The Mortal Instruments: City of Fallen Angels

And it is finally here. The next book in the mortal instruments series, i.e., #4 City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare. And I certainly wasn't disappointed at all.


This is how the Summary goes:


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 last. And—most important of all—Clary can finally call Jace her boyfriend. But nothing comes without a price. Someone is murdering the 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 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.


Let me first specify something - I just read the book, it was definitely worth the wait and I have yet to construct my thoughts about the book but i'll try to write this post spoiler free as much as possible.


Okay so everyone's favourite tattooed demon slayer are back along with their downworlder cohorts kicking some demonic ass and thwarting evil villains' and their devious plans. Sort of. 

And Simon is trying really hard to maintain his old mundane life, with his new daylighter needs, and an increasingly over protective mother.......it is definitely not an easy task of being a vampire as well as being a teenager. To top that off with the dual love affairs, involving a particular lady shadowhunter, and she-wolf, and well Simon would most likely consider letting one of the assassin's, who have been trying to off him, finish the job and put him out of his misery if not for the mark of Cain preventing it. Meanwhile Jace and Clary are on the rocks. Jace isn't eating. He isn't sleeping. Thoughts and visions of hurting Clary abound. Something is terribly wrong. Secrets can hurt more in the end than the truth, and a big one is about to rebound on our nephilim power couple, and possibly destroy them. When all the powers of heaven and hell collide, can love truly conquer all? 


Cassandra Clare's fourth venture into the showhunter world, starts off bit rough and scraped around the edges. The gang is separated. All the plot points and individual character threads are important overall, and do eventually tie in together for the book's story arc, but it can be hard to follow. I find this forgivable because she's trying to balance kicking off the new story lines, with character updates, introducing new characters, multiple POVs, while maintaining her previously developed world. I think it's quite ambitious of her. 


At the end of COG I felt like I could breathe easy, because Jace and Clary made it out together. Well, all the angst is definitely back, and killing me softly all over again. It does get a little annoying that no one's communicating with each other. I also feel cheated thinking this new second series was going to tie in more with the Infernal Devices trilogy. I read that there would be some crossover, but found it minimal. You really don't need to read ID to understand CoFA. I was also disappointed not to see Tessa. After COG I thought the scene between Magnus and Tessa would be important somehow. I did like getting to see how my favorite characters are handling the changes in their lives, Simon's POV, Jace and Clary's relationship problems, Alec and Magnus' budding relationship, and Isabel's surprising rise to a more prominent role in this book. City of Fallen Angels is definitely about the relationships. Since a lot of the book separates our heroes and heroines, I find that I miss the dynamic of them all together battling the forces of evil. I did rejoice a bit at the end when that did happen. 


COFA is definitely full of complicated relationships. As Jace continues his inner struggle over who he is and where he comes from; he also continues his moody distance thing with Clary that rakes readers over the coals from beginning to end. Simon, the newly turned vampire, is also struggling with his new lifestyle and two girlfriends. Maia's old boyfriend who turned her into a werewolf makes an appearance surprising everyone with his actions. Alec struggles with his lover's long and complicated past and future immortality. I enjoyed greatly how Clare allowed for conflict to develop between the relationships over a period of time. They were not resolved immediately, thus providing time for emotions of the reader to fully develop. Readers have referred to Clare's great enjoyment of "torturing" her readers; however, the readers seem to enjoy this torture most thoroughly.

Along with the development of relationships, the plot continues on as creatures fight for Simon's alliance. With a new rash of shadowhunter deaths, and someone unsuccessfully trying to create demon blooded babies like Sebastian, the gang of friends must uncover the perpetrator and save everyone once again. The cliff hanger at the end is amazingly torturous leaving the reader dying for yet the next installment, which we must wait a little over a year for. 


Overall a lot of good things are happening in CoFA. If you can wade through the multiple points of view telling the story you will be rewarded with a very interesting new villain and plot. There is a cliffhanger at the end that sets up the sequel. City of Fallen Angels is definitely a sinfully delicious pleasure. 


Also besides the ebook I also got the audiobook version of CoFA......well Ed Westwick is definitely the reason for that. This was an excellent recording. I don't know why a lot audiobooks aren't treated like a music recording. I hate getting one that sounds like it's in a can or has a lot of noise in the background. Sometimes the VoiceOver talent isn't very good but a good recording can compensate. The City of Fallen Angels audiobook should be the standard for the format. It was recorded well. Ed Westwick and Molly Quinn were wonderful narrators. I highly recommend the audiobook version of CoFA. Not only for the narration but also for all those 'Chuck Bass' out there. 

The Mortal Instruments: City of Fallen Angels

The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass

#3 City of Glass is the third and final part of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments trilogy.......Well it used to be the final book of an initially intended triology which has now become a series and the fourth book is about to release in April. So no question asked................ before you pick up this book to read you better read its two predecessors - #1 City of Bones & #2 City of Ashes, if you want to make a head or tail of the book.


(before you proceed further i'd like to inform you readers that this review might contain a lot of spoilers........so proceed at your own risk)


Where the first book has Jace on the cover, the second one with Clary, now this one has a new character on the cover, Sebastian (who may well have his own secrets that are dangerous for the everyone.....).


The Mortal Instruments series has followed the story of Clary, an average New York teenage girl, whose mother suddenly disappears at the same time that she starts being able to see things, such as demons, that most normal people can’t. Clary’s mother had been hiding her from her demon hunting heritage in an attempt to protect Clary from the machinations of Valentine, the evil father Clary had never known. The previous books in the trilogy have followed Clary on her journey from mundane (non-supernatural) teenager to rune-wielding Shadowhunter, introducing the reader to a magical world, populated with werewolves, vampires, faeries and mages along the way.


Losing no momentum from the ending of City of Ashes, City of Glass opens up full throttle and gets faster and more thrilling with the passing of each chapter. With Valentine now in possession of two of the mortal instruments necessary to call down the angel Raziel and request that the power of all his fellow Shadowhunters (at least, the ones who don't fall in line behind him) be revoked, and that Valentine be allowed to shape a new race that will not only answer the original charter to hunt and kill demons, but also be allowed to do away with Downworlders -- vampires, werewolves, and fairy creatures -- with whom the current Shadowhunter Clave has developed a fragile truce.


In the opening pages of City of Glass readers leave the mundane world of New York completely behind. Previous books have changed, or revealed, all of the story’s main characters to be to be either Downworlder or Shadowhunter so with no mundanes left in their group they travel to Idris, the homeland of the Shadowhunters. The rest of the story is set there and with its magical protections, towers, forests and horse-based transport the Idris setting has more in common with classic epic fantasy than with the urban fantasy landscapes of a magical New York that were a striking feature of the previous Mortal Instruments books.


Now with Jace and the Lightwood family making their way to the hidden country of Idris, to share with the Clave what they've discovered, Clary is left behind in New York, fuming at Jace's attempts to shut her out. But Clary isn't without her own resources -- she's just discovered that, like other Shadowhunters, she can create runes of power, etchings done with a device called a stele that function like magic. Unlike other Shadowhunters, however, Clary has also exhibited the ability to create new runes, something absolutely unheard of in Shadowhunter culture, and which the Clave would be very interested in seeing.


Her determination to be a part of the fight, and to achieve the magical cure for her mother's otherworldly coma, leads her to make her own way to Idris, which nearly costs her her life. Upon arrival, she finds that her best friend Simon (the vampire who inexplicably can walk in the daylight, unlike his other kin) is imprisoned and tortured, and that Jace is apparently entering into a relationship with a new Shadowhunter girl, leaving Clary open toward falling into the arms of the suave and charming Sebastian, the only one who rivals Jace when it comes to abnormal strength and fighting skill.


Of course their is also the one question of exactly what type of experiments did Valentine perform upon his progeny, that made them so special, and that's certainly explored. But more thrilling is the introduction of a newer, deadlier player to the game. Valentine is a monster, but unlike other villains of fiction, Clare presents him as a man who truly believes he is trying to do the right thing for the right reasons. This newer villain has far darker motives, and the means to carry them out, and soon the capital city of Alicante is left defenseless to an invasion force of demonic strength, bringing a heart-rending tragedy to the Lightwood family.


"The Forbidden Fruit tastes the sweetest" 


The most pressing part of the story though is the tortured relationship between Jace and Clary. Originally this pair of would-be young lovers looked set follow the time-honoured tradition of sniping at each other until they realised how attracted they were to each other before falling into each others arms. Unfortunately by the time they got to realize their attraction to each other it was also revealed that they were actually brother and sister, secretly separated since birth. The whole forbidden love plotline is enough to keep reader engrossed and drives the story forward even without the threat of war and imminent death.


City of Glass has more twists and turns in it than pretty much any other book I have read. I would think one thing, just to have the opposite proved to me. I'm ending it here because well i don't think that there is anything left for me to mention and those who think this is the final book and well want more of Jace and Clary do not worry as The Mortal Instruments triology is now a series of 6 book with the 4th book City of Fallen Angels releasing on 5th April this year. Eagerly awaiting that book.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Glass

The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes

Continuing after a successful read after the City of Bones, comes the #2 City of Ashes in The Mortal Instruments series (used to be a triology but now a series). 


Let us just first re-cap what we read in the first book - Clary Fray’s world is turned upside-down. She has never thought of herself as being anything other than ordinary, until she sees a group of teenagers kill a demon—and finds that no one else can see them. Soon after that, Clary’s mother mysteriously disappears, and she is plunged into a world in which vampires and werewolves are real. She discovers that she is a Shadowhunter—a race of demon-slayers. To top it all off, she finds herself caught in a nasty love triangle with Simon, her best friend, and Jace, an arrogant, handsome Shadowhunter. Just as she seems to be falling for Jace, she finds out that Valentine, the villainous man who kidnapped her mother* is her father, and Jace is her brother. *CRASH* that's gonna hurt!!


The book begins with these 2 blurbs. "A Gorgeous Fantasy that is so good, its dangerous" - Holly Black. "The Mortal Instrument series is a story world that I love to live in. Beautiful" - Stephenie Meyer. And with a cover showcasing Clary we can guess what we'd find in the book.


The book opens up with Valentine summoning a demon to be at his beck and call and a murder. This demon plays against a person’s worst fears.  You would need a protection spell if you want to ward off the advances of that kind of demon. Should I name the demon...............should I??? Well it AGRAMON.......*SCARY*


Once again Valentine is up to no good – no surprise there.  At the end of the first book, Valentine gained control of the Mortal Cup, which can only mean trouble for….everyone.  What is the hell is he up to anyway?


Clary’s mother is still lying in the hospital in a coma, the Clave (the big guys are involved now) suspects that Jace is a spy for his father, and Clary is very much romantically confused. Valentine goes after the second Mortal Instrument, the Soul-Sword, and is more of a bastard than ever. Jace is an angry, angst-ridden teenager. Simon seems to be becoming more than a friend to Clary, but she’s still struggling with her feelings for Jace and MY........Alec gets a boyfriend (in a certain rainbow clad Warlock). Ok i know I'm dropping a lot of spoilers for those who still need to read the first book.....*Sorry couldn't control myself*

Clary is not the only one to go through personal upheaval.  Jace is devastated that he is not who he thought he was.  Nothing good can come out of being Valentine’s son which he learns when his “mother” returns home full of accusations. Soon he is cast out from the one place he can call home. The Inquisitor, a real peach of lady, holds Jace’s fate in her hands.  Believe me there is no love lost between his adoptive parents, his real father and her. Needless to say the meeting between them doesn’t go well and he is sentenced to prison in the Silent City.  Prison turns out to not be the safest place for Jace as dearest daddy pays him a visit there trying to get him to switch teams.


On top of all the aforementioned drama, Clary and Jace seem to be some discovering mysterious powers. But of course, there is still the lingering question of the century: are they really siblings?


The story is told in third person and mostly from the perspective of Clary, which for the most part works very well since it means that the reader can share Clary’s sense of bewilderment and wonder at the secret world that is revealed to her.  Her confusion over her relationship with her new found brother (the boy she wants but can’t have) and her feelings for Simon (her lifelong best friend who she wishes was her brother and not her boyfriend) make for compelling, if soap opera-ish reading.


Did I mention that Simon is now a vampire. 


City of Ashes shows its popular culture roots. Even the description of Simon crawling out of his shallow grave – “The grave was roiling like the surface of an unsteady ocean. Ripples appeared on its surface. Suddenly it burst apart, clods of dirt flying. A small mountain of dirt, like an anthill, heaved itself upward. At the center of the mountain was a hand, fingers splayed, clawing at the dirt.” – conjures an image that has seen countless times in nameless horror films as zombies, vampires and the evil undead arise to wreak havoc.


 I like the complexity and the diversity of the characters. Ultimately, City of Ashes adds up to more than the sum of its parts, so there is really no cause for complaint. A fast paced and engaging read, City of Ashes is well written and a much stronger novel than City of Bones.  Summing up, if you liked City of Bones, you will love City of Ashes.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Can anything that seems to be a complete waste of time prove the opposite. Well in this case with The Mortal Instruments series #1 City of Bones it sure does the trick. Well i've been postponing getting this book for a long time unsure of what i might expect from here but after seeing a lot of praises for the series both on youtube and goodreads(although i basically check about new stuffs from amazon but i'm not adding it to the list because all the negative reviews put me off a little bit). So, i thought well why not, since i only concern myself with the plot and not with the genre.

Well, here goes nothing i believe;

A blurb on the back of the book from Justine Larbalestier, Magic of Maddness, claims that City of Bones has it all. While Holly Black, Valiant, says this book is ‘Funny. Dark. And sexy.’ Can one book live up to all this great press? With a cover that sexy.........well yes it sure can.

Clary Fray, short for Clarissa, is a normal girl in a normal world. When she sees a blue-haired boy in a night club attacked and killed by a group of three strange-looking teenagers, things change. But when a bouncer is called and no one can see the three but her, Clary starts to wonder what exactly is happening. When Clary receives a strange phone call from her mom she rushes home to make sure that everything is alright. What she finds is an apartment in ruins and a demon waiting to eat her. But Clary isn’t a normal girl and she is able to, barely, hold her own against the demon. Soon enough she is rescued by one of the strange teenagers. Jace takes her to the Institute, a place of safety for his kind.

What is happening is that Clary is starting to regain her ‘Sight’, the power that enables her to see the world, and the things in the world, as it really is. Soon she learns that the three teenagers are Shadowhunters or the nephilim (who are shown in differnt light in the Christan Holy Bible): men, women, and teenagers created by mixing the blood of angels with that of men so that they can hunt and kill demons. Alec and Isabelle, the other two strangers from the club, are brother and sister, and Jace came to live with their family when he was ten years old, after the horrific death of his father.

A lot is happening in City of Bones. Featuring a full cast of characters, twists jump out with every turn of the page as Clary moves through the discovery of herself and the truth that is locked in her memories. Now, Clary’s best friend Simon is one of the more human and believable characters in this novel; his awkwardness is easily recognized from any boy you went to high school with, making him even more lovable. The Shadowhunters and their world is fantastic. Clear and all very much so believable.

City of Bones is a thrilling ride that has you sitting, waiting, and wishing. You are rooting for the characters as the battle an evil that hits close to home, so dangerous that you would rethink your family’s dynamics. The characters are full of life, and although we might have a few things figured out before them they are still a joy to read about. A story full of secrets and hidden agendas is bound to hold you, captivating your imagination. Not to mention the complex and utterly fantastical world Cassandra Clare has created. 

For a debut novel for a fan fiction writer the novel provides us with all the entertainment we book lovers need. The adventures get only more interesting as the series progresses. It's good that i didn't re-think my decision of reading the book or i would have missed out on a lot. 

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones