This summer, I started reading Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series. I recently finished the amazing conclusion, City of Heavenly Fire. Having read all the books, I can tell you that this is a series that you will want to read.
Because this is the sixth book in the series, there may be some spoilers to previous books.
At the beginning of City of Heavenly Fire, Sebastian is on the loose, and he’s beginning to cause trouble again. Around the world, Institutes are being attacked. None of the shadowhunters are safe; they all decide to retreat (temporarily) to Idris. This leaves the downworlders vulnerable.
Sebastian and his Endarkened forces attack the fortress of the Iron Sisters. It’s almost a massacre for the shadowhunters that show up to fight, but Jace turns out to be an extraordinary weapon. The Endarkened are vulnerable to his heavenly fire, as is Sebastian. Unfortunately, the heavenly fire makes it difficult for him to get close to Clary.
As our adventure continues, the teens from the New York Institute make a journey to end Sebastian once and for all… and may have to give up a little more than they would like. You’ll just have to read this amazing book to find out what happens.
I love how this book expands on setting elements that we saw in previous books. In City of Lost Souls, we first hear about The Wild Hunt. In this book, we hear more about it. We are also introduced to places in other dimensions. The book is full of imagery from Biblical and classical sources, which adds a little bit of color to this series.
I continue to grow more in love with these characters and their relationships. Jace and Clary, Simon and Isabelle, and Alec and Magnus continue to have their relationships develop in different ways. We are also introduced to some new characters, some of whom we will see in both The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifices books. I plan on reading both.
Part of me was sad to see this amazing series end, but I’m glad that there are other shadowhunter books to read. I already have the first two books from The Infernal Devices on hold at the library. I have to take a short break from this series while they become available, but I’m sure it will be worth it. At the time I write this, there was a great sale on Lady Midnight, so I’m all ready to read that when the time comes.
I remember finishing this book and wanting to thank Cassandra Clare for all she did in this book. She tied up the loose ends, and pointed all the main characters towards their future, and I was happy about where they were heading. It was also cool to have so many of the different series’ characters in one place.
Agreed.
I definitely began to appreciate her worldbuilding after reading this and starting TID (I’m on Lady Midnight now). I started thinking about how I can do that with my own universe that I’m developing. I haven’t gotten to writing the chapter yet, but I’m sneaking in a character in one scene that I’d like to write a story about later. Also, I was able to tie another character in with the story I was originally going to do NaNoWriMo about. Reading this series got me thinking about the bigger picture.