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Title | City of Bones
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Author | Cassandra Clare
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Cover Art | Cliff Nielsen
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Publisher | Simon & Schuster - 2007
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First Printing | Simon & Schuster - 2007
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Title | City of Ashes
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Author | Cassandra Clare
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Cover Art | Cliff Nielsen
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Publisher | Simon & Schuster - 2008
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First Printing | Simon & Schuster - 2008
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Title | City of Glass
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Author | Cassandra Clare
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Cover Art | Cliff Nielsen
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Publisher | Simon & Schuster - 2009
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First Printing | Simon & Schuster - 2009
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Title | City of Fallen Angels
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Author | Cassandra Clare
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Cover Art | Cliff Nielsen
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Publisher | Simon & Schuster - 2011
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First Printing | Simon & Schuster - 2011
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Title | City of Lost Souls
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Author | Cassandra Clare
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Cover Art | Cliff Nielsen
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Publisher | Simon & Schuster - 2012
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First Printing | Simon & Schuster - 2012
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Title | City of Heavenly Fire
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Author | Cassandra Clare
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Cover Art | Cliff Nielsen
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Publisher | Simon & Schuster - 2015
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First Printing | Simon & Schuster - 2014
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Category | Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Clary Fray, Jace, Simon, Isabelle, Alec, Magnus Bane, Luke Garroway
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Main Elements | Angels, warlocks, demons, vampires, werewolves
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Website | cassandraclare.com
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 City of Bones
When Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder. Much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered in odd markings. This is Clary Fray's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons - and keeping the odd werewolves and vampires in line. It's also her first meeting with gorgeous golden-haired Jace. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in an ordinary mundane like Clary? And how did she suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...
City of Ashes
Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires and faeries? Clary would love to spend more time with her best friend, Simon. But the Shadowhunters won't let her go - especially her handsome, infuriating newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insance, certainly evil - and also her father. When the second of the Mortal Instruments is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor suspects Jace. Could Jace really be willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?
City of Glass
To save her mother's life, Clary travels to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters - never mind that by doing so she is breaking the Law, which could mean death. Even worse, Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by Shadowhunters who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight. Luckily, Clary finds an ally in the mysterious Sebastian, who holds a strange attraction for her. As Valentine musters a demon army, can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their ancient hatred and work together? And can Clary harness her newfound powers to help save them all - whatever the cost?
City of Fallen Angels
The Mortal War is over, and Clary Fray is back in New York. She's training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. 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 Shadowhunters, provoking tensions that could lead to a second bloody war. Clary's best friend Simon, can't help her. Everywhere he turns, someone wants him on their side - along with the power of the curse that's wrecking his life. 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 has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.
City of Lost Souls
The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace freed from captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive, they find only blood and broken glass: Jace, the boy Clary loves, and Sebastian, the brother Clary hates, have disappeared.
The Clave's magic cannot locate either boy, but Jace can't stay away from Clary. When they meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that Lilith's magic has bound Jace together with Sebastian, and Jace has become a servant of evil.
The Clave is out to eradicate Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle scheme and bargain to save Jace, but Clary is utterly alone, playing a dangerous game. If she loses, her life - and Jace's soul - are forfeit. She'd do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?
City of Heavenly Fire
In this dazzling conclusion to the acclaimed Mortal Instruments series, Clary and her friends fight the greatest evil they have ever faced: Clary's own brother.
Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move, turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures out of a nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell.
When one of the greatest betrayals the Nephilim have ever known is revealed, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon and Alec must flee - even if their journey takes them deep into the demon realms, where no Shadowhunter has set foot before, and from which no human being has ever returned...
Well, the movie was coming out, so I couldn't resist seeing what all the hype was about. You'd think I'd have learned from recent young adult fiction not to expect to much. Or should I say, I should expect young girl thrust into unfamiliar world, having to choose between the good boy, and the bad boy, and picking the bad boy (even if he is her brother, eww).
In the end, the only characters I really felt for were Magnus ("a warlock who looks like a gay Sonic the Hedgehog and dresses like the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang") and Alec, and maybe Simon because he's the good boy Clary should have chosen but didn't. And I was kind of disappointed about the angel aspect, I was hoping for winged warriors but all I got was a legend that the Shadowhunters *might* have been created through angelic blood.
Alright, so the characters didn't grab me, did anything else? Well, the world was interesting enough to keep me reading. These worlds within our world are always fun, like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson or even the Dresden Files. Us mundanes/muggles/whatevers go about our lives blissfully unware of the supernatural events going on around us. However unlike those three books I just listed, somehow Clare's world building didn't draw me in as deeply as I had hoped it would. It was alright, and it was explained well enough. Sometimes an author doesn't bother to explain how the world works and you are either left wonder what on earth is going on, or being forced to believe the world works in implausible manners. At least that wasn't the case here. While we don't learn everything in the first two books, we learn enough that the world at least makes sense. It just wasn't...unique enough I guess.
And while I found it refreshing that there was a homosexual couple in a young adult book (the first I've come across) the incest was just not my thing. Bad enough Jace is the bad boy, but also her brother? But given the covers of future books (as I write this I finished book 2), I'm wondering, will there be another soap opera 180 and we'll find out they are not related after all? I wouldn't be surprised. That way they could live happily ever after without weirding everyone one out.
I will continue reading the next two, if only because they came as a set of four. Like I said, they are interesting enough to warrant a quick read, and they are quick, so I'm willing to put in the effort and see where things go.
May 2015
Well, I must say there are plot holes big enough for the entire Glass City to fall through, and I was justified in my prediction of the 180 I made two years ago (really, is that a spoiler, did you really expect an incestuous relationship to continue through subsequent books??). The action was good though, and the read was fast. And there are developments between Magnus and Alec that is frankly the main thing that is keeping me going, however minor it is to the whole storyline (looking forward to reading the Magnus Bane book though). So while I rather enjoyed the book in the end, it was often silly, the characters overly naive or outright slap-them-upside-the-head stupid, big bad unbreakble rules are put in place and then ignored, and it was clearly originally intended to be a trilogy, so don't know where the last three books will go. But in the end, I will read those books, if nothing more than to see what other crazy thing Magnus will decide to wear!
April 2017
The first three books were clearly a completed trilogy that wrapped up, but they were popular so the series continues. I must admit there's nothing more annoying than a group of characters that get themselves into trouble just because "they are not good enough", or "he pissed me off so I won't talk to him". That's ok when all you have to worry about is getting through high school, but this is a world where if you don't talk to each other about what is going on, if you do rely on each other, you're gonna end up dead for really dumb reasons. And Alec, grow up, Magnus is like a thousand years old, did you really think he remained a virgin all that time just waiting for you to be born? Think how hard it is for him to keep loving and losing! It was an ok brainless read, I think better than City of Glass in fact. But really, I just read it for the brief glimpses of Magnus (though Simon is actually growing on me quite a bit as a character, want to see where he ends up).
Spring 2020
This year I figured I would finish series I'd already started and that included this one. However, I'll admit I'd half forgotten what had happened in the earlier books. Since they are quick reads I gave them a second pass. The first three were decent enough really, though the "incest angst" got really annoying. The fourth book though was 90% an angst story and 10% plot, in fact a new character was brought in to add little to the story than to have yet another pair of characters that refuse to talk to each other. About half of the bad things that happened, happened because people were going around pissed at each other and ignoring them, or keeping secrets, or being stubborn, and that's frustrating. Like I said before, if all you have to worry about is high school, that's cool, go for it. But if the fate of the world is hanging in the balance...well, get your head out of your...*cough*...and deal with it. I now know why I was thinking I like Magnus so much, he's actually an adult but at the same time not a parent (who are mainly there for the kids to have conflict with, or are useless in the background, it's a YA novel after all). But Magnus is kinda part of the group, attached to Alec as he is, but at the same time he's not just a grown up but a several centuries old one. He still has his own angst but he deals with it instead of moping (though he has to deal with a moper...). And Simon grew on me because his problems were real (not the two girlfriend bit but the everyone wants a piece of him part, or the realization that he'll live forever watching everyone he cares about growing old and dying, as Magnus said, in 100 years will be just the two of them left, immortality and invincibility is cool until everyone else is gone and you're still sixteen of all things, never even getting to be an adult).
Anyway, now onto the last two books:
July 2020
Well, I didn't like the fourth book but the last two grew on me. There was more action, less angst, still didn't care much for Clary/Jace but the secondary characters really grew into their own and developed. It wrapped up pretty well also, however there were two big problems with these last two books.
First Cassandra Clare was also writing another trilogy, The Infernal Devices, at the same time, but for The Mortal Instruments to really make sense you needed to interleave the two trilogies, there were a ton of spoilers for the other trilogy, which I thought was terrible, confusing, and basically mess up my enjoyment of the other books. I'd be ok if Infernal Devices were written first, then they could be referenced in Mortal Instruments, but it was the other way around and readers can't know the order in which to read the books. Basically I already know how the story ends for two of the three main characters of Infernal Devices, without even knowing what the story is, not good. Now I'm torn, I intended to save Infernal Devices for next year, but I'll forget all the hints that were dropped in Mortal Instruments and no way am I re-reading about 13 thousand pages again to remind me of the details. Jim Butcher learned the hard way not to put crucial story points into a short story that not everyone might read, another lesson to learn would be don't mix up reading orders of two independent sub-series within a larger world. Readers won't be able to guess the right order and they will end up disappointed.
Second, every time the Codex was mentioned it sounded like a placement ad for the book she's selling. Every now and then a character would say something like, "And it was explained in the Codex, a book every Shadowhunter should have on their shelves" - (psst, that means *you* reader, go buy it now!). I would actually start laughing every time it happened which I'm pretty sure was not Clare's intention but it was ridiculously blatant.
But I'll be honest, I went into this with the intention of reading them once and then giving them away, but Alec and Magnus and Simon and Isabelle grew on me so much that I'll not only keep the books, but will keep reading the million other series she has (by the end of the 6th book there was Infernal Devices, Dark Artifices, the Magnus Bane book, the Shadowhunter Academy, The Last Hours, and there are even more after that still coming out today....I hope there is some sensible reading order to them or it's going to be the mess!!!)
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