L’amor che move ill sole e l’altre stel e...
My will and my desire were turned
by love, the love that moves the sun and the other
stars... PARADISO (Dante)
Have you ever had that feeling of doom that you know will eventually happen but just keeps building up until you feel ready to explode? When you are expecting something bad and you know it is not just a thought but is really about to happen and you cant do anything about it but wait for it to be there? Well thats how I felt reading the newest installment of the Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.
After reading the third book, City of Glass a few months back, I never really thought that there would be another book in the series. In fact, I thought the ending was one of the best on any series or trilogies I have read. The conflict was fixed, loose ends tied up, it was over and done with. The end. Then I read on the author's website (which I read from time to time much is my fascination on the characters within the Shadowhunter books) that there would be another book. I thought, hell, what now? Will it eventually be one of those series that goes on and on without any ending whatsoever? With complexities that will eventually devour everything into incomprehensible nonsense. But still I waited for the fourth book. And now I'm really glad I did.
City of Fallen Angels begins a few weeks after the third book ended. And while the first conflict was resolved, this new book tells us that it was but the beginning of a whole new adventure and this time with more at stake than just the Shadowhunters.
I thought with the third book, the end of the trilogy that i know everything there is to know about their world,,,only to find out that i have only touched the surface of something that is so deep that it would take the rest of the upcoming books to scratch it, probably more.
I also only just realized that though Simon was one of my liked characters in the first three books, it is only now in City of Fallen Angels that I become to realize that he is as real as Jace or Clary. Also, new characters are introduced with subtlety that you sort of grow into liking them bit by bit and not suddenly thrust into your presence.
In the end, this is a whole new different ball game. A story of love, salvation, forgiveness, hate, and self sacrifice. The feeling of the angst of someone in love but filled with the confusion of it all emanates from Jace like a throbbing presence, add to this the questions that plague Clary's mind creates a jumble of emotions clearly evident in young lovers feeling the enormity of the emotion in all its splendor. The characters have all grown up and has become more real with depths and emotions not entirely different from ours.
The antagonist, when finally revealed is someone/something you would expect but then again someone/something that you would never have thought in a million years (curious? read the book).
Reading through the pages, I realized the the way the novels were written makes them perfect to be transformed to films without much changes to the premise. as a script writer, the sequences of how it was written is perfect. I cant wait for the first movie.
All in all, read the book. Immerse yourself once more to a world that might not be our own but shouts with the goodness that makes us who we are.
*City of Fallen Angels is book 23 of the 100 challenge
