(In which human beings are
proven once again to be suckers for happy endings.)
***
When I decided to read
series, I thought it's a win-win situation. First, I get to read books that I
don't usually read (because I haven't seen an art fiction series yet). Second, I
save myself from deciding what book to read next. Finally, I get to read a lot
of books. The only downside I realized at that time is the painful waiting for
the next installment. I'm looking at you, George R. R. Martin!
In retrospect, I found out
that I completely forgot that some series tend to get old real fast. Worse,
some are even predictable and cliché, albeit in different levels. And now I'm giving
Cassandra Clare's Heavenly Fire my bloated stare.
To begin with, I do not hate
the book (Although I have to admit that I can't get the 'Morganstern' typo out
of my head). It's just that I thought the story deserves more than the and-of-course-Sebastian-has-to-die
and all the rest lived happily ever after. I'm sorry, that's an exaggeration. And
stop scowling because that is not a spoiler. What, did you not see his death
coming?
Cassandra Clare warned her
fans that six main characters will die at the last book. (By page 338 the
fourth character dies. And the last two died at the boss battle stage.) While
everyone was crying out for her to save Magnus, I was wondering if Clare would
dare pull a Veronica Roth and kill Clary. But she didn't do that. The
following is my own summary of Heavenly Fire.
After the battle at the
Burren, where Clary, Jace, Alec, Isabelle and Simon found out about the Shadowhunters
evilly transformed by the Infernal Cup, the whole race of Nephilim face a far
greater and more threatening Sebastian than the one who bound Jace. He now
leads the army of Dark Shadowhunters (now called Endarkened) and their number
continues to rise as they attack Institutes and either Turn or murder
Shadowhunters. The only hope to save Nephilim lies in the heavenly fire
contained by Jace's body, which he doesn't know how to control yet. With the
help of their unlikely band of supernaturals (again), Jace and Clary uncover betrayals
and alliances, journey to a desolated realm of Hell and attempt to save the world...
but not without sacrifices.
These sacrifices come in the
form of their friends' corpses and memories. But just as it is impossible to
regain lives, one character’s memories, on the other hand, could be retrieved in
just a matter of, what, weeks? Say what you will. But I can't simply believe
this could be done by sheer willpower. And the memory was sucked out of this
character by a Demon Prince! This is the part where I threw up my hands in frustration.
I am not totally in favor of letting major characters die but I think Clare's
refusal to let it happen led to pushing things to the height of annoyance. I mean,
if she doesn’t want any serious harm to come to Clary and friends, at least when
she decided to sacrifice a major character’s memories in lieu of life, she
should have just left it at that. But then everyone’s life would be incomplete and
that would be a terrible ending for everyone, correct? I am not sure. Or maybe I
just have issues with predictable, happy endings.
That’s for another blog post.
Now, even after realizing
that I only have ten more pages towards the end of the series, I don’t feel a
sense of finality. I was thinking, “Am I supposed to be shocked by a
cliffhanger here?” Suddenly, I was finished reading. But then the book wasn’t
finished with me yet – with me and with all the other readers of this seemingly
never-ending saga of Shadowhunters. I knew because I was greeted with an
introduction to a new series which will pick up from the ending of Heavenly
Fire. Surprise!
But I am finished with it. This
will be my last Shadowhunter-related reading experience. They get old real
fast, indeed. But to those whose tolerance is impressively high, you are
welcome to another Nephilim adventure with this:
You will have to zoom the
image many times to read the Seelie Queen’s message to the Arthur Blackthorn of
the Los Angeles Institute because, you know, the Fair Folk are quite secretive
with their correspondence.
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