The Dawn Throne was a solid third installment in this series and well worth the wait. I’m even more excited than ever to see how the final book wraps everything up. Thankfully, the last book will be released later this year. I can’t recommend this series enough if you enjoy dark fantasy with mad gods, portal hopping between worlds, and disaster queers struggling to save the world(s). Therefore, I rate this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.
There you have it! My thoughts on The Dawn Throne by Tara Sim. Have you been reading this series? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!
