Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel. Clockwork Prince and Questions

Infernal Devices

 I heard from many that the Infernal Devices were much better than the Mortal Instruments especially since the author had published two more books after City of Glass.  I had found the idea of the Shadowhunters interested but felt the story was not that good. So, I wanted to see how the Shadowhunters would be when done well.  

Clockwork Angel

  I listened to the audio book of Clockwork Angel.  I did not mind the narrator, she made each voice seemed distinct although Tessa sounded similar to the other voices.  Clockwork Angel was similar to the Mortal Instruments, but I liked it a little more.  I liked Tessa more than Clary.  At the being Tessa was actually strong and not just said to be. I felt Tessa was strong because she had just arrived in London but someone else picked her up than her brother whom she expected.  Then we jump forward a few months and we find that she as been imprisoned all this time.  She has been emotionally and physical tortured and at one point whipped.  Though I don't remember her having any physical signs of it.  Did she change her skin so it would not have scars.  I would have liked to see Tessa's letter since it seems writing them played a part in remaining hopeful, sane and alive throughout her ordeal. 

    I was okay with Will, I didn't liked him as much as others seem to.  I liked Jem but it felt like he was just nice and there was nothing else to him. I felt he should have had more to him and thought he should have had sarcasm, bitterness, dark spirit and edge considering went the went through. Maybe in the following book we will see more to him.  I liked Charlotte and her ability to run the institute despite her youth, the criticism and that she probably had not been given any help in doing it.  Henry and his constant inventions.  Jessie did not appeal to me.  Sophie was okay.  I had the suspicion that whole time about De Quincy and the Magister.  I thought that the Magister would be someone human. I liked that they had Tessa used her power to go against the Magister, but I thought it stupid that she didn't take the object and gain information but not turn into the person or answer the Magister's question.  Since Tessa is conscious and aware no matter whom she turns into.  So why didn't she? It seemed a bit of a cop out that Tessa didn't even prick herself though she was supposedly ready to defeat the Magister and die if need be.  It seemed like other characters were able to move the events along, which if done right would have been great.   

Clockwork Prince

  Once I heard of Will's curse, I immediately knew it was not real.  Not because a curse like that couldn't exist but because nothing surrounding it supported it being true in any way.  I do see why a young Will would have believed it completely but once he would have reached the institute and started to be educated that he should have seen all the clues that concluded that there was no curse and his sister died of something else.  I found it weird that Will based everything over one event and it was never even spoke about it. I don't remember the demon saying that part of the curse was not to speak about it.  I would have thought will would become a expert in demons and the pyxis but he hardly knew nothing about it. Not even that the pyxis weakened demons.  What's the point a pyxis when it keeps the demon strong? 

     I found it sweet but a bit lacking that both Henry and Charlotte loved each other but based on a misunderstanding thought did other did not care for them.  Especially when Henry did all to protect Charlotte from the automaton and was holding her so close.  Was she unconscious then?   The blackmailing of Benedict Lightwood also seemed lacking in some tensity.   I didn't like Tessa as much as when I first learned of her.  the more I learned about her, I found she knew that she liked and was more attracted to Will and almost always thought of Jem as a friend and she said her goal was finding her identity.  But then she just accepts Jem proposal even when she knew that if she married and will suddenly wanted her she might have an affair. Tessa was willing to marry Jem because he too delicate and she is so selfless because she broke her own heart to make someone else happy? 

      

Clockwork Princess

      From what I have heard about Clockwork Princess, I don't think I am going to read it. The biggest issue for me is the ending and what they did to Jem and the Epilogue.  Why did Cassandra Clare not let Jem die since he had asked all his friends not to look for a cure.  He should have died in battle. Jem I don't see choosing to become a brother because he would lose everything that he held dear or had cared about that kept him living.  Jem died and Will felt the break of their parabatai link.  So how did a dead Jem become a brother, although I never heard of the process that makes a brother.  Even if for whatever reason Jem becomes a brother, he stopped being Jem so there is no way that ending would have happened.  I don't know much about the brothers and the clave but Jem would have been a great asset so why would they just cure him, lose a great brother so that Tessa could have Jem after she had already had will? 

    Another, which I already suspected since the beginning was Tessa's warlock origin.  Once they said that she was a warlock I knew she would from a combination that was deemed rare.  I didn't understand why no one suspected that she could be a Shadowhunter and Demon offspring when the possibility existed. I know Will kept saying the offspring would be dead but that seemed based on propaganda to stopped any Shadowhunter from consorting with demons and not based on real evidence. So, it was not a big shock that Clare wanted to make it.  Also, why is that Tessa can have children? I have yet to read so I don't know what reasoning Clare gave, but in all the previous books warlock are not fertile.  What makes Tessa so special? Because she is half shadowhunter and shadowhunters are so great? Tessa should have remain infertile so we could see what losing that possibility did to the relationship with Will or anyone lover who would have wanted children in the future. 

Questions:

Here are some questions that I had that linked the overall mythology of shadowhunters from the Mortal Instruments, Infernal Devices and now the movie.   

     Why is it that in the Mortal Instruments only Shadowhunters and downworlders can see themselves.  While in Infernal Devices Shadowhunters and Downworlders are only hidden when they are using glamour or something similar.  Will mentions this sometimes the only time he is not seen by normal people it was because he was using some glamour, but in The Mortal Instruments people can not see them "unless they believe" although in the movie clip people can see Clary.  She is actually a shadowhunter, so why can normal people see her but not the others? The logic in Infernal Devices makes more sense.   I don't understand why that logical gap was not fixed in the Mortal Instruments movie that was filmed after the Infernal Devices came  out.  In the trailer there is a clip where Clary is walking down the street with the other shadow hunters and someone recognizes and sees only her. Why? Clary is a shadowhunter since she was born so no normal person should have been able to see her, Jocelyn and Luke from the beginning. For me that does not make any sense. 

      Why is that Jace in the 2000s is saying that women shadowhunters were only allowed to be warriors a generation before while in Victoria, England Charlotte and Jess were both great warriors.  The Clave even had Sophie and Tessa trained even though Sophie is a person and a servant and Tessa a downworlder.  Did something happen? Because that a big gaping question.  

         I liked the idea of Parabatai but in Mortal Instruments Jace and Alec were not even friends let along have the bond of a Parabatai.. Will and Jem were a little bit of a better example.  However, how is it that though they had this suppose stronger than brotherhood bond with a steadfast friendship despite all  neither knew that the other had some feelings for Tessa?
        Of the City of Bones trailer I have seen. There are only two things I liked.  One, the kind of tone they are trying to go for with the darker and fight scenes and two the image of Magnus Bane below. The movie seemed to have been modified so that Isabel and Alec will be at the fight with the vampires. Also Valentine does not look anything like Jace and it was one of the things I thought might have been great in the book.  The physical resemblance between Jace and Valentine and how that could play in foreshadowing of Jace's life. Even Jocelyn who knew Jace was not her child could not seem to get over the resemblance.
     The image below invokes the idea of Magnus that I had in my head someone sexy and mysterious with experience and wisdom behind his eyes and beyond the years he appears and has lived. With all the other images I can't see beyond the glister and lip gloss.

Magnus Bane