Blog Archives

Posted:
Jan 14, 2012
Tags:
Comments:
2 Comments

City of Fallen Angels

Author: Cassandra Clare
Published: April 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Publishing
Series: The Mortal Instruments #4
314 pages (eBook)

It’s been a bit difficult finding reading time with the start of yet another semester (my last one!) so it took me a lot longer than it normally would have to complete this book. And it’s been a super long time since I read any of the Mortal Instrument books. I remember all the characters but couldn’t really remember the plot details. It all kind of came back to me as I read this fourth book though — which, by the way, I was a little surprised about because I thought the series ended with three?? But I guess not. Last I heard, there’s also a book five and six planned as well.

In City of Fallen Angels, Simon is adjusting to his life as a new vampire. Things get a bit rough when his mother sort of finds out and Simon decides to move out to protect her. Which turns out to be sort of a good thing, I suppose, since someone keeps sending people to try to capture or harm Simon, presumbly for his powers as a Daylighter, a vampire who can walk in the sunlight. Of course, nothing can harm him with the Mark of Cain on him.

At the same time, Shadowhunters are dying in Downworlder territory, causing a bit of strife between the two groups. At first everyone thinks it’s the leader of the vampires, Camille, but it soon becomes clear there is a greater force at work, with an ulterior motive.

Oh, and there’s also the Jace-Clary part of the story, which was my least favourite part so I’m going to kind of just glaze over it. Jace starts receiving dreams about harming Clary, and believes he might actually harm her. There was a lot of proclamations of undying love, angst and inner turmoil between the two — essentially, their relationship hasn’t really progressed since the last three books. I was hoping for it to mature, but it just can’t seem to get past this “I love you but I shouldn’t” kind of depressing thing. It’s also a bit hard to take their love seriously because this sort of obsessive love is what teenagers experience in “puppy love”, the kind of thing you think is cute but probably won’t last forever.

Anyway, this book felt very much like a “set-up” book — it’s setting up for a second major plot in the series. I’m not sure how I really feel about the continuation of the series; I thought book three ended off pretty well and tied things together neatly. All the same though, I do enjoy the series and the different direction it is headed in now does intrigue me and want me to continue reading. I will be the first to admit this wasn’t really a necessary sequel, but I guess I’m just a fan of the world Clare has created in her books and want to keep immersing myself in it.

I really like Simon (I can’t remember if I liked or disliked him in the previous books, but I think I was generally favorable towards him). He’s sort of the main character in this book (well, a central character anyway) and I think he does develop more as a character. He’s got a whole different life now — and I’m not only talking about being a super vampire that makes other vampires jealous, but also the fact he has two girls interested him! From being friend-zoned by Clary to having to rip girls off his back, Simon manages to feel like a refreshing new character while still retaining his personality, his thoughts and familiar self. He’s also got some angst going on now, with being a vampire and all — angst seems to be a central theme in this series — but I think Simon is a fabulous character and I’m really glad this book focuses more on him and that he has more of a role in the story now.

Overall, I quite liked the book. I was by no means obsessively reading it, but it certainly entertained me during my long commutes to and from campus. If you already enjoy the series, then I’m sure you’ll like this one too. If you haven’t read this series before, I find it is a bit of hit-or-miss amongst readers (at least, the ones I know), so I suggest just going with your gut feeling.

My Rating:

Posted:
Jan 2, 2010
Tags:
Comments:
0 Comments

City of Glass

Mortal Instruments: City of GlassAuthor: Cassandra Clare
Published: March 2009
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Series: The Mortal Instruments #3
560 pages (hardcover)

Summary: After learning that the only person who can wake her mother up from a magically induced coma is in the Shadowhunter city of Alicante, Clary makes up her mind that that is where she will go. Unfortunately, Jace does not want her to go because he knows the Clave is highly interested in Clary’s newfound powers and Jace does not feel the Clave can be trusted, so he attempts to pull a few strings to get Clary to stay in New York. Clary finds her way to the City of Glass anyway, where she learns that Valentine is raising an incredible demon army to wipe out the entire Shadowhunter race in order to cleanse the world, and the only chance that they may have to stop him is if Shadowhunters and Downworlders can work together. But after centuries of resentment, can the two sides put aside their differences to fight a common enemy?

My Thoughts: This is the final book of the Mortal Instruments trilogy (though there is a fourth, companion book being released soon titled City of Angels) and I was quite excited to dive into the ending of the series, despite having rated the previous books somewhat averagely. For what its worth, I really do enjoy the world and story Clare has created, which is why I looked forward to reading this third and final book. And I liked it. It’s not exactly addictive, but it does keep you interested.

It seems that with each book, the story becomes more interesting. I think that this is actually the best book of the trio. Perhaps because of the fact that this story takes place in the Shadowhunters’ native country of Idris, the world of angels and demons are so much more defined and clear. The first two books took place in New York, where everything regarding this secret world was hush hush, so you only got to experience what was necessary for the story to continue, but in Idris, everything about the Shadowhunter culture and lifestyle, about angels and demons, is openly described. I definitely understood the world this story takes place in better, it’s a shame kind of a shame you have to wait until this last book to have the full experience.

‘The plot thickens’ is very appropriate in regards to this book. While I had a hunch about Jace’s true origins, Sebastian’s motives and how the many romantic relationships are going to pan out — I am usually pretty good at predicting such things in YA novels — I was still really surprised with some of the other family secrets Clary’s family had. And they weren’t totally random, out-of-the-blue shocking secrets that made you think, “Where the hell did this come from?“; they made sense. I still feel the same way I do about all the characters (which I wrote about in my posts about the previous books); Clary is still blah to me, Jace is still tormented and sexy doing so, Simon is still a favourite of mine … and so on and so forth. Nothing’s really changed in that aspect, to me. The general plot of this third book was much more fun than the first two books, though I still tire of the scenes where characters spend pages explaining the past to Clary (or someone else), or you know, the villain decides to reveal his entire diabolical plan before killing so-and-so. Still wishing that the book found a more interesting way of revealing the past, not to mention a less cliche one.

I have mixed feelings about the ending, I can’t quite decide if I like it or dislike it. For sure, there was lot of action packed scenes and inspirational monologues by a number of characters that amped the intensity of the situation the world was in. I guess what seriously irked me was that Valentine’s ending felt seriously anti-climatic to me. I remember thinking, “That’s it?! WTF?” And a lot of loose ends were tied up in the end … a little too neatly for my liking. I don’t want to spoil, so I guess I’ll say I’m indifferent about the ending for now.

So in summary, I felt this final book was the best of the three, plot-wise. It had a great, adventurous plot and an acceptable ending (I guess … haha) for not only the novel but the entire series. If you want to read something for some fun, some laughs (there is some really good humor sprinkled throughout this series, believe it or not), a good ol’ saving-the-world kind of story, The Mortal Instruments series is for you.

My Rating

Posted:
Dec 7, 2009
Tags:
Comments:
0 Comments

City of Ashes

The Mortal Instruments: City of AshesAuthor: Cassandra Clare
Published: March 2008
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Series: The Mortal Instruments #2
453 pages (paperback)

Summary In this second installment of the Mortal Instruments series, the Shadowhunter world is in a frenzy after discovering that Valentine has stolen the first of the mortal instruments, The Mortal Cup, and that Jace Wayland is actually his son. The Clave (the Shadowhunter government of some sort) is suspicious of Jace and believes he’s Valentine’s spy, and they end up imprisoning him. In the meantime, Valentine is recruiting demons to become a part of his army and is attempting to steal the second mortal instrument, a sword. The downside is that in order for him to use it, he needs the blood of a fairy, a werewolf, a warlock and a vampire to reverse the holiness of the sword. And somehow, these murders of werewolves, fairies, etc. are being pinned onto Jace. Clary, in the meantime, is trying to protect her best friend Simon from Valentine and trying to rescue Jace from prison.

My Thoughts I was at first a bit hesitant to pick up this second book of the series, because the first book, while good, still left me a bit iffy. However, I’m very glad I did because this second book is, in my opinion, better than the first. Again, I was daunted by the thickness of the spine, but once I started reading, I could hardly put it down. It wasn’t so much the plot that interested me, but rather, I was desperate to know how the relationships between all the characters were going to pan out. I definitely think the characters’ relationships were a strong part of this second book. With that being said, I found Clary and Simon’s sudden jump into boyfriend-girlfriend status very surprising. It was established that they were childhood best friends and suddenly they started kissing and talking about sex with one another, it was just very odd.

Speaking of Clary, I still don’t care much for her (unfortunately?) and I still feel her story is overshadowed by Jace’s story. In many ways, Jace feels like the real main character of this story, and his side of the story kept me page-flipping. It works out in my favor though, since I’m a Jace fan and not a Clary fan. I also don’t care much about the new character Maia; I have an inkling that with Maia’s backstory, the reader is supposed to feel sorry for her or something, but it didn’t work on me. I also feel Valentine is becoming more and more of a stock villain. He doesn’t really inspire any fear, but I think his pet demon does! The Inquisitor character was also sort of a stock villain too, but she was written in such a way that she frustrates the reader — which is good! She was a character who can create emotions in the reader, I was genuinely angry at the Inquisitor!

Overall, I enjoyed this book a LOT more than I did the first one, I found the plot very interesting and the characters, on a whole, more relate-able than last installment. Simon has really come forward as one of the better defined characters and I think he positively shines in this second story (forgive the irony, hahaha). I can’t wait to grab a copy of the third book, City of Glass, and find out what happens next, thanks to the cliff hanger at the end!

My Rating

Posted:
Dec 6, 2009
Tags:
Comments:
0 Comments

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments: City of BonesAuthor: Cassandra Clare
Published: 2007
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Series: The Mortal Instruments #1
512 pages (paperback)

Summary The book is about Clarissa “Clary” Fray, who is a seemingly ordinary 15 year old girl living in New York with her single mom. Her best friend is a boy named Simon and she is also close with her mother’s longtime friend Luke, who runs a bookstore. At a club one day, Clary witnesses what she assumed to be three individuals killing someone, but mysteriously, she is the only person who can see them. A little later on, she gets in a fight with her mother and storms out of her house to hang out with Simon. When she returns home, she finds her mother missing and a demon monster wanting to eat her! She is rescued by a Shadowhunter named Jace, who takes her to the Institute where she may recover, while he and other Shadowhunters ponder as to why Clary can see demons. Clary finds herself as a central character in this secret world of shadowhunters, demons, and half-demons, where the villain Valentine, who everyone thought died years ago, is supposedly making a comeback in his goal to purify the world of the unwanted demons, and the innocent half-demons.

My Thoughts
This is the first book in a quartet series, and I believe it’s Cassandra Clare’s first published novel. You might know her as a Big Name Harry Potter fan and Lord of the Rings fan, because her fanfiction is pretty famous (The Draco Trilogy? I never read it though, I’m not big on fanfiction to be honest). Anyway, I didn’t know about her fanfiction history until I was 3/4 of the way through the book, but to me, it’s pretty obvious her story was greatly influenced by the Harry Potter series, there’s a lot of similarities (not that it’s a bad thing, just something I observed).

It’s a fun read and I enjoyed the world envisioned in this story. I got through it a lot faster than I expected because I was sort of hooked onto it and wanted to know what happens! It’s fantasy on the Harry Potter level, set in the modern world. It has some pretty humorous lines sprinkled throughout, a few of which made me literally laugh out loud. The book also deals with a romance subplot of some sort, and it may or may not involve a bit of minor kissing incest (THEY DIDN’T KNOW!)

The characters are easy to like or admire, though I didn’t find many of them particularly realistic. My favourite character, which I predict is also the favourite character of many other girls, is Jace. I can’t help it, I like the whole “I’m an arrogant prick but deep inside I’m tortured. Also I’m extremely good looking and I know it” kind of male character. He’s also the character with some of the best funny lines. I didn’t really care about the main character, Clary. Though she’s the main character, her part in the story seems to be overshadowed by Jace’s. The story is obviously carefully thought out, which I appreciate, and the writing is at the right level for this sort of story and for the audience it’s aiming for (which I guess includes me, hahaha). Overall, I had a good experience reading it, the book had enough “OMG” moments to keep me continuing the story (hence why I also read book number two as well), but there are some things I didn’t like — to be exact, there are three things I didn’t like:

One, the storyline, while creative, is also kind of predictable. I can’t really say more without spoiling anything, but basically, some of the events that ‘surprised’ the characters, I already saw coming a mile away. This could be just me and my sixth sense though (hahaha).

Two, perhaps it couldn’t have been helped, but it bored me when there were long scenes where characters were explaining to Clary about how certain things in the Shadowhunter world worked. At those points, it didn’t feel like I was reading a story anymore, it felt like I was reading a textbook on how the world in this story operated. I wish the author thought of a more imaginative way of explaining things to the reader without resorting to having one, or a few, characters spend pages and pages just explaining things.

And three, the characters don’t seem very realistic. Actually, it felt a lot like I was reading an anime. Anybody’s who’s watched a fair number of anime series will know what I mean: the characters seem to fit into certain stereotypes, like the arrogant jerk of a hero who’s really kind deep down, the cold femme fatale, the wise old man, the villain who smiles wickledly every time you meet him, etc. I think the reason this didn’t bother me as much as the first two points I made is because I happen to enjoy watching anime, but reading a book with anime-like characters … well, somehow, the experience just isn’t the same. Simon’s probably the most realistic character out of the bunch.

But overall, it’s a great read, and the three points I explained aren’t HUGE drawbacks, just my personal annoyances.

My Rating