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mcharlotten's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
eesh25's review against another edition
5.0
4.75 Stars
Queen of Air and Darkness is the last book of The Dark Artifices series and it's another series (the third one) completed in The Shadowhunter Chronicles.
I'm not sure if I say this enough, but I'm a huge fan of The Shadowhunter Chronicles. I read City of Bones early 2014 (before I even joined Goodreads) and I've been following Cassie's books ever since. I usually read them within a week of the release, which is what I did this time as well, only I managed to procrastinate reviewing it for almost three weeks. And I know there are people who don't like that Cassie releases so many books and series set in the same world, but I'm not one of those people. I'm not saying the books are flawless, but I also recognize (and love) that Cassie has added so many layers to this world that she's created, and that even as the series' are in the same universe, they follow different sets of characters and always have different plots and settings. And I live for the way the series' are connected, the easter eggs, and how characters often move from one series to the other.
And now that I have all that out of the system, let's focus on the book at hand. Though, I do have a reason for the large paragraph above. It's that, since I'm such a huge fan, it's often difficult for me to be objective; or be critical in the right way. So cut me some slack, okay?
First of all, I loved this book, which should be obvious from the rating. It's a very large book (the biggest I've read so far) but it's never slow-paced. There's just so much going on with so many characters that it kinda needed all the pages. From the (devastating) end of Lord of Shadows, we know that Livia was killed and that Annabel got away with the Black Book. And the grief of that is going to affect each character differently. This is something explored throughout the book, the Blackthorns (and others) processing the death of someone so close to them.
I think everyone was at least a little afraid that Julian would go evil or something. I, personally, didn't expect him to go dark, but I was afraid he'd do something he'd regret. Especially since there's also the issue of the parabatai curse becoming a big problem again after Robert Lightwood died. And then there's the Cohort slowly gaining more and more power and the blight thing that's affecting warlocks and shadowhunter runes... it's a clusterfuck alright. And it's all handled so well.
I don't have much experience with writing so I can only imagine how crazy it would drive me to handle the various plots and perspectives of so many characters (let's try counting: Julian, Emma, Christine, Mark, Kit, Diana, Kieran, Diego, Dru... and others). And I can't tell you how impressed I am with how well Cassie balanced them all. Tying up all the storylines as well as setting up some things for the next (and final) series of The Shadowhunter Chronicles... it's a lot and, as a reader, you have to take your time with it all so that you don't miss anything. One of the perks of being a relatively slow reader is that I did take my time. There were some really shocking developments. Like, I didn't see any of it coming, there were so many surprises.
And I know a lot of people basically cried through the entire book but other than a few instances, the only really make-you-cry parts were in the beginning two to three chapters, which were very grief-heavy since this book starts literally right where the last one ended. Pretty sure I started crying on the first page.
I did have a couple of issues. The first is the cliffhanger-like epilogue, which I felt was a really uncool way to end a series, especially when the next series isn't coming out for four years, give or take. Also, while I liked how every plotline was tied up, something about how the parabatai conflict was resolved irked me. It, to me, felt a little unreal. I can't say it was outside the realm of possibility (after literal angels and alternate dimensions seen in other series) but it didn't have enough precedent (except, it kind of did), to the point that it almost felt made up. There was an explanation and there was build-up to it, but it just... it didn't fit right, for me.
Overall, I still love this book, it was everything that I wanted it to be and more because, believe it or not, the issues that I has were a miniscule part of the entirety of the book. This book was a great end to the series. There wasn't a single dull moment and Cassie's use of the tagline/teaser "Everything Changes" was highly accurate because it had a very major impact on the shadow world. Waiting for The Wicked Powers will kill me.
Queen of Air and Darkness is the last book of The Dark Artifices series and it's another series (the third one) completed in The Shadowhunter Chronicles.
I'm not sure if I say this enough, but I'm a huge fan of The Shadowhunter Chronicles. I read City of Bones early 2014 (before I even joined Goodreads) and I've been following Cassie's books ever since. I usually read them within a week of the release, which is what I did this time as well, only I managed to procrastinate reviewing it for almost three weeks. And I know there are people who don't like that Cassie releases so many books and series set in the same world, but I'm not one of those people. I'm not saying the books are flawless, but I also recognize (and love) that Cassie has added so many layers to this world that she's created, and that even as the series' are in the same universe, they follow different sets of characters and always have different plots and settings. And I live for the way the series' are connected, the easter eggs, and how characters often move from one series to the other.
And now that I have all that out of the system, let's focus on the book at hand. Though, I do have a reason for the large paragraph above. It's that, since I'm such a huge fan, it's often difficult for me to be objective; or be critical in the right way. So cut me some slack, okay?
First of all, I loved this book, which should be obvious from the rating. It's a very large book (the biggest I've read so far) but it's never slow-paced. There's just so much going on with so many characters that it kinda needed all the pages. From the (devastating) end of Lord of Shadows, we know that Livia was killed and that Annabel got away with the Black Book. And the grief of that is going to affect each character differently. This is something explored throughout the book, the Blackthorns (and others) processing the death of someone so close to them.
I think everyone was at least a little afraid that Julian would go evil or something. I, personally, didn't expect him to go dark, but I was afraid he'd do something he'd regret. Especially since there's also the issue of the parabatai curse becoming a big problem again after Robert Lightwood died. And then there's the Cohort slowly gaining more and more power and the blight thing that's affecting warlocks and shadowhunter runes... it's a clusterfuck alright. And it's all handled so well.
I don't have much experience with writing so I can only imagine how crazy it would drive me to handle the various plots and perspectives of so many characters (let's try counting: Julian, Emma, Christine, Mark, Kit, Diana, Kieran, Diego, Dru... and others). And I can't tell you how impressed I am with how well Cassie balanced them all. Tying up all the storylines as well as setting up some things for the next (and final) series of The Shadowhunter Chronicles... it's a lot and, as a reader, you have to take your time with it all so that you don't miss anything. One of the perks of being a relatively slow reader is that I did take my time. There were some really shocking developments. Like, I didn't see any of it coming, there were so many surprises.
And I know a lot of people basically cried through the entire book but other than a few instances, the only really make-you-cry parts were in the beginning two to three chapters, which were very grief-heavy since this book starts literally right where the last one ended. Pretty sure I started crying on the first page.
I did have a couple of issues. The first is the cliffhanger-like epilogue, which I felt was a really uncool way to end a series, especially when the next series isn't coming out for four years, give or take. Also, while I liked how every plotline was tied up, something about how the parabatai conflict was resolved irked me. It, to me, felt a little unreal. I can't say it was outside the realm of possibility (after literal angels and alternate dimensions seen in other series) but it didn't have enough precedent (except, it kind of did), to the point that it almost felt made up. There was an explanation and there was build-up to it, but it just... it didn't fit right, for me.
Overall, I still love this book, it was everything that I wanted it to be and more because, believe it or not, the issues that I has were a miniscule part of the entirety of the book. This book was a great end to the series. There wasn't a single dull moment and Cassie's use of the tagline/teaser "Everything Changes" was highly accurate because it had a very major impact on the shadow world. Waiting for The Wicked Powers will kill me.
ingo_lembcke's review against another edition
4.0
Had this pre-ordered at Amazon.de but they cancelled on publication day as the price from the publisher was changed to a higher price. Bough a cheaper edition as an EPub-ebook elsewhere.
illusie's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this book, apart from the love triangle. I hope the love triangle would go away, but instead it was taken to a whole new level. The writing is good and for me this was a pageturner.
erinkrista's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
mrussell1988's review against another edition
4.0
While I enjoyed this book, I was crying through alot of it. It's good, just emotionally heavy. Or maybe I'm just sensitive...
kallmekirby's review against another edition
5.0
this trilogy is the most underrated of Clare’s work
lyndsea22's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0