Tagged: shadowhunters
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
(Cover picture courtesy of Mundie Source.)
In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street—and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends.
With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the friendly devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.
Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, though her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?
As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.
After reading Clockwork Prince, I’m starting to like The Infernal Devices even more. Finally characters like Will and Jessamine acquire depth and I can actually sympathize with them. Whereas Clockwork Angel focused mainly on Tessa’s entrance into the world of the supernatural, Clockwork Prince focuses more on the characters and setting up the final book, Clockwork Princess. We also get a lot more information about the world of the Shadowhunters, which builds on both the first book and the parallel series, The Mortal Instruments.
Tessa is still a strong character in this book and readers will feel her love for Jem, but also her growing attraction to will, despite his horrible behavior toward her at the end of the first book. She hates her brother Nathan for betraying her and the Shadowhunters, yet she still has a bit of sisterly affection for him, even if she doesn’t want to admit it. Her choices in this novel have direct consequences for the people she loves, so Tessa is even more conflicted about her decisions than before. Will also acquires a lot more depth and I actually feel sorry for him as he uncovers an ironic tragedy worthy of Sophocles himself.
The plot of Clockwork Prince is moderately fast and almost every scene advances the action. What I admire most about Cassandra Clare is that she perfectly intertwines her two series together so that if you read them in order of release, you will have a much richer experience. From a marketing perspective, the way she releases these books is brilliant because fans of the first three books will want to keep reading The Mortal Instruments to see what happens to Clary and the others. They’re also more likely to read The Infernal Devices because it gives them some backstory on some of their favourite characters. It’s hard to read one series without reading the other. Brilliant.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
The Mortal War is over, and Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She’s training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at least. And—most important of all—Clary can finally call Jace her boyfriend.
But nothing comes without a price.
Someone is murdering Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine’s Circle, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second bloody war. Clary’s best friend, Simon, can’t help her. His mother has just found out that he’s a vampire and now he’s homeless. Everywhere he turns, someone wants him on their side—along with the power of the curse that’s wrecking his life. And they’re willing to do anything to get what they want. At the same time he’s dating two beautiful, dangerous girls—neither of whom knows about the other.
When Jace begins to pull away from Clary without explaining why, she is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: She herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.
Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. The stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.
With all of the little unanswered questions at the end of City of Glass, I couldn’t help but be eager for the fourth book. So now that I’ve returned to The Mortal Instruments series, I can finally review it.
In City of Fallen Angels we see a lot of different characters’ points of view, which I actually like. Clary has taken a bit of a backseat to Simon, who is coping with being a Daylighter and bearing the cursed mark of Cain. Did I mention the idiot is dating two girls at once since he doesn’t know how to say no? Come on, things like that hardly end well and the love triangle feels a bit forced. Other than that, Cassandra Clare’s characterization is decent, but nothing truly exceptional.
The plot is well paced and there are some unexpected twists. We also meet some of the characters from Clockwork Angel, which I would recommend you read first. It’s not necessary, but it helps you understand the vampire Camille and Magnus’ past, especially when Camille and Magnus allude to their past together. One of the best things about City of Fallen Angels is that we finally get to learn more about demons and their origins as well as about the history of the Shadowhunters. And with the cliffhanger at the end, I’m anxious to read the fifth book, City of Lost Souls.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
(Cover picture courtesy of Fantastic Fiction.)
When Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother in Victorian England, something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld. Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, who are members of a secret organization called the Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she has the power to transform into another person. The Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own. Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James and Will. As Tessa is drawn deep into a plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, she realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world…and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.
Even after more than a week has passed since I finished reading Clockwork Angel, I’m still not sure how I feel about it.
On one hand, Tessa Gray is a great character. She’s not nearly as helpless as Clary is at first in City of Bones. She does anything to save her brother Nathan, even if it means submitting to the torture the Dark Sisters put her through to train her to use her shape-shifting power. But while Tessa is three dimensional, some other characters like Will and Jessamine are not. Will is cold, distant and appears to be a womanizer, just like Jace was at first. He’s the stereotypical bad boy with a tragic backstory that made him that way, which makes Clockwork Angel feel like City of Bones rehashed.
What saves this novel is that it is set in a different time period with a different enemy: the mysterious Magister and his freaky robots. The plot is fast-paced and readers of The Mortal Instruments will recognize Magnus Bane and a few family names, like Lightwood and Herondale. We also find out why the club where Clary first saw Jace is called Pandemonium; it really does have an interesting backstory. If you’re completely new to Cassandra Clare’s writing I would recommend reading the first three Mortal Instruments books before reading Clockwork Angel because you’ll get a lot more out of it. It’s not necessarily a requirement, but things will make a lot more sense.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
(Cover picture courtesy of Gripped Into Books.)
A murderer is loose in New York City…
…and the victims are Downworlder children. Clary Fray and her fellow Shadowhunters have a strong suspicion that Valentine, Clary’s father, may be behind the killings. But if he is the murderer, what’s his true motive? To make matters worse, the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, has been stolen, and the mysterious Inquisitor ahs arrived to investigate, with his eyes vigilantly targeted on Clary’s brother, Jace.
Clary will need to face some terrifying demons and even more terrifying family decisions. No one said that the life of a Shadowhunter would be easy.
It’s rare that the second book in a series or trilogy is better than the first book (see Catching Fire), but Cassandra Clare has managed to pull it off. City of Ashes has twice the suspense, romance and surprises of City of Bones.
It has many of the clichés of the first novel, but these are given some interesting spins that kept me on the edge of my seat (especially in Chapter 9: And Death Shall Have No Dominion) up until the very end. City of Ashes may be my favourite book in The Mortal Instruments trilogy, but it does have its flaws. Clary could still be substituted for any YA protagonist and Jace is still the stereotypical super hot but icy love interest. The only redeeming thing is that we get to see many other characters’ points of view, which gives them a bit more depth than in the first book.
We see a bit more of Valentine, which I really like. Many of the villains in YA fiction are neglected and end up having what I like to call Dr. No Syndrome: they’re just evil with no explanation or the explanation is really unbelievable. No one really thinks of themselves as a villain in real life, so why should it be any different in fiction? Valentine really thinks he’s doing the right thing and the perverted logic he uses makes it sound like he is the true hero, even if his actions do not match up. I think many YA authors would do well to study Cassandra Clare’s enigmatic villain.
I give this book 4/5 stars.