Saturday, December 10, 2011

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Prince
Cassandra Clare
Infernal Devices #2

After escaping the Magister's clutches, Tessa is finally safe again in the London Institute. But her safety may not last - after the Clave learned of Charlotte Branwell's failure to discern Mortmain's plots and detect a spy under their own roof, her position is challenged. She and the Institute's residents must locate the Magister to prove Charlotte's ability to run the Institute.

I wasn't a huge fan of Clockwork Angel, so it was a bit surprising to me that I quite liked this one. I didn't have the emotional freakout that others did, but the book was certainly filled with shocks and left a lot for Clockwork Princess to cover next year.

I think the reason for my lack of huge reaction to certain events was that this is the way Cassandra Clare writes. She has to throw out these obviously contrived obstacles to her main characters' relationships, so even though you know it's going to work out the way you realized it would from the very beginning, it takes them the whole series to get there. It gets tiresome after a while. Sometimes barriers to relationships are believable and even tragic, but Clare's obstacles mostly just leave going, "Seriously? That's your explanation?" The love story in this book was odd and sometimes completely baffling. Fortunately there's a little more to this book than love drama.

The main storyline intertwines Mortmain's plans with the political machinations of the Shadowhunters, and involves surprise appearances and betrayals, oddly touching moments, and some actual danger as well. The characters grew on me quite a bit during this installment; I didn't much like Will or Tessa in Clockwork Angel, but I'm starting to warm to them now.

Overall, I think Clockwork Prince is the best of the series so far, including the Mortal Instruments. I finished it in about a day and really enjoyed it despite my annoyance with the relationship developments. Definitely pick it up even if, like me, you didn't really like Clockwork Angel.

Quality: Acceptable
Enjoyability: Excellent

If you liked Clockwork Prince, try:
Tithe by Holly Black
The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

2 comments:

  1. I'm happy you enjoyed this book. I never could get into this series /:
    Thanks for stopping by last week, I'm following you back!
    -Magic is in Words

    ReplyDelete
  2. I enjoyed Clockwork Angel so I'll have to read this one.

    ReplyDelete

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