![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
themadpokerOh City of Glass. First you sucked and then Alec and Magnus Bane had a scene together and suddenly you started getting better. Coincidence? I think NOT.
Which begs the question, WHY did I not get more Alec? Or more Magnus Bane? Or more both? Because while Clary did manage to redeem herself towards the end of the book (why were you so boring initially Clary? Why?) and I transitioned from 'eww Jace, what a lame Edward-like individual' to 'what did you DO Jace, how is it possible that I like you now?' Alec and Magnus still managed to be about a hundred times more awesome in the grand total of three scenes they had together. Sorry.
Also:
AHAHAHAHAHA, Jace, how did I not notice that sometimes you are actually funny? 3.5 hearts to you for that line alone.
Also, umm, Sebastian had a weird aura of general incestuousness to him. I just realized it now but seriously. Let us review some of his interactions.
• Avec Clary (sister) - attempts a makeout scene and is v. angry when he is rejected.
• Avec Jace (adopted brother. Sort of. It's complicated) - spends a suspicious amount of time straddling him while talking about how he will kill him. Interpret this as you will.
• Avec Valentine (father) - Oh I don't need to say anything, look at Jace's awesome hilarious line above for a summary. Besides I am not inclined to wish to ponder the arm stroking and jealousy; it disturbs me outside of the humourous context. As it did Jace:
I suspect Sebastian read One Hundred Years of Solitude and thought Ursula's fear of incest an example of why mundanes are lame.
Now, let us cleanse Sebastian's creepy through some time with the Duo of Awesome.
Seriously. There was marked upsurge in quality after this scene. I think all the other characters absorbed some awesome through osmosis.
-- SPOILERS NOW
So I accidentally read the scene where they're mourning Max's death as Isabella dead instead and I went 0_o because I had just been discussing with my cousin how Isabella was literally the most useless character in the story and I thought Clare had realized it as well and consequently killed her off. Which made me feel a vague sense of respect on account of how City of Ashes left me quite certain she wasn't willing to kill any of her major characters (Simon dies! But then he rises from the dead! He is about to be struck by sunlight which should kill him as a vampire! But then he lives!) Re-reading the line cleared me of any such mistaken belief which made the fight to the death scene between Jace and Sebastian rather anticlimactic seeing as I knew there was no way on Earth she would actually kill Jace (or let him stay dead. Tomato, to-mah-to).
Also, wow, there were alot of Harry Potter parallels in this book. 0_o I don't know if that was her fandom roots showing or just the fact that certain cliches show up in alot of fantasy but seriously.
The whole book is kind of insanely predictable but after the first 200 pages that becomes less annoying (For real guys. The magic of Magnus and Alec: making literary flaws less irritating since 2007!). I kept reading unsurprised but still wanting to keep going. If you're willing to wait that long for it to get actually interesting it's a decent read. About a B overall.
Which begs the question, WHY did I not get more Alec? Or more Magnus Bane? Or more both? Because while Clary did manage to redeem herself towards the end of the book (why were you so boring initially Clary? Why?) and I transitioned from 'eww Jace, what a lame Edward-like individual' to 'what did you DO Jace, how is it possible that I like you now?' Alec and Magnus still managed to be about a hundred times more awesome in the grand total of three scenes they had together. Sorry.
Also:
Sebastian just smiled. "I could hear your heart beating," he said softly. "When you were watching me with Valentine. Did it bother you?"
"That you were dating my dad?" Jace shrugged. "You're a little young for him, to be honest."
AHAHAHAHAHA, Jace, how did I not notice that sometimes you are actually funny? 3.5 hearts to you for that line alone.
Also, umm, Sebastian had a weird aura of general incestuousness to him. I just realized it now but seriously. Let us review some of his interactions.
• Avec Clary (sister) - attempts a makeout scene and is v. angry when he is rejected.
• Avec Jace (adopted brother. Sort of. It's complicated) - spends a suspicious amount of time straddling him while talking about how he will kill him. Interpret this as you will.
• Avec Valentine (father) - Oh I don't need to say anything, look at Jace's awesome hilarious line above for a summary. Besides I am not inclined to wish to ponder the arm stroking and jealousy; it disturbs me outside of the humourous context. As it did Jace:
There was something about that touch -- something intimate and confidant -- that made Jace's stomach feel as if it had been invaded by worms. Nobody touched Valentine like that. Even he would not have touched his father like that. "Are you upset?" Sebastian asked, and the same tone was in his voice, the same grotesque and peculiar assumption of closeness.
I suspect Sebastian read One Hundred Years of Solitude and thought Ursula's fear of incest an example of why mundanes are lame.
Now, let us cleanse Sebastian's creepy through some time with the Duo of Awesome.
"Alec?" Magnus was staring at him. He had dispatched the remaining Iblis demons, and the square was empty but for the two of them. "Did you just -- did you just save my life?"
Alec knew he ought to say something like, Of course, because I'm a Shadowhunter and that's what we do, or That's my job. Jace would have said something like that. Jace always knew the right thing to say. But the words that actually came out of Alec's mouth were quite different -- and sounded petulant, even to his own ears. "You never called me back," he said. "I called you so many times and you never called me back."
Magnus looked at Alec as if he'd lost his mind. "Your city is under attack," he said. "The wards have broken, and the streets are full of demons. And you want to know why I haven't called you?""
Alec set his jaw in a stubborn line. "I want to know why you haven't called me back."
Seriously. There was marked upsurge in quality after this scene. I think all the other characters absorbed some awesome through osmosis.
-- SPOILERS NOW
So I accidentally read the scene where they're mourning Max's death as Isabella dead instead and I went 0_o because I had just been discussing with my cousin how Isabella was literally the most useless character in the story and I thought Clare had realized it as well and consequently killed her off. Which made me feel a vague sense of respect on account of how City of Ashes left me quite certain she wasn't willing to kill any of her major characters (Simon dies! But then he rises from the dead! He is about to be struck by sunlight which should kill him as a vampire! But then he lives!) Re-reading the line cleared me of any such mistaken belief which made the fight to the death scene between Jace and Sebastian rather anticlimactic seeing as I knew there was no way on Earth she would actually kill Jace (or let him stay dead. Tomato, to-mah-to).
Also, wow, there were alot of Harry Potter parallels in this book. 0_o I don't know if that was her fandom roots showing or just the fact that certain cliches show up in alot of fantasy but seriously.
The whole book is kind of insanely predictable but after the first 200 pages that becomes less annoying (For real guys. The magic of Magnus and Alec: making literary flaws less irritating since 2007!). I kept reading unsurprised but still wanting to keep going. If you're willing to wait that long for it to get actually interesting it's a decent read. About a B overall.
