Daily Archives: September 9, 2010

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

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Short Summary:

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

My Review:

I want to begin this review by saying that I love Steampunk. I’m a full blown Jules Verne, gadget-loving, dirigible-adoring fan of it.

When the cover for Clockwork Angel was revealed I squealed out loud. I loved it. When I purchased my copy of Clockwork Angel I may or may not have run my hands over the cover, admiring how pretty it was, how shiny.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I did not love the first two books of the Mortal Instruments trilogy. They took a while for me to get into and the story didn’t suck me in. The third book of the trilogy did all of that, however, so it was with hope that this first book of the Infernal Devices would pick up where City of Glass left off (not story-wise, writing-wise).

I’m going to be that bad person here and say that.. honestly, I was a bit bored by Clockwork Angel.

This makes me sad, but I still have hope. Because I was bored by City of Bones too. So I’m thinking maybe Cassandra has to work up momentum to give crazy, fun endings to her series. I hope that’s the case.

Now the Steampunk aspect of the novel. I feel a bit gypped here. Aside from the mention of some gears and gadgets and the addition of some automatons there really wasn’t that much Steampunk in this one. I’m coming off of having read some great Steampunk stories such as Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker or The Affinity Bridge by George Mann – those are steampunk. This was more… steampunk-light.

There’s nothing wrong with that, I mean Clare has built a great system of magic and her world building is interesting, I just feel as if the Steampunk parts were added on as a bit of a tool instead of something that the story is immersed in. Because first and foremost, this story is immersed in her magic.

I don’t get the debates between Will and Jem. We don’t see Jem enough to debate on the subject. So I’ll reserve my opinion on both of them until later in the series.

That said, I will be reading the rest of the series. I don’t have much hope for Book #2 though, because if she followers her pattern established with the Mortal Instruments series it’ll be Book #3 that blows me out of the water.

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