Spoiler Alert: This is not a book review. I am reviewing the entire story. Read only if you have read the book, or you do not wish to read the book but wish to know the story.
This summer millions of fantasy fiction fans around the world are busy reading The Mortal Instruments series. My interest was triggered when I came across the trailer of The Mortal Instruments City of Bones movie - based on the first book of the series. Dressed in gothic leather gear, armed with gorgeous seraph blades, and carrying a hardcore, warrior appeal, the Shadowhunters are replacing Twilight vampires.
Listed as the New York Times Bestseller, The Mortal Instruments City of Bones is Cassandra Clare's first installment of the six part TMI saga. The story is staged in the year 2007 (as mentioned in the third book, The Mortal Instruments City of Glass) and the setting is of contemporary New York - the big city of lights and clamor. By contemporary I mean night clubs, the subway, Starbucks, and Hudson River.
A night club scenario introduces the main characters of the story that are: Clarissa (Clary) Fray, her friend Simon Lewis, and a clan of Shadowhunters: Jace Wayland, and Isabelle and Alexander (Alec) Lightwood. I was a bit concerned about the story being too contemporary when the night club, Pandemonium's, sights and sounds were described. There punks and goths being described. I was super glad when the main action began ...
This is where the 'unnatural' happens. Clary witnesses a blonde, attractive teenage boy; skin marked with black tattoos, killing a guy in a back room at Pandemonium. He is assisted by a gorgeous-looking girl with a whip and another fierce boy. The killed boy bleeds black blood, crumples up, and vanishes into nothingness before Clary's eyes. They notice Clary when a scream escapes her at the sight. She comes as a surprise to the fierce trio because she can see them. They round her up and describe themselves as Shadowhunters - and the killed boy a demon. Clary is told that she has the Sight, which means she can see through the glamour they put up in the human world to disguise themselves, and the Shadowhunters need to know how.
The new world of Shadowhunters - a human-angel mixed breed, is fascinating and Cassandra Clare has described the basics in a very intriguing manner. I mean, I began reading a fantasy fiction of the sort (a free Kindle book) and the way the basics of angel and demon were described were very confusing and a desperate attempt by the author to create a fantasy world without giving it much thought. The Shadowhunters keep the demons from the other worlds from infesting the human world.
Clary's 'mundane' life is narrated as a simple, ordinary living with her single mother Jocelyn Fray and uncle Luke (a friend of Jocelyn's). The two are arguing; though, and inform Clary that they would be going away from the city for a long time. There is secrecy and anxiety in their tones. Disturbed, Clary leaves for the coffeehouse with Simon.
Jace is following Clary, trusting his instincts that she has Shadowhunter roots. He uses 'glamour' (as the author uses) to shield himself from human sight. Simon; therefore, does not seem to see him. They finally converse when Jace leads Clary out of the coffeehouse she has been sitting at, leaving Simon waiting. She is perturbed and needs answers, so she follows his lead. This is where he describes Shadowhunters to Clary.
The world then changes for Clary with a ring of her cell phone. Her mother, panic-struck, advises her to not come home. Next, a disturbing sound disconnects the phone. Clary rushes home, Jace at her side, to find that her life has turned upside down. Her mother has disappeared, her residence torn apart, and demons infest her apartment home. The Ravener demon is the first to be introduced, when it attacks Clary, and the description is pretty grotesque. I seriously admire Cassandra Clare's sense of description. Once Clary kills the demon (dumb luck, of course), Jace escorts her to the Institute, a local Shadowhunter training/residence facility, where their tutor Hodge Starkweather and the rest of them begin investigating Clary's strange ability to see them despite being a "mundane" (ordinary human, as called by Shadowhunters).
At the Institute, Clary is formally introduced to Isabelle and Alec Lightwood (Jace's adoptive siblings). Alec does not seem to like her.
The acquaintance between Clary and Jace is hilarious, I felt. Jace is a mix of arrogance, sarcasm, deadly warrior's silence, and supreme sex appeal. The reader can address him as a self-absorbed psycho, but I found him as a self-esteem motivator. Clary, on the other hand, is a hot-tempered, artistic fifteen year old. The chemistry between the two is volcanic! Simon, Clary's best friend, is the third angle of the love triangle. He tries to get his confession across to Clary while she is battling with the decision about her sanity after witnessing the demon killing. The confession does not go through.
The next character introduced is the Silent Brother, Jeremiah who is a powerful monk summoned to revive thoughts from Clary's past to help recall her memories and a possible connection of Shadowhunters to her mother. The description of the Silent Brother, Jeremiah is horrifying. I found myself having nightmares of a dead looking man with a stitched shut lip line, and no eyes. He speaks a language of silence, inside people's minds. A painful ritual is executed on Clary after which a revelation is made that apparently, Clary has a lock on her mind - some powerful spell - and only a name 'Magnus Bane' is revived from her memories.
He turns out to be the High Warlock of Brooklyn with the Madhatter's dressing sense, a secret homosexual orientation, and a passion for partying. Clary, Simon, Jace, Alec, and Isabelle head to the party, looking for some answers. A spontaneous spark is ignited between Alec and Bane during this visit. Clary also realizes, and confirms with his sister Isabelle, that Alec's orientation is also homosexual. In fact, he is in love with Jace - his 'parabatai' (warrior brother).
Magnus Bane reveals that the spell on Clary is his doing on request of Jocelyn, her mother, to keep her in oblivion of the Shadowhunter world. This was, of course, because Clary had a Sight. He refuses to undo it because of the lethal risk to Clary and dismisses the idea, saying the spell would fade away since Clary did not have a booster dose that her mother had Magnus administer every once in a while.
The party at Magnus's place is chaotically dismissed, and Simon has been turned into a rat having drunk a faerie drink (bewitched!). Clary tucks him away in her backpack until they get to the Institute and (as Bane recommended) the spell wears off. Halfway, she discovers Simon's been kidnapped (in rat form) and the culprit is a vampire guest from the party - taking revenge on the Shadowhunters (Jace and Alec) who had ruined their demon-energy-powered bikes on their way into the party. I am thinking Harley's at this point, but demonic!
Continues in Part 2 (in process)
Listed as the New York Times Bestseller, The Mortal Instruments City of Bones is Cassandra Clare's first installment of the six part TMI saga. The story is staged in the year 2007 (as mentioned in the third book, The Mortal Instruments City of Glass) and the setting is of contemporary New York - the big city of lights and clamor. By contemporary I mean night clubs, the subway, Starbucks, and Hudson River.
This is where the 'unnatural' happens. Clary witnesses a blonde, attractive teenage boy; skin marked with black tattoos, killing a guy in a back room at Pandemonium. He is assisted by a gorgeous-looking girl with a whip and another fierce boy. The killed boy bleeds black blood, crumples up, and vanishes into nothingness before Clary's eyes. They notice Clary when a scream escapes her at the sight. She comes as a surprise to the fierce trio because she can see them. They round her up and describe themselves as Shadowhunters - and the killed boy a demon. Clary is told that she has the Sight, which means she can see through the glamour they put up in the human world to disguise themselves, and the Shadowhunters need to know how.
The new world of Shadowhunters - a human-angel mixed breed, is fascinating and Cassandra Clare has described the basics in a very intriguing manner. I mean, I began reading a fantasy fiction of the sort (a free Kindle book) and the way the basics of angel and demon were described were very confusing and a desperate attempt by the author to create a fantasy world without giving it much thought. The Shadowhunters keep the demons from the other worlds from infesting the human world.
Clary's 'mundane' life is narrated as a simple, ordinary living with her single mother Jocelyn Fray and uncle Luke (a friend of Jocelyn's). The two are arguing; though, and inform Clary that they would be going away from the city for a long time. There is secrecy and anxiety in their tones. Disturbed, Clary leaves for the coffeehouse with Simon.
Jace is following Clary, trusting his instincts that she has Shadowhunter roots. He uses 'glamour' (as the author uses) to shield himself from human sight. Simon; therefore, does not seem to see him. They finally converse when Jace leads Clary out of the coffeehouse she has been sitting at, leaving Simon waiting. She is perturbed and needs answers, so she follows his lead. This is where he describes Shadowhunters to Clary.
The world then changes for Clary with a ring of her cell phone. Her mother, panic-struck, advises her to not come home. Next, a disturbing sound disconnects the phone. Clary rushes home, Jace at her side, to find that her life has turned upside down. Her mother has disappeared, her residence torn apart, and demons infest her apartment home. The Ravener demon is the first to be introduced, when it attacks Clary, and the description is pretty grotesque. I seriously admire Cassandra Clare's sense of description. Once Clary kills the demon (dumb luck, of course), Jace escorts her to the Institute, a local Shadowhunter training/residence facility, where their tutor Hodge Starkweather and the rest of them begin investigating Clary's strange ability to see them despite being a "mundane" (ordinary human, as called by Shadowhunters).
At the Institute, Clary is formally introduced to Isabelle and Alec Lightwood (Jace's adoptive siblings). Alec does not seem to like her.
The acquaintance between Clary and Jace is hilarious, I felt. Jace is a mix of arrogance, sarcasm, deadly warrior's silence, and supreme sex appeal. The reader can address him as a self-absorbed psycho, but I found him as a self-esteem motivator. Clary, on the other hand, is a hot-tempered, artistic fifteen year old. The chemistry between the two is volcanic! Simon, Clary's best friend, is the third angle of the love triangle. He tries to get his confession across to Clary while she is battling with the decision about her sanity after witnessing the demon killing. The confession does not go through.
The next character introduced is the Silent Brother, Jeremiah who is a powerful monk summoned to revive thoughts from Clary's past to help recall her memories and a possible connection of Shadowhunters to her mother. The description of the Silent Brother, Jeremiah is horrifying. I found myself having nightmares of a dead looking man with a stitched shut lip line, and no eyes. He speaks a language of silence, inside people's minds. A painful ritual is executed on Clary after which a revelation is made that apparently, Clary has a lock on her mind - some powerful spell - and only a name 'Magnus Bane' is revived from her memories.
Magnus Bane reveals that the spell on Clary is his doing on request of Jocelyn, her mother, to keep her in oblivion of the Shadowhunter world. This was, of course, because Clary had a Sight. He refuses to undo it because of the lethal risk to Clary and dismisses the idea, saying the spell would fade away since Clary did not have a booster dose that her mother had Magnus administer every once in a while.
The party at Magnus's place is chaotically dismissed, and Simon has been turned into a rat having drunk a faerie drink (bewitched!). Clary tucks him away in her backpack until they get to the Institute and (as Bane recommended) the spell wears off. Halfway, she discovers Simon's been kidnapped (in rat form) and the culprit is a vampire guest from the party - taking revenge on the Shadowhunters (Jace and Alec) who had ruined their demon-energy-powered bikes on their way into the party. I am thinking Harley's at this point, but demonic!
Continues in Part 2 (in process)
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