What an exhalirating journey! This was such a roller-coaster ride in the very literal sense. Generally, I have noticed that first books in a series tend to be slow as they set up the world and the plot for larger growth in the later books. However, this was probably the first book I read where the action started right on page one! Something or the other was always happening and the plot seemed to move ten paces with every page I turned. Sadly, this worked against the story a few times because I would have appreciated if the author had taken time to let me sit with some of the things instead of quickly moving on to the next.

But, this book has a very great magic system and incredible worldbuilding, full of engaging characters who I wanted to know more about, and so much snark and humour it had me snorting more than once.

A really great start to the series and I will definitely be reading the next one ASAP!

3.5 stars

The was a fun steampunky-urban fantasy with a cool magic system and entertaining characters but there was nothing particularly special or stand out from many other fantasy books of similar ilk. I will give points for a really cool cover and if you love a snarky cheeky main character it may be worth picking this one up! It was well written and well paced, so although it wasn’t a stand out it was still an enjoyable read

I was so sure going in that I was going to love this one. It had interesting magic, a queer romance, a snooty love interest and a gutter rat MC. But then I started reading and the pace of everything just threw me. This book starts off running and just never stops to catch it's breath. I was left so confused that I had to put the book down a couple of times.

I did like the characters and the world building is fascinating, it's not a bad book by any means, but not for me unfortunately!

I led a discussion of this book for r/fantasy's New Voices book club in February 2022: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/11eyhr0/new_voices_book_club_notorious_sorcerer_final/

3,5/5, Thank you to netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

First of all: I really wish I could have given this book a 5 star rating and there were times when I felt close to doing so. But then there were this minor issues like the pacing being kinda of, the names of the characters getting me confused and that the plot took some time to get going.

Still, I fell in love with the characters and would recommend this book if you want to explore a fantasy with a lot of alchemy, witty banter and a very sweet lovestory.

A fun read!

Notorious Sorcerer is filled with witty humor and sometimes emotional passages. There are hairpin turns on this roller coaster ride of fantastical escape. The imagery portrayed is blindly vivid in imagination, with almost cinematic quality as far as your mind's eye can take you.

If you want to read about medieval alchemy, this is the book for you!

I was absolutely hooked on this book! I could not put it down! I loved absolutely everything about it!

DNF - did not finish at 23%. Story was not for me and I could not get into the story as I found the premise to be quite boring.

Late to the party with my review due to illness but so glad I had this to read. I was caught up in the world that is Bezim with it's social divides, slightly illegal alchemy (depending on which bit of the social strata you are on) and compelling characters.
The main character is Siyon Velo who through an act of accidental, impossible magic he becomes known as the Notorious Sorcerer. Siyon is a member of the Little Bracken Bravi (the bravi are gangs of duellists) and through this met another key character Zagiri, an azatani which form the upper echelons of this society. Siyon is able to move from the Mundane plane to the Abyssal, Aethyreal, or Empyreal and this is where he gathers key alchemical ingredients to sell to alchemists in the Mundane. Visiting other planes has its dangers as they have their own inhabitants who do not take kindly to interlopers but for Siyon the visits are to fund his ultimate dream of becoming an accredited alchemist.
Siyon saves Zagiri and this sets off a chain of events which leads to his inclusion in azatani household of a renowned alchemist who is married to Zagiri's sister Anahid (another character to watch out for), This leads him to find romance with Izmirlian Hisarani (from a prominent azatani family), gain admittance to the alchemists academy, go on the run from the inquisitors, search for a missing son and find a way to balance the four planes which are seriously out of whack!
The author creates a rich world and immerses the reader in it from the start and to be honest I didn't want to leave Bezim. It really is a fresh fantasy full of drama but also with a healthy dose of love and hope. I would recommend this and my thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for access to this ARC. All views are my own.

When I started this book, I did it by accident. Obviously, I wanted to read it, since I requested the ARC, but it wasn’t planned. It happened that I had some time on my hands and decided to read a bit. But since I didn’t have my e-reader with me, just my phone, I decided to try this one out, because it was on hand and just read a bit, and then go back to it once I finished with my main reading. Or this was the idea when I started it: just sampling it while I was waiting, and then going back to it in another moment.
But once I started to read it, I just had to keep going. I was hooked and couldn’t put it down.

The writing was what hooked me right away if I have to be completely honest, but there are a ton of good things in this book. It was a compelling and truly enjoyable book, but it was at the same time like an itch, something that you constantly scratch but that won’t give you full satisfaction. I know, it is not the most compelling image, sorry about that, but I feel it is quite accurate. It is always like this book is almost but not enough. I constantly needed more. More world-building, more character development, more background, more… more. But, at the same time, it is not that the book is lacking. We have a fascinating world-building, an intriguing magic system, intriguing characters, and a story that constantly moves forward. And yet…. it was almost but not enough. But, strange as it may sound, this was just an added layer to the reading, it wasn’t something that bothered me, but it was something that, in some ways, enriched the experience. Sure, sometimes it was not the most satisfying feeling in the world, and I would have loved for more development, in general, but the book is solid, and it is captivating. So it is not really a complaint, just a statement, strange as it may sound.

As I was saying, the first thing drawing me in was the writing. It borders on purple, from time to time, but it is just coasting it, and it remains quite beautiful all the time, with some more imaginative and poetic peaks here and there.

The bravi were denizens of the night – the feet that rattled fleet as a passing rain shower over your roof tiles, the midnight laughter that promised mayhem and crossed blades and adventure.

Or

He was so focused on it that he barely heard the whistle from above. Not like a bravi signal, no human sound at all; more like the sigh of air ripped through a grate. The sound of an angel’s wings scything through excuses.

And the setting was vivid and fascinating. It has some Italian vibes, or that could just be the bravi thing, but still… and the oriental ones, like byzantine or similar. And you get the feeling of really being there, with our characters, strolling (or more often than not, running) through the streets and the houses of this city. And I loved it!
Bezim is just a city, true, but it is true before our eyes, and I wanted to explore more of it! Again, it was almost but not enough. I wanted more of it, more of its cafes and locals, more of its streets and buildings. More!

The plot is original, and unique in some parts. The author made some unusual decisions here and there, so you are constantly on the ball of your feet, because some things you can see clearly but some others take more time, and you just need to know what would happen next, and what the author would throw at you. It makes for an interesting read!
And last but not least, we have some fascinating characters. Syon is our MC, he is an Alchemist of a sort, he is mostly self-thought and his deepest wish is to acquire an education on it. It is his ultimate goal, and he tries to keep all his money for it and to find every little bits and scraps to help him learning. He is dedicated, he is strong-minded, and he is constantly following knowledge. In some respects, knowledge is his drug of choice, and it will make him take some quite unexpected or extreme decisions, here and there. And this was a thing that I highly appreciated. He is not always taking the easy way out, or the morally right decision, sure, but the is always true to himself. It is a peculiar thing, from time to time, sure, but it was really well done!
And he is not the only interesting character in this book, but all the other characters stand true to the “almost but not quite enough”, because it is true that all of them are quite developed, no one of them is plain or bidimensional, at all, it is not that, but it is that all of them are quite real, quite there but not yet. There is something minor, really minor, lacking, and so I wanted to know more about all of them, I wanted for them to have more space on the pages, to have been more… developed in a sense, even if, all of them, were portrayed well, and were alive on the pages.
Anahid was a favorite of mine in this book, her self-discovery is one of the most satisfying ever, and this book is worth reading for her alone, but to be honest, Zagiri and Izmirlian are worth meeting for sure (and okay, okay, they are not the only ones, you should really read the book to see how many interesting characters we have!).

Also… alchemy!

This book was a mixed bag -- on the one hand, so much heisty energy, made me think fondly of Locke Lamore but set in a magical system that's inspired by the Byzantine legacy & Ottoman empire. What's not to like! but the downside is the disappointment that we didn't get enough chances to explore the world, because the plot was unfolding at a breakneck pace! I would have loved a little more breathing space, for the story to slow down and let us immerse in the world. But I'm still very pleased that the wonders of the Byzantium and non-Western cultures and histories continue to attract SFF writers -- I remain interested in more of that for sure!

Thanks to #Netgalley for the arc of #NotoriousSorcerer

I usually find books to be lacking when it comes to pacing, but Notorious Sorcerer had almost the opposite problem. It was off and running from the very first page, and I had to run alongside just to keep up! Ordinarily a fast-paced read would be great, but unfortunately, the worldbuilding of this novel suffered very severely as a consequence. There was too little time to get a sense for character or place, that I felt disconnected from the narrative the whole time I was reading it.

A decent premise and an interesting and unique magic system were the only things that saved this book from ending up on the DNF pile. I can see a certain type of reader this book would appeal to, though, but it's not one that will receive a blanket recommendation.

Many Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the digital review copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
For anyone that has read my reviews will know that fantasy is my main genre, I read a lot, and this book has been on my radar for a while, I was super excited to get the Arc, so as soon as I was approved it was in my e-reader ready to go. I tried with this book, and I really did, I got through about 25% and just got so bored. So, I put it down and tried again a week later, and it went the same way. Like previous reviews of this book, the world-building fell flat, because there is zero backstory, and the slow-burn romance was painful. That said there are some really good ideas here, I loved the characters, and with some insight, I think that the world of Bezim, would be a place where I would visit again. Maybe I will pick this up again another day and get through it, but for now, it’s a DNF.

By way of introductory remarks I’d like to note that Davinia Evans, author of the alchemy meets intrigue meets swashbuckling romp that is Notorious Sorcerer, is a personage with whom I am more than passingly acquainted. She is an egg of the most superior and benevolent nature, if you will forgive the descent into Woosterism. Such things can sometimes make picking up a book for the first time a nervous affair. One does not wish to hate such a work. (It also makes an early declaration important for the sake of integrity).

In any case, I’m happy to report that Notorious Sorcerer is really rather good.

I am also going to have to be a little more spoilery than usual here, so have a look at the cover as a space break for those who want out.


The first and most important way in which it is good is the voice. Evans possesses clarity, wry humour, a touch of quiet poetry, and a keen sense of pacing. It’s probably not a surprise I love the prose when me and she know each other partly through having many shared keystone authors, but it’s still not every day I feel the need to tell people about individual lines i.e.

“The first three bowls Siyon pulled down from the shelves were unsuitable—soft, soft, and the third Tehroun ran a finger over and pronounced, “Lacquer,” like it had done something unspeakable to his mother. “

It’s got a real Swordspoint tone to it for those who know of it, and I wasn’t surprised to find out Evans actually used it as a comp along with Lies of Locke Lamora, which it’s also rubbing shoulders with. The recent comp I’d have probably made for the prose tone is Leigh Bardugo, and Leigh Bardugo knows her shit.

The next most important way – with a vital exception that I’ll get to in a moment – is I liked the characters. Siyon, the titular Notorious Sorcerer (well, eventually) is an interesting, likeable mix of hungry intelligence, scrappy obnoxiousness, and jagged frailty. He ricochets off of the privileged, magnetic, impetuous Zagiri like a drunken uncle on the bouncy castle at a kid’s party. There are no shortage of well-realised, highly entertaining characters, with pride of place for the scandalously underused Auntie Geryss, a somewhat cranky elderly alchemist.

The one character I found a bit of a chore is unfortunately quite an important one. Izmirlian Hisarani is a gentleman of the upper classes who engages Siyon to help him go to another plane, leaving the mortal plane entirely, and is also Siyon’s main love interest. He’s also a bit of a wet dishcloth, which puzzles me to type out as he’s got quite a lot going on. I guess maybe it’s hard to make someone with limited interest in the world around him seem interesting at times. Or maybe he just wasn’t Zagiri, who I didn’t want shacking up with Siyon but who I did want causing chaos with him. Whatever it was, I found myself skimming his segments a bit at times, and struggling a bit with the story towards the middle when the story gets most focused on romantic feelings.

However, that didn’t prevent me from finishing the story, and since the story becomes a bit broader, I found myself rather enjoying it. But at the end I think I have to say good but not great, and the main reason for that is this –

There’s just so much going on.

So much that I think it hampers things. The place where I think the most meat was left on the bone is the way some big scenes lack the build up to be big scenes. There’s a scene where Siyon meets his family for the first time in a long time, and I just kind of raced through. There’s a scene that makes literal one of the book’s big themes, the examination of how love can bind you to destructive things, and it kind of hits and kind of doesn’t as the characters aren’t quite built up enough. To use a cricket analogy, it’s like Evans has spotted a good spot but has moved too quick to get sufficient force on the ball to get it all the way to the boundary. Not enough backswing. A little short of a home run, for all you poor gits who don’t know enough of cricket.

There’s other places where it can be an issue for some readers though. I know some reviewers are complaining about the worldbuilding. For me, it’s coherent and interesting to read so it’s all good, but I can see how others are frustrated. I can imagine what’s going on, but others can’t. There’s very little sense of history beyond alchemy, very little sense of the world beyond the city (which does strike me as a tad odd in a book that is in some ways for all the marbles fate of everything). The arc of Anahid, Zagiri’s sister, is a bit one-dimensional for where it ends up (I suspect the omission of time with her husband is deliberate and even quite clever, but maybe still doesn’t quite hit for me).

For me, there’s enough material here to make a much bigger book, possibly even two of them. When Notorious Sorcerer is in brisk action mode, that doesn’t matter. When it seeks emotional impact, I’m afraid to say it did for me.

What else might turn a reader off the book? It pushes the notion of class struggle pretty front and centre. I wouldn’t say it goes very deep on that throughout the whole book, but does for a few chapters and is fairly consistently there. The phrase “ask for everything and be appalled if you don’t get it” will live on in my head for a while. I’m fairly finicky on this sort of thing these days, and it was no big thing for me, but it might be for others. For all the talk of swashbuckling, it is rather low on swordfights, or at least that’s how I remember it. I think there’s a few chases? It has a swashbuckling air, but not swashbuckling content. I think there might be some chases? I wouldn’t have minded a bit more swashbuckling.

Still, like all books, Notorious Sorcerer is best enjoyed when taken for its strengths, of which it possesses a good many. It crackles with irreverent energy, reads quick, and boasts a good rogues’ gallery. Plus it has alchemy. I do like alchemy.

As such it is with great relief that I can confirm I’ll be greatly looking forwards to when the sequel comes out, and not mumbling my excuses to the author.

Notorious Sorcerer teemed with action, wonder, and fascinating characters that instantly came to life. There were some more theoretical sides to the way alchemy works in this world, but the author doesn't overly dwell on these, striking a good balance in how much information was given.

I very quickly became invested in the story and was rooting for the four main characters, which were all well developed: the two sisters Anahid and Zagiri, each rebelling against societal expectations in their own ways, Siyon Velo, who is on a journey of self-discovery, and Izmirlian Hirasani, who dreams of traveling to the unknown.
The characters had a great dynamic, the slow-burn romance between the two male protagonists was beautiful, and the ending was well wrapped-up, but leaving room for the story to develop in future installments. I will definitely be following this series, and if it isn't on your radar yet, then it's one I'd recommend picking up.

Such a great blend of Sci-Fi, fantasy, and historical genres! I absolutely loved the physical magic system and how our dimension is in balance with three other planes. Unfortunately for the characters, there’s been a imbalance between the four planes and our underdog hero, Siyon, must step in and try to save the day as a surprisingly talented, but untrained, alchemist. All the characters had interesting arcs, but my favorite characters were definitely Izmirlian and Anahid. The queer romance was *chef’s kiss*. The classism made the storyline even more dynamic and was a huge factor amongst the various characters. The worldbuilding was rich, though it did take me some time to get into it and understand. There was a lot of humor in the dialogue, with Siyon especially, and that helped keep the story light. Despite being a first book in a series, this was wholly satisfying and did well to set up the next book without leaving the reader with a cliffhanger. Overall, fantastic introduction to this world and its characters! I cannot wait to continue on with the series.

I had a lot of fun in reading this book as I found it original, entertaining, and well developed.
I liked the humour, the pace, and was fascinated by the complex world building.
I can't wait to read the next book in this series.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

5 billion stars and one of my favourite books of the year!!! Please can we have more why do I have to wait till 2023 😭

I didn’t love this book from the first page much like Siyon and Izmirlian relationship Notorious Sorcerer was a slow burn but god did it pack a punch. We follow four distinct and incredible characters each bound together to save the city from collapsing in on itself. But our real hero is Siyon, a river rat, who is tasked with making a nobleman Izmirlian escape the Mundane world they are on, with a capital M.

We follow these four, Siyon, Izmirlian, Zagiri and Anahid as the city becomes more and more unsettled until the alchemist of the city start being arrested and poisoned like the witch hunt. Those last 100 pages had me on the edge of my seat trying to see how all would be well and I loved every second of it.

If you want a fantastic read as the nights draw in Notorious Sorcerer is for you

I really wanted to love this story! Everything about it sounded like it was right up my alley, but I just couldn't get into it! I tried reading it a few times, but I only got halfway through each time.
I'm probably going to give it one last shot some day, when I'm not struggling with reading, and maybe I'll change my mind about it. The reading slump makes it difficult to enjoy any book at the moment, so I'm not going to give up just yet!

Thank you Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the ARC.

3.5 stars

Notorious Sorcerer is the first book in a new adult fantasy series, with a sort of magic portals, illegal alchemy and a chosen one that you can't do anything about but root for.

I enjoyed the story and the characters, although the magic system was a bit confusing at times. However, I will definitely be reading the next instalment on the series to know what happens.