Book Review - An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters & Denizens of Downworld

I am a bit behind on my Shadowhunters reading. I have, on my current TBR; City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy and Lady Midnight (though, when I do get my rear in gear to read these, I won't be reading these in order. I sense I might read Shadowhunter Academy and Lady Midnight before I read City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls. And let's not get me start of the upcoming Last Hours trilogy coming soon...).

So, imagine my surprise when, out of nowhere, Simon and Schuster sent me a copy of (brace yourselves for long title to say in one breath) An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters and Denizens of Downworld. And with my weird reading slump, I decide to blitz this tiny gift. 

In this anthology, we see characters from all of Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter world - The Infernal Devices, The Mortal Instruments, Tales from the Shadowhunters Academy, The Dark Artifices and the upcoming The Last Hours - with never before known titbits of information on each character and with illustrations from Cassandra Jean - creator of the Shadowhunter Tarot that we've seen on Clare's website. 

I am a bit torn over this book. On one hand, I think true fans of this series will love this christmas stocking filler. Cassandra Jean's art is beautiful and is the real selling point for this book, in my opinion (and I love reading art books and spent quite a bit of time looking at illustrations in the books I read). 

Like I said, true fans of the series - all of the Shadowhunters series - will love this. But for someone who isn't up to speed (aka myself), the information given is a bit of a problem. While new information (and fans will be reading these and going "oh, that makes sense with so-and-so"), it doesn't feel entirely important to the world. For example, why is it important to tell us that, when younger, this one character had a brief spell at stamp collecting? 

There were times that I looked at this and thought "Is this a cash cow moment?". 

This is a die-hard fan book. But if you are a casual fan, I would say get a copy from your library. But go enjoy the art. 

New TMI Covers

Last week, Walker Books revealed that they were going to release new covers of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. And they look pretty cool!

To me, These covers are more grown-up and shall appeal to new adult readers and crossover readers. The cover designs are, to my knowledge, is done by the same person who did the album cover for Coldplay's Ghost Stories and we love love that design. Cassandra herself love the designs and that pleases me.

Plus, as someone who needs to read the latter trilogy in the Mortal Instruments/Shadowhunters Chronicles (I view them as two trilogies), I need to get my rear in gear and read!

City of Bones Trailer!

Who fancies seeing the trailer of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie trailer? Anyone? Well, you are in luck... 

My reactions: am actually surprised. I have watched trailers to book adaptions and loved them, only to watch the movie and go "Oh God! That was awful!". So, while I am very surprised over how good this trailer is (the CGI [the door and demons!], the accents, the "Mom, I'm coming home!"-"No, no, no! You can't come home. You understand me. You don't come home!" exchange [very Mother/Daughter] , I am going to keep an open mind over this movie till I watch it (although I do want the Infernal Devices trilogy to become a movie series. That would ROCK!). 

But there's one thing that bugs. Just one thing. The runes! OMG, the runes! There meant to be tattoos but they look like make-up and those temporary tattoos you get when you were a child! They don't look like tattoos!

City of Bones Movie Trailer!

So, earlier today, the trailer of CITY OF BONES was revealed. And everyone got excited. Sadly, I couldn't find the trailer till half an hour ago so my reactions are still kinda raw...



Doesn't this look great? And seeing how filming finished a week ago, this is bloody good. I did have my doubts (I still do on one or two things), but I feel that the movie makers are going to give us everything and from everyone's reactions, all the fans of the books are excited!

Now, to wait till August 2013 (AUGUST?! seriously?)

But guys, what are your reactions? Do you like what you see or left a bit underwhelmed?

CITY OF LOST SOULS Cover Reveal

On Wednesday, Cassandra Clare (and USA Today) revealed the cover for CITY OF LOST SOULS, the fifth book in the Mortal Instruments series. And here is it:



Now, on screen, it looks prettier than the City of Fallen Angels (remember Clary and her super-photoshopped green eyes?) and, while I still need to read that (soon, ok? SOON [with the kick-start from Mundie Moms - oh, I love those guys!]) this looks like a more natural cover! And for a pretty cover, this is apparently the darkest book so far! May can't come soon enough!

But what do you guys think? Yea to this cover or na?



PS - in case you don't know, USA Today always revealed the prologue of City of Lost Souls. Now, I haven't read it (and I won't till after I read City of Fallen Angels) but if you do, here you go! ENJOY!!!

Mortal Instruments Castings!

News has broken out on the Mortal Instument movie front that has got fans all excited! Now, as we know, Lily Collins was casted as the lead of Clary.



And now, Deadline has revealed who has be casted as the male lead, Jace. It's... Jamie Campbell Bower! Fans have been getting excited over this on Twitter as this was one of the main actors people imagined could play Jace.



Now, at the time of writing this blog post, it hasn't been confirmed by Cassandra Clare, ScreenGems (the film production company) or Mundie Moms (THE place to go if you want info on Mortal Imstruments & Infernal Devices), but the noises sound hopeful so fingers crossed. If I am wrong, will happily amend this blog post.

POST EDIT: MTV HAS CONFIRMED THIS CASTING! CONGRATULATIONS JAMIE!!! READ THEIR REPORT

Now, if the moviemakers could make this casting, I will be one very happy blogger!



COME ON, CAST CHARLIE BEWLEY! IN ANY ROLE! PLEASE!!!

City of Fallen Angels - Cover Reveal!

Now, as some of you guys know, I love the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare and am planning to read Clockwork Angel (Book 1 in the prequel trilogy - Infernal Devices) in the near future (I WILL make time!), I am very EXCITED to see that the fourth book in the Mortal Instruments has been revealed!

So, here it is...



IT HAS TWO PEOPLE ON THE FRONT!!! Clary And... er... who is that?

Also, on the EW website, was revealed a tiny snippet of City of Fallen Angel and a EVEN-SHORTER snippet of the second book in the Infernal Devices trilogy, Clockwork Prince. You can read them on MundieSource or at MundieMoms. Or, if you want to watch the cover being reveal with teaser-questions about what will happen in City of Fallen Angels, click here!

What do you guys think? Do you like it? Or dislike it? Let me know!

Also, if you want a countdown for City of Fallen Angels, go to the bottom of the blog and click on Share!

Cassandra Clare News (YEAH!!!!!)

This was revealed last night so...

Cassandra Clare, author of the Mortal Instruments trilogy (which is technically not a trilogy because she has written a fourth book - City of Fallen Angels) announced last night that TWO MORE books will be added to the series, making it SIX books in total. And, if you see her prequel trilogy - Infernal Devices - as part of the same series (I don't, but still, some do), that makes it NINE books!

But not only that, SHE GAVE US TITLES!!!

The titles are... THE CITY OF LOST SOULS and THE CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE!!!

AND - we have YEARS OF RELEASE AND TAGLINES!!! So exciting!!!!

Let's deal with the taglines first... ready?

CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS: "Who will be tempted by darkness?"
CITY OF LOST SOULS: "Can the Lost be reclaimed?"
CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE: "Will love be their salvation or destruction?"



Mouthwatering, huh? And now, we have dates. Well, not dates, but year release. Now, hold on. This is kinda confusing.

2010 - Clockwork Angel (Book 1 in Infernal Devices)
2011 - City of Fallen Angels (Book 4 of Mortal Instruments - April) AND Clockwork Prince (Book 2 in Infernal Devices - September?)
2012 - City of Lost Souls (Book 5 of Mortal Instruments - date unknown) AND Clockwork Princess (Book 3 in Infernal Devices - date unknown)
2013 - City of Heavenly Fire (Book 6 of Mortal Instruments - Date Unknown).

Also, one tiny mouthwatering piece of information Cassandra said (she was very vague about the new books - as she should) is the following: She also said that new characters will be introduced including a female and a male that will shake up some relationships as we know them.

SO EXCITED!!!!

AND - someone gave the link to the video! SCORE!



And now, because we have no book cover of CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS to show you (it won't be revealed till December 2010!), here is a song I HUGELY relate to this series (and I hope Imogen Heap will release TONS more music before the books are released!)

Clockwork Angel Countdown

GoodRead - UK Cover Vs US Cover

Sometimes, though not often, UK publishers change cover designs on books to get a wide appeal. This worked well in the UK with Kathy Reichs novels and other publishers are doing the same with other authors, like Tess Gerristen.

One series cover design that changed was the "Mortal Instrument" series by Cassandra Clare. For the first two book, there was a design of one of the characters face with a metal, rusty shine to it. But then, on the release of the third book in the series "City of Glass", the UK covers were changed to the US design on the book.

So, as a Cover Vs Cover isn't just a "UK vs US", it's a "Before Vs After".

So, this was the first design of "City of Glass", in keeping with the first UK covers of "City of Bones" and "City of Ashes":



And this is the design of "City of Glass" that the UK now has, which is the US cover as well:



Now, which cover do you guys prefer? Now, weirdly, I like both. I like the original UK cover because it was shocking to look at, yet in fitted perfectly with the first two covers. But there is an air of coldness of this cover, whereas the US cover (and the UK cover that we know) seems more engaging, but I can understand how some people felt when they got their hands on this book and discovered that it didn't match the rest of the series.

But I like both. I love the US (now UK) cover of "City of Bones". But what do you guys think? Leave a comment and let me know!