The Mortal Instruments Trilogy

"The Mortal Instruments Trilogy" by Cassandra Clare is comprised of five books but only the first three are worth mentioning:

        City of Bones:  Clary Fray was in the night club Pandemonium when she watched three teenagers dispose of another being.  Now Clary's mother has been taken prisoner by a strange beast and she's found out that her mother has been having her memories erased by a warlock who lives in TriBeCa.  What?  Secrets and dreams are coming apart at the seams, and Clary's having trouble standing on her own two feet when a mysterious group called the Shadowhunters (prickly, pretty Isabelle; prickly and shy Alec; and prickly, egotistical and f-i-n-e Jace) come to help her fight the demons that are creeping up on all sides.

      City of Ashes:  Bodies of Downworlder children, drained with blood, have been found in dark, abandoned alleyways.  Idris and the Clave, the land and government of the Shadowhunters, has decided that its time to get involved, but it would be better if our heroes were left to their own devices because what they'll have to do to save the day won't be sanctioned by any book of regulations.  Clary's trapped in her own personal nightmare when she finds that she has more of a family than she ever could hope for -- if only her new-found familial ties didn't include him.  

      City of Glass:   Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your family closest of all, because if their hands are in yours they can't stab you in the back.  Breaking several laws, Clary breaks into Idris, the land of the Shadowhunters, enraging the highest magical law on this world or any other.  While hiding out from them in their own country, Clary finds several secrets that she never thought even existed.  But time's running out if she's to stop her own flesh and blood from destroying all she's come to love.  

Let me tell you, these books are wicked.  Yeah, sure, there might be a bit too much romance in some places, but the demon fighting it pretty awesome.  And the psychology behind it all!  It's really quite astounding.  The other two books in this 'Trilogy' (should it be called a 'quintet'?  because, clearly, there are five books) are worth nothing because a) they are simply ridiculous (Just how many times can a person come back from the dead?  Cassandra Clare's got a bit of James Patterson in her.) and b) we get it.  Clary has a boyfriend.  Thank you.  You can stop illustrating your point for us now.

       I really liked the diversity of the characters in this.  Simon, Clary's best friend, is the source of a good chunk of the problems for the group, but, generally, he's a good natured guy and I admire him for that.  He is also a voice of stability and reason among all of the craziness and magic, which is always good in a book like this that can get caught up in the thrill of its own mystique.  Jace is an egotistical maniac, and I think that it's been established that I have a soft spot for that sort.  Isabelle is the ultimate femine fatal, complete with a miniskirt and a sword.  Alec is a lost and a little needy, almost, until he realizes who he is and how he (and him telling the world who he is is one of the most fantastic moments in the whole trilogy). Magnus Bane is a riot, but his majesty is sort of kept under wraps for fear of throwing the whole story overboard.  Clary is the perfect contemporary fiction heroine, with her cell phone and subway map.  Not exactly the cast of 'Spud,' but pretty darn close.

      The villain of the series, Valentine, is intensely complicated, but that doesn't make him seem any more human.  One thing that I don't like about villains in general (like I have only one thing to complain about) is that they're larger than life, and that keeps them from being human.  We can connect with the main characters, the protagonists, but we never feel what the bad guy is feeling.  This is a technique used to make us hate the villain, which is necessary for the story to work, but it still can be sort of . . . impersonal.  How can I hate Valentine if I don't even know the person he is?  You have to just accept that the bad guy is a bad guy and move on in this story.  

      A strong point of this story, other than the wonderful cast of protagonists, is the setting.  Modern New York City with an underbelly full of demons.  To fight the demons, there is a system of police called 'Shadowhunters' run mainly by teenagers because they're the only ones who haven't died yet.  In between the two groups are the 'Downworlders';  werewolves, vampires, Faeries, and other miscellaneous half-demon scum.  It is fantastic.  

      The books, even though they talk about killing demons and your own family members preach about accepting people.  The Shadowhunters hate the Downworlders because the Shadowhunters are part angel and the Downworlders are part demon.  But to win, they must join together.  It's a nice sentiment.

     Final messages:  The books are messed up.  Messed up messed up.  Like, 'oh, is this my brother I'm kissing?!' messed up.  So . . . The books also have a quite bit of religion in them.  Magnus quotes the Bible, at one point, and the whole thing of angels vs. demons is religious, though the demons come from different dimensions, not from deep down under.  Also, Alec is gay.  I, personally, find that pretty awesome because it shows his inner strength and conveys a new way of someone being who they know they are.  

      "The City of Bones" is a movie that comes out on August 23, 2013.  The complete series is, in the order as listed, "The City of Bones," "The City of Ashes," "The City of Glass," "The City of Fallen Angels," and "The City of Lost Souls."  So. The last two books do have their own charms, by the way of you getting to see a side of the characters you didn't get to see in the other three books, but they are so not the best.  Especially not "The City of Fallen Angels."  Just sayin'.  

      Is it fine to tell a white lie for the safety and well being of a person that you love?  But when the lies collapse, the person you lied for might not be as well off as intended.  

This link is better than most book links:  www.mortalintruments.com  The illustrations of the characters are lame, though.  None of the people look like that, I swear.  

This is the link to the movie trailer, which I watch at least once a day: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1538403/   My favorite part is when Clary says "There's too many of them!"  and Jace says "Have a little faith," because Jace is so full of himself, it's rather amusing.  This is the cast list to the movie, which is cool; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1538403/fullcredits    Magnus is awesome.  

Dark Goddess

"Dark Goddess," by Sarwatt Chadda, is the fanstastic sequel to "Devil's Kiss."
     Bilquis SanGreal is back, and she's angry.  After her best friend, and boyfriend?, died at her own hands, a sacrifice against Saint Micheal, the Knights Templar have been in turmoil.  When they get wind of a vampire pack that sacrifices young oracles every year to their goddess, they set out to Russia to rescue the next sacrifice, and they can only pray that they'll find her in time.  With the help of the roguish Ivan, Billi must figure out who she's fighting, where she's fighting, and how she's going to win this thing.  When your enemies are the Russian equivalents of the Knights Templar, the werewolves, a maybe-mobster with a Mafia connections and a finger in every pie, and yourself, you're fighting somewhere in the snow-covered forests of Siberia, and your only weapons are arrows tipped with asteroids, you think you'd give up.  But Billi won't.  Not when her life and the rest of the world is at stake. Not when she could do something, instead of just standing by and watching.  Not again.

Yeah.  So, I forgot the name of Russian equivalent of the Knights Templar.  You can't blame me.  I read the book three weeks ago.  I started at five'o'clock in the afternoon, and finished it at ten'o'clock at night.  The power was out, so I really didn't have anything to do but read.  So then I picked up another book.  ("Rot and Ruin", Johnathon Maberry, but I'll get to that later.) And half the names in this book went flying out of my head.  But it was so, so good.  I would've let it sit a while in my brain, but it was so hot I couldn't do anything but read.
       The plot line differs from the original, which was good.  You know how in some authors become formulaic and all that.  But this book shook it up. Also, a lot of the characters vary.  That makes sense, because a bunch of the characters in the first book died, and then they visited Russia.  The more minor characters are a bit hard to keep track of, in my opinion, but the main characters have distinctive names, so it doesn't really matter. 
        And, this is related, I promise, in some books, you know how there is a first book that has one premise?  Like, one backbone.  One specific task in mind.  And then, in the sequel, it's all like "oh, you were acting under a prophecy, and now you need to do this and this and that?" just to make the series longer?  Really, that bugs the heck out of me.  It's like to two books are completely unconnected, but in characters and setting?  (Mr. Percy Jackson, I'm looking at you.)  But these two books are firmly connected, not just tethered together by a string. 
       In "Devil's Kiss" they mention that some people were out werewolf hunting.  So it wasn't completely strange that the Knights Templar were out werewolf hunting in the beginning of the book.  And they'd mentioned that there were some other organizations that fought the Unholy in the other book, so it wasn't completely random that there was an organization in Russia.  So the books were connected.  That makes me happy.
       Of course, Billi was an amazingly flavored character.  Ivan was too, as was Ivan's nemesis, what's-his-name.  I could've used more characterization on that werewolf woman, and why she wound up helping the Knights, instead of her goddess.  Um . . . and that werewolf who was the werewolf woman's daughter.  What was her problem?  Also, the book relies heavily on characterization from the other book.  We don't see much of Arthur SanGreal, and we're already expected to know what he's like . . . But he changed suddenly at the end of "Devil's Kiss," so that doesn't work out too well.  Also, the new apprentice, Mordred, and the new Father aren't explained that well.  I might've been reading too quickly, but they didn't seem to be expressed to well.  There were almost no personal details about either of them.
       And one can surmise that Ellen (Is that her name?  I know it begins with and 'e.') now likes Billi more because she didn't have to kill Arthur, like that completely random prophecy suggested she might have to.  But she still killed . . . I won't say it, just so those who haven't read "Devil's Kiss" won't spoil the ending for themselves, but her behavior doesn't match up with what we know of her personality.
      Anything else that I want to add?  Um, that I liked the ending.  Yey!  A happy ending this time!   It was really quite relieving.  I also liked that added element of Billi having to fight her 'inner nature,' etc., because it added another dimension.  Um . . . and I'm really glad that the werewolves were in there because I really like werewolves.  Just sayin'.  Nice to read about something other than ghuls or demented archangels, because that's all you seem to read about these days, no?  (It was a joke.) 
      So even though we all know that there's nothing to fear but fear itself, and Billi SanGreal, I've been keeping one eye over my shoulder, holding my breath in fear of the Unholy and the all-to-realistic creatures that lurk in Sarwatt Chadda's novels. 

(You think of something more clever and tell me about it, 'k?)

Again, you can visit Sarwatt Chadda and read his blog at www.sarwattchadda.com
  

Sisters Red

Sisters Red, by Jackson Pearce, is a cross between a love story and a story of a girl obsessed.
     Scarlett March saved her sister from a vicious Fenris attack when they were children.  Now it's her goal to kill all of the Fenris so they can't tear anyone else's lives apart.  She also wants to move past the scars that mark her body and mangle her appearance and re-connect with her little sister and her partner.  Rosie March owes her sister her life, and because of that she feels complied to hunt Fenris with her sister.  Her sister made sure she was alive, the least she can do is make sure she helps her sister in every way possible, in her way of thinking.  She doesn't have time for a boyfriend. Silas, Scarlett's partner, has just come back from a stint in San Francisco and is getting back into the hunting game.  He's also noticing how little Rosie March has grown up while he's been gone.
       When the three overhear the Fenris discussing a Potential, a human male that has the potential to become a Fenris if only another Fenris bites him, they pick themselves up out of their small town and move to Atlanta to hunt the powerful clan Arrow and try to find and save the Potential before he becomes another one of their enemies.  But with Scarlett growing more determined and jealous, Rosie trying to break out of her shell, and Silas trying to encourage Rosie while supporting Scarlett will the three hunters be able to sort out their personal difficulties before the Potential is found and a shocking truth is revealed?

I didn't like this one as much.  Silas and Rosie don't spend much time doing anything interesting, and Scarlett's like a mad woman with a fever.  And the Fenris, or the were-wolves, aren't interesting at all.  They're just soulless, good looking predators.  Very boring.  Also, I saw the plot twist coming.  It was very obvious.  And not because I read the end of the book first, because I didn't this time.  
      Silas is supposed to be a 'woodsman,' like something out of Snow White or whatever fairy tale has a woodsman in it, but you don't really get that sense.  Sure, he build his own room out of wood.  Sure, he can wield an axe.  Sure, I get the sense that he's about as woodsy as my aunt -- and she showed up to go camping in white flip-flops. 
     You don't learn much about the March sister's childhood -- just the 'incident' that changed their whole lives.  Other than that, they are unique individuals.  They try to act like twins, but in truth they are not, and that is a truth they can't bear to face.  This is the effect that Jackson Pearce was going for, I believe, and I am very impressed with how it worked out.  Two perfectly conflicted sisters.  Very nice.
       You don't learn much about the back story of the Fenris, but you don't need too.  When you see the world through March sisters' eyes, all you need to know is how to kill them.  Even though nothing about the tribes of Fenris is explained you don't need it explained because it is all painfully simple.  It's nice to find a book which doesn't condescend to you because you don't know what the author is talking about.
     But Jackson Pearce is no Gina Damico, and even though I cried at the end of the book I do not love the characters as I love the population of Croak.  This book will be a one-time read, and I do not plan on entering the world of the Fenris again anytime.  But if you truly enjoyed Lisa Mantchev's Theatre Illuminata series (I call it the "Beatrice Shakespeare Smith Trilogy"), you will enjoy this book.  Romance, danger, were-wolves, and sibling conflict.  For most girls of this era, what's not to love?