Simon, son of Valentine, is using his Infernal Cup to
make war on the Shadowhunters. With this cup he can turn the Shadowhunters into
the Endarkened, evil, superlative warriors bound to his will. After a raid on
several institutes, he has gathered quite a force, especially with the hidden
allies working on his side. The Shadowhunters are unprepared and desperately
trying to counter him while continuing their mission.
And the pacts he’s made with Lillith make him almost
invulnerable – except to Heavenly fire. The only source of which is currently
in Jace and he doesn’t know how to control it.
Throughout the Mortal
Instruments Series and, relatedly, The
Infernal Devices series we’ve had a major complaint – they are terribly,
ridiculously overwritten. This continues massively this book, with lots of unnecessary,
excessive description over and over again. Really, we do not need to know what
everyone is wearing at every given moment, repeatedly. I don’t need to know
about everyone’s hair, the terrain, that someone has put their fingers through
the belt loops of their jeans in conversation, what an irrelevant building
looks like, whether Maryse likes said building –trim trim trim!
In between the piles of unnecessary description we also
have vast lumps of navel gazing from just about every character. Lots of huge
internal monologues which didn’t really add anything, especially since they’re
repeated over and over. Then reinforced with a dialogue on the same subject
saying the same thing which, again, may be repeated
There’s also an unnecessary amount of recapping events –
something would happen, someone would react (emotion, naval gaze, monologue)
then tell the WHOLE THING to someone else. Not “Clary told Jace what happened”.
Nope, we’d have the whole conversation, word by word.
In addition we also have Maia’s story which is… nice, but
irrelevant. Frankly, it felt like a short story slotted into the main plot
because it didn’t really add anything to the over all book except more padding.
In a less padded book it may have worked; but this book was already taking way
too damn long to get to the story.
The same goes for the Blackthorns. They’re a nice
addition to the story and would make an interesting short story of their own
and are clearly being set up for another series in the same world – but because
the story is already badly padded having all these inserts from Emma, the 8
squillion Blackthorn children (including detailed, repeated description of
their hair colour. Honestly, I knew every single one of these kid’s hair before
they ever appeared in the book – we just had an epic hair info dump) just felt
like more padding before we actually got to the plot. And we had Simon and
Maureen – and gods know what the point of that was.
This book is nearly 500 pages long and could have been
told in 250 easily. I would actually advising skimming this book if you read it
because you will miss nothing – everything is just so long winded that reading
one word in three will give you a clear idea of what’s going on.
I’m also not really invested in the dialogue – that drags.
We have a lot of long winded speechifying passed off as conversation and a lot
of really painful, desperate attempts at wit. I did not crack a smile once
(actually, I like, I did kind of giggle every time someone was referred to as
the “Endarkened” but I assume that was unintentional); it wasn’t funny and it
added to the word count that could already use some trimming (with a chainsaw).
My final note on the writing style: the characters and
Shadowhunters actually start doing things at page 100. And by doing things, I
mean reaction. Before that we get nothing but navel gazing and moping. Most of
the time after that it’s all we get. It’s only well over 200 pages in that the
characters actually get going.
Now to my next repeated irritation with this series –
character foolishness. I do not understand the decisions anyone in this book
makes
I do not get why Simon thinks he can win Downworlder
support by massacring them, or why they will turn against the Clave because he
has killed Downworlders. This doesn’t make sense. However it’s spun, it doesn’t
make sense – he would still be the enemy: the enemy of Downworlders and the
Clave. I do not understand why the Downworlders reacted as he expected them to.
I do not understand why the Shadowhunters, a martial
society for centuries, would respond to an attack on one of their facilities
with a “first come first into battle” policy, regardless of how well trained,
prepared or appropriate they are. Especially since we’ve see Shadowhunters have
preferences for certain weapons (Alec likes his bow). Why would a martial
society put together military units based on who yells “I CALLED IT!” first? It’s
ludicrous.
I do not understand why anyone with even a modicum of intelligence would decide that the best people to send against Endarkened – Shadow Hunters who have been turned evil – would be their nearest and dearest. Is there a special kind of sadism that expects the bereaved loved ones to fight their resurrected lost family?
I do not understand why the Shadowhunters continue to
discount any and all witness testimony about the Endarkened and their
abilities.
I do not understand why it was necessary to use an
agonisingly painful truth detector to ask 2 12 year olds what happened when
they had no reason to lie.
I do not understand why, YET AGAIN, Clary, Jace et al
decided to run off and save the world all on their own, taking with them the
one weapon that could actually save the world with them. It was beyond arrogant
and should have got them all killed.
One of the end battle plans of our merry crew includes
grabbing an unknown object that does an unknown thing that hasn’t been used in
possibly centuries and hoping a) it works, b) they know how to work it and c)
it’s helpful. This is an actual plan they make. It works. I kind of hate that
it works.
And no matter how they spin it, the Seelie Queen who cannot lie completely lied in this book.
If we manage to dig through all this the underlying plot
was… actually pretty simple. The magical special people track down the bad guy
and ensure their magical special ability killed him (including a biiiiig secret
they kept secret right until the end because REASONS). But the underlying world
is still excellent and fascinating and unique with elements I could love. The
story isn’t awful and the concept and world is one of the best out there – but I
hate the characters and the writing could be used to extract confessions from
even the hardiest prisoner. It leaves me frustrated because I can see a lot of
potential in this series and with this world – but not with characters who have
set whole new records for bad decisions, writing that is positively dripping in
purple and plot lines that all too often rely on deus ex, massive amounts of
luck or are just thread bare.
Inclusionwise we have a bit to talk about. On the GBLT
front, I think Alec and Magnus were better than what we’ve
seen before (though, admittedly, because they spent so much time apart and
pining for each other rather than replicating the constant problems with their
relationship). Being gay was a central part of Alec’s character as it always
has been (yet, at the same time, seemed to be have been brought up in a large
amount of scenes – like Simon drinking blood – when it felt like a reference
was pushed: it was an edge of the Lesbian
Shark Trope) and Alec even called out Jace for not respecting his worry and
relationship as he would anyone else’s love as well as objecting to the idea he
would stay behind and wait for someone else to help Magnus. Alec was also a
much more decisive and capable character in this book, rather than the weaker
and rather inept and child like figure (despite being the oldest of the main
characters) he was preciously. Magnus was also less of a servant though, again,
that’s as much for story reasons as portrayal
In other LGBT characters we had Hannah and Aline but they’re
much more background to the whole story. I suspect more of an introduction to
the future series where they’re likely to be more integral.
We also had some more mention of the Shadowhunter homophobic
society – this still feels a lot more show than tell to an almost ret-con
degree. They mention problems people have and opinions people hold but we’ve
never seen it and it almost seems to come out of nowhere; but it was remembered
and there rather than turned off as it had been previously
It’s a massive step up over the past hot mess, but I do
think that part of that is almost incidental to the story (Magnus not being a
servant, for example, because he spent most of the book unavailable).
In terms of POC we have Maia who is a good character with
an excellent story and even an excellent background that characterises a lot of
how race affected her upbringing and her childhood and her relationship with
Jordan – but she’s also a very incidental character as I mentioned above.
Raphael seemed to have a lot more attention paid to him, fleshing him out a bit
more and paying him some respect – but it was for a classic and depressing
reason I can’t reveal without spoilers. So, not ideal.
Magnus got a more overt nod to his being Indonesian which
was appreciated but past due. I did think that Zachariah needed a much bigger
(or actual) nod to his race; especially
since this has been something which Cassandra Clare has addressed very well
in the past.
Clary isn’t a female character who hates all other women which
is always good to see. She does make awful awful awful decisions. But so does
everyone else in the book. It feels less like Spunky Agency and more like
everyone in this book indulges in some very very powerful narcotics. There are
a number of women in positions of authority (again, bad decisions, again, everyone
makes them) and Isabelle is a pretty decent character – I already mentioned
Maia.
In the end, this book improved on a few issues and I didn’t
quite want to hit everyone with hammers to the same degree I have in the past.
The world is strong, the concept good and the potential immense
The execution is a hot mess of bloated purple splurge.
Which is a shame.
