Book Title: Clockwork Princess
Author: Cassandra Clare
Series: The Infernal Devices #3
Series: The Infernal Devices #3
Date Started: October 16th 2013
Date Completed: October 19th 2013
Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Action, Historical, Thriller, Comedy
Rating: Four stars
Review:
The Infernal Devices hadn't really caught my attention as much as the Mortal Instruments for quite a lot of reasons, and so I wasn't expecting Clockwork Princess to be amazing. However, I do think that actually it was the best in the trilogy and it did tie everything off nicely, ready for the following series.
Clockwork Princess concludes Tessa, Will and Jem's battle with the Magister. With Jem and Tessa due to be married, and the horrors of the past few months behind the curtain, everything seems quiet for the time being. But with the new arrival of not only Will's sister, but Gabriel Lightwood too, tensions in the Institute are rising, and the threat of Charlotte's banishment as its carer is becoming more real every day. As things start to pile up on the Shadowhunters, it seems that there's even less of a chance any of them are going to come out alive.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm pretty sure there's a difference between Clare's writing in her Mortal Instruments series, and in this trilogy; it just feels like there's something missing here. Perhaps because I'm closer to the characters in her other series, I'm able to connect with the writing more, I don't know. I just feel like there's an enthusiasm in City of Bones, and the following books, that isn't as present in the Infernal Devices.
On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with the writing; the action is still told very well, and the detail and description is at an amount where its interesting and adds to the story, but not boring and distracting from the story. One thing that definitely is the same as her debut series is the gradual splitting of her story lines. Clare always manages to start with one story in her first book of a series, and then be able to span it into five or six or even more by the final instalment. These changes of perspective don't only give us more stories, but also give a more 3D impression of what is going on in the plot, and helps us to understand why everything is spiralling out of control when it does.
The last thing I want to mention about the writing, was the demonstration of parabatai. I've always loved the concept of two warriors connected so completely that it's as if they were brothers - but for whatever reason I never really understood just how much it meant in the Mortal Instruments (perhaps because Jace and Alec actually are technically 'brothers'). But in this trilogy, it really became clear to me just how significant an idea it is. There really was a link between Jem and Will that I've never really seen in a story before, and it benefitted the plot so well, and stopped it from becoming unrealistic (involving the romance side of things).
The story was alright. I think it's the story where Clare falls down a little in her Infernal Devices series. I love reading about the ancestors of her other characters, and a lot of the time the battles and general events that happen aren't that predictable and are genuinely interesting. However those tend to be the smaller, extra details on the side. The main plot, for me, is a bit lacking. This is mainly because it relies on a villain who I don't feel at all threatened by. You need a scary villain to make the reader get scared for the characters in the book, and want them to win rather than the evil person. But I felt like there just wasn't enough of a connection between the Magister and the main characters that made me scared of what he would do to them, I'm afraid.
I think I'll get my negatives out of the way before I go onto the really good scenes. Another thing I wasn't huge on in the story were the letters; the ones between Charlotte and the Consul and then the Clave. I expected them to go somewhere, but they kind of just disappeared into the story and weren't really talked about after a certain point. Maybe I missed some of the details surrounding that, I'm not sure.
Furthermore, Clare can't let her favourite characters die. It's something that always annoys me with books, partly because I can't tell how much I like a character until they die or get seriously - and I mean seriously - hurt (for example, I can usually only tell if I really care about a character if I get sad when they die). To be honest, Clare didn't do what most authors do, and pretend to kill of a character and then bring them back without any valid reason - so just because they couldn't handle their favourite character being dead. (If you've read the book, you'll know the obvious exception to this, but I feel like actually the reason and plot behind that particular resurrection.)
Finally, the last negative I have to say about the actual story is the fact that I was very tired of the Jem, Tessa, Will love triangle by the end. I remember not being too fond of it in the first and second books, as well. I'm not sure why I grew bored of it, but even a few chapters in, I was practically skim-reading their chapters. I think the soppy love declarations every third sentence got on my nerves a little, especially since I don't feel that much chemistry between the characters.
Okay, now that I've got my bad points out of the way, I can talk about the good things (or as much as possible without giving away any spoilers). I absolutely loved the battle. It was prolonged just as much as it needed to be, and there was loads of good action happening during it. In addition, the gradual movement of what happened impressed me, since a lot of authors tend to get ahead of themselves and want all the action and drama to happen straight away and have the actual fight over very quickly. Clare took her time, and allowed everything to play out individually.
I also want to mention the tiny section at the end of the last chapter, just before the epilogue. I will say now that my favourite character is Cecily, and I completely ship her and Gabriel. Therefore, that last little segment where the Herondale siblings visit their parents again was just lovely. It was funny and it was touching and it was great.
And then the epilogue. I liked the way it skipped to 2008, and I love the little differences in Tessa's behaviour in the modern era. I also loved the little recollection of Will's final hours. It was very touching, though I admit I spent most of it working out whose children would go on to have the heroes from the Mortal Instruments' parents. But, the most surprising thing is that I was actually content with the happy ending Clockwork Princess finished with. I don't usually get on with happy endings, because I don't believe that stories end so nicely and quickly - but I suppose knowing that their descendants go on to have many dramas in New York made me a little more open to a pleasant finish for this lot.
It took me a while to connect with these characters, but they have eventually grown on me. I'm not as in love with them as I have been with other characters before, but I do still really like them.
Tessa did annoy me a little, but by the ending of the book I had grown used to her again and was happy that she was happy for the most part. I do wish she had become a little less girly after three books with her being trained as a Shadowhunter, but I do have to remind myself that girls can be non-kick-ass if they want to be, and it worked perfectly well in the book.
I love Jem, but I do think he became a little too repetitive in this book. I do love the way his situation is portrayed, and how he and everyone reacts to it, although I did get a little tired of him saying he'd like to give up again and again and again. Although he did become a lot better around halfway through the book where he started being practical and realistic.
Will has changed, and changed for the better. I remember him being Jace in the first book (not like Jace - actually Jace, I swear) but he has definitely changed from that moody type. I think his development has been brilliant since it has been slow, and clearly had an affect on the characters around him. Furthermore, his character, by the end, really was a hero, rather than perhaps wanting to be one in the earlier books.
Cecily is my new favourite character. I love her relationship with Will, and in a way I wish she had been in more of the previous books, because I would have liked to see her build up relationships with some of the other Shadowhunters. However, the fact that she starred only in this novel did make me like her more and give me less chance to get bored of her. I was very happy to work out that she wears (slight spoiler ahead) Isabelle's necklace for a lot of the book and then goes on to be hers, Alec and Max's great great great great...great? grandmother. I also completely ship her and Gabriel. They had a very nice progression of their relationship and I always looked forward to their little segments most in the chapters.
Charlotte and Henry are adorable. I love Henry, and I wish people would accept him more. He's a genius - I mean, come on, he invented the Portal! Charlotte is also lovely and a great head of the Institute. I would have liked to know what happened to her kids.
Gabriel and Gideon were great. I've already said how I love Gabriel and Cecily, and, though I'm not quite as excited about Gideon and Sophie, I do still think they're sweet. Again, I expected their plot line to go a little further than it did, but their characters were still greatly involved after their singular story finished.
I liked Jessamine's final little inclusion and that's all I really have to say about her.
Magnus was great as always, and I believed his friendship with Tessa and I loved hearing about how he had shown Tessa New York and I could just picture him taking her to all the places in the Mortal Instruments. I'm very glad Clare wrote him into this story, because I've grown to love him even more. (Although it is slightly weird thinking about the fact that Magnus lived with and helped his future boyfriend's ancestors...it's just a weird thought.)
The pace of the book was nice and consistent, and the fights were evenly spaced throughout the story. The only issue I had with pacing was the fact that the Tessa/Will/Jem chapters were a lot longer than any of the others, and I've already said that that plot wasn't really my favourite of all the stories - however I didn't hate reading these chapters, I just wish it had swapped around a little bit more.
Clockwork Princess was a very good ending to The Infernal Devices, and I enjoyed it more than the rest of the series. You should definitely read the trilogy if you're a fan of Clare's writing, or if you want to try some historical, romantic paranormal novel. But you absolutely have to read the previous books first - but they get better as they go along, promise!
Image Source: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120711053655/
mortalinstruments/images/4/4b/CP2_cover.jpg
The Infernal Devices hadn't really caught my attention as much as the Mortal Instruments for quite a lot of reasons, and so I wasn't expecting Clockwork Princess to be amazing. However, I do think that actually it was the best in the trilogy and it did tie everything off nicely, ready for the following series.
Clockwork Princess concludes Tessa, Will and Jem's battle with the Magister. With Jem and Tessa due to be married, and the horrors of the past few months behind the curtain, everything seems quiet for the time being. But with the new arrival of not only Will's sister, but Gabriel Lightwood too, tensions in the Institute are rising, and the threat of Charlotte's banishment as its carer is becoming more real every day. As things start to pile up on the Shadowhunters, it seems that there's even less of a chance any of them are going to come out alive.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm pretty sure there's a difference between Clare's writing in her Mortal Instruments series, and in this trilogy; it just feels like there's something missing here. Perhaps because I'm closer to the characters in her other series, I'm able to connect with the writing more, I don't know. I just feel like there's an enthusiasm in City of Bones, and the following books, that isn't as present in the Infernal Devices.
On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with the writing; the action is still told very well, and the detail and description is at an amount where its interesting and adds to the story, but not boring and distracting from the story. One thing that definitely is the same as her debut series is the gradual splitting of her story lines. Clare always manages to start with one story in her first book of a series, and then be able to span it into five or six or even more by the final instalment. These changes of perspective don't only give us more stories, but also give a more 3D impression of what is going on in the plot, and helps us to understand why everything is spiralling out of control when it does.
The last thing I want to mention about the writing, was the demonstration of parabatai. I've always loved the concept of two warriors connected so completely that it's as if they were brothers - but for whatever reason I never really understood just how much it meant in the Mortal Instruments (perhaps because Jace and Alec actually are technically 'brothers'). But in this trilogy, it really became clear to me just how significant an idea it is. There really was a link between Jem and Will that I've never really seen in a story before, and it benefitted the plot so well, and stopped it from becoming unrealistic (involving the romance side of things).
The story was alright. I think it's the story where Clare falls down a little in her Infernal Devices series. I love reading about the ancestors of her other characters, and a lot of the time the battles and general events that happen aren't that predictable and are genuinely interesting. However those tend to be the smaller, extra details on the side. The main plot, for me, is a bit lacking. This is mainly because it relies on a villain who I don't feel at all threatened by. You need a scary villain to make the reader get scared for the characters in the book, and want them to win rather than the evil person. But I felt like there just wasn't enough of a connection between the Magister and the main characters that made me scared of what he would do to them, I'm afraid.
I think I'll get my negatives out of the way before I go onto the really good scenes. Another thing I wasn't huge on in the story were the letters; the ones between Charlotte and the Consul and then the Clave. I expected them to go somewhere, but they kind of just disappeared into the story and weren't really talked about after a certain point. Maybe I missed some of the details surrounding that, I'm not sure.
Furthermore, Clare can't let her favourite characters die. It's something that always annoys me with books, partly because I can't tell how much I like a character until they die or get seriously - and I mean seriously - hurt (for example, I can usually only tell if I really care about a character if I get sad when they die). To be honest, Clare didn't do what most authors do, and pretend to kill of a character and then bring them back without any valid reason - so just because they couldn't handle their favourite character being dead. (If you've read the book, you'll know the obvious exception to this, but I feel like actually the reason and plot behind that particular resurrection.)
Finally, the last negative I have to say about the actual story is the fact that I was very tired of the Jem, Tessa, Will love triangle by the end. I remember not being too fond of it in the first and second books, as well. I'm not sure why I grew bored of it, but even a few chapters in, I was practically skim-reading their chapters. I think the soppy love declarations every third sentence got on my nerves a little, especially since I don't feel that much chemistry between the characters.
Okay, now that I've got my bad points out of the way, I can talk about the good things (or as much as possible without giving away any spoilers). I absolutely loved the battle. It was prolonged just as much as it needed to be, and there was loads of good action happening during it. In addition, the gradual movement of what happened impressed me, since a lot of authors tend to get ahead of themselves and want all the action and drama to happen straight away and have the actual fight over very quickly. Clare took her time, and allowed everything to play out individually.
I also want to mention the tiny section at the end of the last chapter, just before the epilogue. I will say now that my favourite character is Cecily, and I completely ship her and Gabriel. Therefore, that last little segment where the Herondale siblings visit their parents again was just lovely. It was funny and it was touching and it was great.
And then the epilogue. I liked the way it skipped to 2008, and I love the little differences in Tessa's behaviour in the modern era. I also loved the little recollection of Will's final hours. It was very touching, though I admit I spent most of it working out whose children would go on to have the heroes from the Mortal Instruments' parents. But, the most surprising thing is that I was actually content with the happy ending Clockwork Princess finished with. I don't usually get on with happy endings, because I don't believe that stories end so nicely and quickly - but I suppose knowing that their descendants go on to have many dramas in New York made me a little more open to a pleasant finish for this lot.
It took me a while to connect with these characters, but they have eventually grown on me. I'm not as in love with them as I have been with other characters before, but I do still really like them.
Tessa did annoy me a little, but by the ending of the book I had grown used to her again and was happy that she was happy for the most part. I do wish she had become a little less girly after three books with her being trained as a Shadowhunter, but I do have to remind myself that girls can be non-kick-ass if they want to be, and it worked perfectly well in the book.
I love Jem, but I do think he became a little too repetitive in this book. I do love the way his situation is portrayed, and how he and everyone reacts to it, although I did get a little tired of him saying he'd like to give up again and again and again. Although he did become a lot better around halfway through the book where he started being practical and realistic.
Will has changed, and changed for the better. I remember him being Jace in the first book (not like Jace - actually Jace, I swear) but he has definitely changed from that moody type. I think his development has been brilliant since it has been slow, and clearly had an affect on the characters around him. Furthermore, his character, by the end, really was a hero, rather than perhaps wanting to be one in the earlier books.
Cecily is my new favourite character. I love her relationship with Will, and in a way I wish she had been in more of the previous books, because I would have liked to see her build up relationships with some of the other Shadowhunters. However, the fact that she starred only in this novel did make me like her more and give me less chance to get bored of her. I was very happy to work out that she wears (slight spoiler ahead) Isabelle's necklace for a lot of the book and then goes on to be hers, Alec and Max's great great great great...great? grandmother. I also completely ship her and Gabriel. They had a very nice progression of their relationship and I always looked forward to their little segments most in the chapters.
Charlotte and Henry are adorable. I love Henry, and I wish people would accept him more. He's a genius - I mean, come on, he invented the Portal! Charlotte is also lovely and a great head of the Institute. I would have liked to know what happened to her kids.
Gabriel and Gideon were great. I've already said how I love Gabriel and Cecily, and, though I'm not quite as excited about Gideon and Sophie, I do still think they're sweet. Again, I expected their plot line to go a little further than it did, but their characters were still greatly involved after their singular story finished.
I liked Jessamine's final little inclusion and that's all I really have to say about her.
Magnus was great as always, and I believed his friendship with Tessa and I loved hearing about how he had shown Tessa New York and I could just picture him taking her to all the places in the Mortal Instruments. I'm very glad Clare wrote him into this story, because I've grown to love him even more. (Although it is slightly weird thinking about the fact that Magnus lived with and helped his future boyfriend's ancestors...it's just a weird thought.)
The pace of the book was nice and consistent, and the fights were evenly spaced throughout the story. The only issue I had with pacing was the fact that the Tessa/Will/Jem chapters were a lot longer than any of the others, and I've already said that that plot wasn't really my favourite of all the stories - however I didn't hate reading these chapters, I just wish it had swapped around a little bit more.
Clockwork Princess was a very good ending to The Infernal Devices, and I enjoyed it more than the rest of the series. You should definitely read the trilogy if you're a fan of Clare's writing, or if you want to try some historical, romantic paranormal novel. But you absolutely have to read the previous books first - but they get better as they go along, promise!
Image Source: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120711053655/
mortalinstruments/images/4/4b/CP2_cover.jpg
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