Rutabaga's Reads 2019: Part 22

Here is another trilogy in which I’ve had each book since its respective release day, and I’m only now getting around to publishing this post. 2019 barely remains, but here this post finally is.

Lady Midnight (Mar. 8, 2016) by Cassandra Clare.

It’s been five years since Emma Carstairs’ parents were murdered, their mutilated bodies washed ashore from the ocean with an unknown language scrawled on their bodies. The Clave blamed their murders on Sebastian Morgenstern, and he’s deceased, so case closed, but Emma knows differently. Her best friend and parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, believes her, as do the other Blackthorn siblings, and their tutor, Diana Wrayburn. She gathers information from any source she can, including from Johnny Rook. His information is good, but it comes at a hefty price, and his “office” is located in the Shadow Market, a place Nephilim are not supposed to go, save on official Shadowhunter business. New deaths have been occurring near the Los Angeles Institute, where Emma and the Blackthorns live, along with Cristina Mendoza Rosales, on her travel year from the Mexico City Institute. Some of them are fey, but with the Cold Peace, no one is supposed to offer them aid or ask for their help or communicate with them at all. But they are visited by a few, and they leave someone conditionally with them. The oldest Blackthorn, Mark, who’s half-faerie, and has been with the Wild Hunt these past five years (though much more time has passed in Faerie). Who’s behind the killings? Who is the Guardian?

            Mental health issues are not met with understanding amongst Shadowhunters, so Julian has spent these past years doing what Uncle Arthur cannot, even though Arthur is the head of the institute. Arthur’s mind was broken as a young man by the fey. Julian has kept the gravity of Arthur’s mental health a secret, except from warlock-friend Malcolm Fade. With Mark having been stolen away to the Wild Hunt and Helen, also half-faerie, exiled to Wrangel Island, Julian has been the oldest. He’s had to grow up too fast too soon in order to care for his four younger siblings: Tiberius (Ty) and Livia (Livvy), twin 15-year-olds, Drusilla (Dru), age 13, and Octavian (Tavvy), age 7. Then there’s the secret of Emma, his parabatai, with whom romantic love (eros) is forbidden. But what if Emma harbors a similar secret?

            For those familiar with Clare’s world of Shadowhunters, this is a mostly enjoyable start to The Dark Artifices trilogy, though it is drawn out. With a focus on the love of parabatai expected to be platonic, the reader already knows a romantic love story is going to brew between the main characters, so that part of the plot did not feel fresh. Fortunately, the Shadowhunter universe remains a literary multiplex of fierce warrior heroics, teenage neuroticism, ichor-drenched action, dangerous secrets, a grudge-filled obsession fueled by misplaced blame, and snarky banter. Fans will appreciate visits from familiar characters such as Magnus Bane, Clary Fairchild and Jace Herondale.

Lord of Shadows (May 23, 2017) by Cassandra Clare.

Romantic love is forbidden, and Emma knows why. It isn’t for some fluffy reason or that the Clave is being the usual stuffy Clave. No. While romantic love with one’s parabatai can bring power in runes placed on one another, it can also destroy, making loved ones enemies, turning sanity to madness. Emma determines to make Julian un-love her. Ideally, she’d separate herself from him, but that would separate her from all of the Blackthorns, and she cannot abandon them when they’re threatened on multiple sides from multiple foes. Centurions have descended upon the Los Angeles Institute, unofficially led by Zara Dearborn. It’s clear she has her own agenda, which centers on her hatred of Downworlders. When someone thought to be dead resurfaces in one’s decomposing glory, danger comes to the doors of the institute. Diana convinces the Blackthorns, Emma and Christopher “Kit” Herondale to seek refuge in the London Institute.

            An unsanctioned and secret mission takes Julian, Emma, Cristina and Mark to Faerie. Here, they recover someone sentenced to death, and they all entered because of individual truths that a phouka told them that would come to pass if they entered Faerie and, of course, paid the toll. Before they leave Faerie, the Unseelie King aims to kill them and post-Faerie-realm calls upon the Riders of Mannan (there are seven, they’re all immortal siblings, and none have ever been killed), but in the Unseelie lands they are rescued by a Seelie Faerie, who happens to be a maternal aunt to Mark and Helen. They meet with the Seelie Queen, and she wants the Black Volume of the Dead, a spell book of immense and terrible power. How can they trust her promises when Faeries are known to twist truths to suit themselves amidst their spectacular revels and waiting dangers?

            This middle novel of the bestselling YA Shadowhunters trilogy is a miasma of romantic drama and relationship triangles, occupational adventures and daily dangers (oftentimes related), family ties and bonds of friendship, noisome Centurions, Faeries – both cunning and murderous – and death. “Lord of Shadows” is a book courting darkness that could slay like a Mantid demon. Tendrils of light, like the quicksilver brilliance of a fleck of diamond, are few, but can be found in unexpected places (like Gwyn ap Nudd and his attraction to Diana). The romantic drama continues to underwhelm me, but the pace is decent enough considering the book’s volume.

Queen of Air and Darkness (Dec. 4, 2018) by Cassandra Clare.

Tragedy for an innocent fallen blankets the Blackthorn family and Emma with suffocating weight. Julian decides he does not want to feel anything anymore at all. Ty wants to bring the deceased back to life and is willing to use questionable means to get the ingredients needed for such a spell. Mostly, though, grief will have to wait. The Dearborns remain in the picture – both Zara and her father, Horace – and they will go to great lengths to be in power. They are driven by avarice and egoism. Horace sends Emma and Julian on a quest to Faerie, but it isn’t so much a quest as a suicide mission. Their time in Faerie isn’t rewarded with a return to the mortal world, but to Thule, an alternate world of desolation and evil. Thule is the world as it would be if Clary Fairchild hadn’t defeated Sebastian Morgenstern. In Thule, Sebastian rules, Jace Herondale is no hero, the Endarkened continue to exist and Livvy Blackthorn is a lead rebel/freedom fighter. In Thule, Livvy is the lone Blackthorn who isn’t dead or turned. Thule is poisonous to Nephilim; runes do nothing in that world, which explains why there are guns when Shadowhunters do not use such mundane weapons. In a world without good magic, overrun by demons and hellbeasts and Endarkened, one must turn to other means of weaponry. Returned to the mortal world, the Cohort (Dearborn and company) is readying for a climactic announcement that is ruined by, well, the good guys. Losses are heavy, but relationships are solidified (there are multiple storylines going on), a familiar couple ties the knot, and the Seelie Queen receives the one she longs for most.

            In volume alone, this book is a lot. The hardcover version I have is 880 pages. There are currently only two authors whose books I’d happily read if they had such high page counts, and this is not one of them. After reading the trilogy, I understand the route that she went, but there are too many threads, too many characters to follow. I enjoy when any book or series has strong supporting characters that you feel like you kind of know, but that doesn’t mean I need to be involved in following their romance issues. I also thought having an alternate world in Thule was unnecessary, though, again, I understand why she went that route to get to where she wanted to end the trilogy.

            Despite the sheer length of the story, there’s no doubt that Clare’s functioning magic system is fascinating and unique to her. The forbidden love from so many sides can too easily become gag-inducing and eye-rolling due to its schmaltziness, but it’s countered with darkness. Focusing on the two main characters, there’s Julian, who became too serious and adult when he was still a child, and Emma, whose trauma as a youth caused her to become obsessed with revenge, adopt a flippant attitude and seemingly relish reckless moments. Everyone in the stories seems to be preternaturally beautiful or uncannily pretty, so deal with that how you will. Overall, any Shadowhunter fan will have long ago added this to their bookshelf, I’d expect, but I didn’t feel that this was the author’s best work.