#requiem dark

[clefrot]

re the heirs (and their eras)

heiras, if you will. each of darke's heirs/proxies had their own eras. generally they're around 100-150 years, or until darke gets sick of them or, as he says, "The new times require a new heir."

from least to most recent...

requiem - 1323-1656 (333 years)

vil - 1671-1891 (150 years)

arsenius - 1891-2021 (130 years)

crepus - 2021-2127* (~100 years, likely to change)

[glorious-destruction]

I normally don’t do book reviews here, but this book is too good and too under hyped to pass. Here’s a link to the goodreads synopsis

{Tropes} found family, best friend’s brother, female x female, grumpy x sunshine, political intrigue, wanted MC, reluctant friendship etc.

REVIEW: I was terrified to read this book. I had such high hopes that it would be the gunslinging sci-fi adventure I hoped it would be, and let me say that IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!

City of Shatter Light surpassed all my expectations by miles. I cannot believe this is Claire Winn's first novel—I am absolutely in love with her writing style which is both dramatic, incredibly heartfelt, and hilarious. From the moment I stepped into Requiem’s glittering skyscrapers and shadowy backstreets, I was enthralled. The entirety of the world is extremely creative—it felt like a love letter to Star Wars, Dune, and many other sci-fi franchises that I grew up on. And that's just the world. The characters are something else entirely.

I will admit, at first I was dubious of Riven Hawthorne and her gunslinging, skull-cracking persona. She looked hard as nails and acted twice it. However, the more I got to know her, I could see so much of myself in her, and saw a girl that was too stubborn to be crushed under the boot of a world that didn't care about her. Asa Almeida was equally as remarkable. A genius mechanist, Asa has never had to fight for anything in her life, until she uncovers a secret that forces her to leave behind that life forever and enter into a world that will eat her alive. What I love most about Asa is how determined she is, and her development throughout the story was sublime. She is willing to admit when she is wrong in order to move forward, and Claire Winn perfectly balances her god-tier-badassery with Asa being sunshine in human form. That's just the main characters—the members of Riven's crew were so wholesome and the way that they talked to each other just goes to show that they're not just a team, but a family.

This book had me screaming at the plot twists in the middle of the night and whether it be due to Riven's illegally-funny sense of humor (seriously, I don't have a comedic bone in my body and somehow all 206 of hers got lucky) or the epic rollercoaster ride of the plot, City of Shattered Light became an instant favorite of mine.

Claire Winn, I hope you're happy for making me an insomniac because I cannot stop thinking about this book 24/7.

[astralbooks]

City of Vicious Night (Requiem Dark #2) - Claire Winn

Read: 24/05/2023 - 25/05/2023

Rating: 4/5

Rep: bi main characters, f/f relationship, biracial Japanese-Portuguese main character & side character, chronically ill main character, disabled main character with a prosthetic arm and eye, gay South Asian side character, disabled gay Latino side character with a prosthetic arm, side m/m relationship, aromantic side character, non-binary side characters

CW (provided in front of book): violence, blood, mild gore, death (on-page and past), gun violence, strong language, sexual content (including non-graphic encounters), human experimentation, use of medical needles, alcohol misuse, fictional drug use, terminal illness, suicidal ideation & threatened suicide, mild torture, loss of limbs, vomiting, referenced poverty, referenced prostitution & sexual assault (not involving main characters)

Review:

Four months after runaway heiress Asa managed to get her sister’s consciousness placed back inside her body, the two of them are firmly established members of Riven’s crew. When a hacker starts telling the people of city-moon Requiem that they were the ones responsible for the chaos from around then, and starts trying very hard to kill them, the crew decide that their best option for survival is to have Riven become the new matriarch of one of the Requiem’s five factions, as matriarchs are nigh-untouchable. To do that they’ll need to succeed at a series of trials, and deal with new opponents, all while still fending off the murderous hacker and uncovering a conspiracy involving Asa’s father with horrifying implications for all of Requiem.

I came away from the first book wanting the girls to be friends rather than girlfriends, which feels deeply weird to me as a queer person who’s used to thinking the complete opposite. The four month time skip means that the majority of development between Asa and Riven happened off-screen between books. If you take their feelings for each other as a given then this book works. I didn’t finish this one thinking they should just be friends. I would’ve much preferred it if we actually got to see them get from A to B, though, especially considering how little focus their relationship in any capacity got in the first book. We could’ve gotten a slow burn out of this, and Riven’s tendency for self-sabotage could’ve remained intact in that version of the story, but instead we got none of the development and barely any of the payoff because having a strong established relationship for most of the book is also apparently too much to ask for.

When I read the first book, I was neutral on Riven. There were times when I liked her and there were times when I really didn’t like her. This, unfortunately, did not change in this book. She’s for some reason taken it upon herself to protect poor innocent little Asa who clearly can’t handle herself in any situation at all, but then she constantly makes reckless decisions that puts everyone in even more danger than they were in before. Riven’s view of herself as a protector and view of Asa (and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the crew) as someone who she specifically must protect is just not true to reality, and this is something that never quite clicks in her head through the whole book. I think this is the source of my issues with her. Asa can handle herself and Riven’s assumption otherwise came off as condescending. Leroy Jenkins’ing your way through life doesn’t just put you in danger, but the people around you as well. It’s hypocritical, and therefore irritating.

Why four stars, then? Well, there is still a lot about this book that I did enjoy!

Riven was a lot more bearable in the final act! She hadn’t fully understood what she’d been doing wrong, but she did refrain from doing any of it again, and I can take a win when I get one.

I loved every other member of the crew! Asa is just as fab in this book as in the first. She’s more used to Requiem and more secure in her life and identity away from her father, now firmly a part of the crew and an indispensable part of it. Samir and Diego were just as great in this book as they were in the first, and I enjoyed getting to learn more about Diego’s past and reasons for being here. Asa’s sister, Kaya, was a highlight for me from the first book despite not actually being in it very much, so I was really happy to see her playing a much larger part in this book. She’s so fun! Her consciousness having been transferred to an alien brain means she’s now effectively a technomancer, and seeing her put those skills to use was really cool. The upcoming novella is going to be featuring her as a main character and I’m genuinely really excited for it!

And then there’s Ty! Ty gets his own pov in this book, and I love him. He’s the team healer and he really embodies that. It was great seeing the contrast between characters who have no problem with killing people, and Ty who wants to save as many people as possible even if it’s maybe not the most efficient approach to a problem. Ty has never killed anyone before, and a big part of his arc is about reckoning with that. He goes from being scared at the thought of hurting someone to being entirely prepared to do so but choosing to be merciful anyway, and I loved that.

Two characters having a psychic link where they can directly communicate with one another and even hear each other’s thoughts is a trope I really enjoy, especially when it leads to the characters becoming closer with each other.

I enjoyed the competition aspect of the plot! However, I wouldn’t describe this entirely as a ‘competition book’, because it takes up a much smaller part of the story than is probably expected. Things go off the rails very quickly thanks to two opposing antagonistic forces. There’s Luca Almeida, Asa and Kaya’s father and the one responsible for a host of suffering and death, and there’s Redline, a hacker saboteur who holds Asa responsible for her father’s factions and is trying to exact revenge on her. There are a lot of questions surrounding Redline, and not all of them are answered by the end, which isn’t a bad thing. It leaves room for there to potentially be more set in this universe.

So many books have their big climactic moment and then just end right away, as if once the confrontation has happened and the big bad has been dealt with there’s nothing of value anymore so it might as well not continue. This book didn’t do that!! The final chapters are a proper denouement, where the characters now finally have a chance to recover and breathe and be okay. Winning the battle isn’t all there is and I really appreciated that we got to see some of what comes after!

This is in all a fun cyberpunk duology that I’m happy to recommend to people looking for something fast paced and cinematic. 

Thank you to NetGalley and North Star Editions for providing me with an e-arc of this book, and to TBR and Beyond Tours for having me on this tour! You can find the full tour schedule here and the rest of my tour stop (there's a playlist!) here

[hollymbryan]

Blog Tour: Top 5 Reasons to Read CITY OF VICIOUS NIGHT by Claire Winn! #tbrbeyondtours

Hello and welcome to Book-Keeping! I’m happy today to be hosting a spot on the TBR and Beyond Tours blog + bookstagram tour for the conclusion to the Requiem Dark duology by Claire Winn, City of Vicious Night! I’ve got all the details below, plus my top 5 reasons to read the book/series.

About the Book

title: City of Vicious Night (Requiem Dark #2) author: Claire Winn publisher: Flux release date: 23 May 2023

For the most hated crew on Requiem, the only way out is up. It’s been four months since runaway heiress Asa crash-landed on the matriarchal outlaw colony Requiem, bringing a nasty AI and a host of deadly secrets with her. Now, she runs with her almost-girlfriend Riven’s smuggler crew, stealing kisses between gunfights and heists. But when a mysterious hacker sabotages their latest job, other gangs turn against them, blaming them for the destruction the rogue AI caused. Nowhere in the city is safe. The only way to protect their crew is a series of trials for control of an underworld faction–and vying for a matriarch’s throne is a dream Riven can’t let go. But as the trials intensify, the saboteur hounds Asa and Riven’s every step, determined to kill Asa and right her father’s wrongs. When the saboteur reveals a horrific conspiracy threatening all of Requiem–one involving the crew member they thought they’d lost–the girls must decide whether to risk their own skins for a city that loathes them.

Content Warning: death, violence, body horror, references of sexual assault

Add to Goodreads: City of Vicious Night (Requiem Dark #2) Purchase the Book: Amazon | B&N | Bookshop.org

About the Author

Claire Winn spends her time immersed in other worlds—through LARP, video games, books, nerd conventions, and her own stories. Since graduating from Northwestern University, she’s worked as a legal writer and freelance editor. Aside from writing, she builds cosplay props and armor, tears up dance floors, and battles with boffer swords.

Connect with Claire: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Facebook

Top 5 Reasons to Read

I had wanted to read the first book in this duology, City of Shattered Light, since it came out but hadn’t done so yet, so I loved getting to binge this series for this tour! What amazing fun this set is! Below are my top 5 reasons to read City of Vicious Night, which really goes for the whole series, just FYI.

1. These books are such a great example of both sisterhood and the power of female friendships. Asa would do absolutely anything to save her sister Kaya, and book 2 really digs deeper into their sisterhood.

2. We have an incredible group of misfits and outlaws that are an amazing example of why I love the found family trope so much! Riven, Asa, Ty, Samir, Diego, Kaya...I love them all separately but together they’re unstoppable!

3. I love the LGBTQ+ rep in this series; kind of like in the best TV show ever, Schitt’s Creek, it’s just a version of the world in which people are what they are and love who they love and there’s not really any need for explanation or justification.

4. We’ve got heists and deadly competitions -- in space! Enough said.

5. AI, cybernetics, and spaceships, oh my! Seriously, everything we love about cyberpunk sci-fi is here and I just love the world Claire Winn has created with this series.

Really there are more reasons to read this (both kick-butt and ridiculously smart women, budding romance, the sweetest pup) but these are my top 5. I hope you’ll check out the Requiem Dark duology today! Both books were 5-star reads for me.

**Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of this tour.

Make sure you check out the Bookstagram tour too! You can find my post here, and the full schedule is here.