Book Title: The Runaway Queen
Author: Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson
Series: The Bane Chronicles #2
Series: The Bane Chronicles #2
Date Started: June 26th 2013
Date Completed: June 29th 2013
Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Rating: Four stars
Review:
This was a nice little novella. I can't find anything remarkable to say about it to be honest - it was a perfectly enjoyable read and it wasn't bad at all, but it wasn't particularly amazing either. I think it lived up to my original expectations for the Bane Chronicles, but not my more recent predictions after the first novella.
The Runaway Queen takes place in France and follows Magnus Bane as he's offered a job to help Marie Antoinette and her court leave Paris to escape the revolutionists of the time. But when a group of french vampires steal the queen from under his nose, Magnus has to improvise to get her safely out of the country.
The writing was fine, but it wasn't the typical Cassandra Clare writing. I understand that's she's working with other authors to create these stories, but she managed to keep her unique flare in What Happened in Peru. I feel like it was a bit lost this time.
When I read the first novella in the Bane Chronicles I was surprised at how funny I found it. Whereas The Runaway Queen was a bit bland and lacking Magnus' signature humour.
There was nothing particularly wrong with it, I just didn't find it as engaging as I found the previous novella.
The story was a bit boring. Again, there wasn't really anything wrong with it, but I feel it wasn't as well planned out as Clare usually writes her stories. The beginning part is practically irrelevant except for the mention of a hot air balloon, which could easily have been said in one sentence rather than 20-30% of this story.
Once the story got going, and we got into the action, the thrill took over and I actually got quite interested in what was going on. I read a fair bit of this in one go because the middle part was so good.
Then it fell down again when the vampires got involved. Not because of the vampires - on the contrary I think they were needed to add a bit of danger to the plot since there wasn't much threat up until that point - but because they were in it for about 3% and then disappeared completely. I was expecting a big chase through Paris with Magnus trying desperately to save the queen from a pack of violent vampires. Instead I got him nearly falling asleep as they silently...travel away (spoilers). It didn't really excite me like I was expecting.
Magnus is brilliant, and I will always love him. But he wasn't really the Magnus we all know and love in this book. He was still Magnus, but he didn't really have much humour or fabulousness. This would have been fine, if there was a reason (e.g. he was suffering from one of his many and commonplace heartbreaks), but there wasn't. I think the action parts were so thought through not a whole lot of effort and time went into portraying our beloved Warlock and creating a interesting story.
I liked Axel - he was good love interest. One of the few things to make this a typical Magnus story is the mysterious love interest. And he was very interesting. But we know hardly anything about him. So little goes on in this novella that I would have expected to become more acquainted with the new characters. But I guess not.
It was a...interesting portrayal of Marie Antoinette. I'm just going to leave it at that.
I think a large part of the downfall of this story is that Magnus is alone for most of the book. It's not that Magnus isn't enough to excite the reader on his own, it's just that he's the type of character that functions by bouncing off other people's attitudes and comments. It's just the kind of personality that Clare has created. So when he's on his own for the majority of a story, there isn't anyone for him to be sarcastic to or make fun of jokingly.
I didn't hate it, as this review seems to say. I just was a little disappointed after What Happened in Peru exceeded my expectations so much. I just hope we get the sarcastic, humorous, fabulous, arrogant Magnus Bane back in the next novella.
I would recommend it to anyone who likes Clare's writing. It's not bad, it just isn't as good as other things she's written. Don't read it as an introduction into her works, because I don't want you to be put off from reading her other stories, because she really is a good writer. This just wasn't her best work.
Image Source: http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1368749949l/17334068.jpg
This was a nice little novella. I can't find anything remarkable to say about it to be honest - it was a perfectly enjoyable read and it wasn't bad at all, but it wasn't particularly amazing either. I think it lived up to my original expectations for the Bane Chronicles, but not my more recent predictions after the first novella.
The Runaway Queen takes place in France and follows Magnus Bane as he's offered a job to help Marie Antoinette and her court leave Paris to escape the revolutionists of the time. But when a group of french vampires steal the queen from under his nose, Magnus has to improvise to get her safely out of the country.
The writing was fine, but it wasn't the typical Cassandra Clare writing. I understand that's she's working with other authors to create these stories, but she managed to keep her unique flare in What Happened in Peru. I feel like it was a bit lost this time.
When I read the first novella in the Bane Chronicles I was surprised at how funny I found it. Whereas The Runaway Queen was a bit bland and lacking Magnus' signature humour.
There was nothing particularly wrong with it, I just didn't find it as engaging as I found the previous novella.
The story was a bit boring. Again, there wasn't really anything wrong with it, but I feel it wasn't as well planned out as Clare usually writes her stories. The beginning part is practically irrelevant except for the mention of a hot air balloon, which could easily have been said in one sentence rather than 20-30% of this story.
Once the story got going, and we got into the action, the thrill took over and I actually got quite interested in what was going on. I read a fair bit of this in one go because the middle part was so good.
Then it fell down again when the vampires got involved. Not because of the vampires - on the contrary I think they were needed to add a bit of danger to the plot since there wasn't much threat up until that point - but because they were in it for about 3% and then disappeared completely. I was expecting a big chase through Paris with Magnus trying desperately to save the queen from a pack of violent vampires. Instead I got him nearly falling asleep as they silently...travel away (spoilers). It didn't really excite me like I was expecting.
Magnus is brilliant, and I will always love him. But he wasn't really the Magnus we all know and love in this book. He was still Magnus, but he didn't really have much humour or fabulousness. This would have been fine, if there was a reason (e.g. he was suffering from one of his many and commonplace heartbreaks), but there wasn't. I think the action parts were so thought through not a whole lot of effort and time went into portraying our beloved Warlock and creating a interesting story.
I liked Axel - he was good love interest. One of the few things to make this a typical Magnus story is the mysterious love interest. And he was very interesting. But we know hardly anything about him. So little goes on in this novella that I would have expected to become more acquainted with the new characters. But I guess not.
It was a...interesting portrayal of Marie Antoinette. I'm just going to leave it at that.
I think a large part of the downfall of this story is that Magnus is alone for most of the book. It's not that Magnus isn't enough to excite the reader on his own, it's just that he's the type of character that functions by bouncing off other people's attitudes and comments. It's just the kind of personality that Clare has created. So when he's on his own for the majority of a story, there isn't anyone for him to be sarcastic to or make fun of jokingly.
I didn't hate it, as this review seems to say. I just was a little disappointed after What Happened in Peru exceeded my expectations so much. I just hope we get the sarcastic, humorous, fabulous, arrogant Magnus Bane back in the next novella.
I would recommend it to anyone who likes Clare's writing. It's not bad, it just isn't as good as other things she's written. Don't read it as an introduction into her works, because I don't want you to be put off from reading her other stories, because she really is a good writer. This just wasn't her best work.
Image Source: http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1368749949l/17334068.jpg
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