Review: City of Fallen Angels

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wouldn't have minded if Clare had initially kept her promise and stuck to writing the "new" Mortal Instruments trilogy about Simon only. But after reading this one, I am very glad she kept the stories going for the others, especially because it improved the story by making it considerably more complex than anything she'd written up to this point, even before one takes into account the number of characters introduced in this novel as well. This same complexity can be found in any of the Infernal Devices books, and in fact, Clockwork Angel served as a good preview for what came along in CoFA.

What I was worried about was the possibility that the story would feel tacked-on and rushed in the writing process. After all, the original TMI trilogy told a fairly well-finished story in itself. But where one story ends, another begins. And it begins very well, fading in smoothly from City of Glass as organically as one can possibly imagine. Then...it leads to a major cliffhanger. Not quite as major as the one that comes up later, in City of Lost Souls, but that's to be expected.

And let me tell you, with Simon now getting his own third-person POV - that was what really sealed the deal for me. Simon's always been my favorite TMI character - Clary's great too but she's no Katniss Everdeen; Jace's arrogance ticks me off even though it's hilarious. Plus, he being a geek (although he prefers Eastern work over Western), I find him easiest to relate to - and easiest to feel sorry for. This, my friends, is how you write a non-humanitarian (if you're a Troper you'll get that one) vampire, being convincingly human but not subverting the traditional mythology without a good reason to do so.

My Shadowhunters reread will continue soon with Clockwork Angel. Stay tuned.

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