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Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices, #3)

Cassandra Clare

Start date: January 1, 2019

Finish date: January 31, 2019

Discussion: Series

Why we're reading this: Won the poll for the series BOTM
[close] Won the poll for the series BOTM

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Series

* Continuing Series- Nightbane
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What Members Thought

Dec 08, 2018 E. Ardell rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. So.... It's still not over. Though I will read this series until she writes no more so long as my favorite people stay on the roster ... I was expecting a true conclusion. Especially since the next series the author is planning, which I'm very excited about, takes places between the first and second Mortal Instruments series. I hope that she is planning to write another series that picks up with Ash, Other Jace, Mark. Cristina, Kieran, Dru and Jaime, married Alec and Magnus and of course Jace an So.... It's still not over. Though I will read this series until she writes no more so long as my favorite people stay on the roster ... I was expecting a true conclusion. Especially since the next series the author is planning, which I'm very excited about, takes places between the first and second Mortal Instruments series. I hope that she is planning to write another series that picks up with Ash, Other Jace, Mark. Cristina, Kieran, Dru and Jaime, married Alec and Magnus and of course Jace and others. I also hope that she will do like she did when the Infernal Devices and the second set of Mortal Instruments series books came out, where one book from a series would come out in fall and one from the other would come out in spring. That was nice and it'll take me back to a time when I always had books to look forward to just about every month or two.

Now, on with the review of this book. As is standard for me, I always give the last book in a series I thoroughly enjoyed a 5 to count as a series rating. I enjoyed Ty and KIt's secret mission and that they included poor Dru. I hope the author returns to the consequences of what Ty did.

Dru's storyline is one that tells me she'll be a main character in future series, because there's something between her and Prince Ash. (Though she doesn't know it yet).

There's Kit who is the heir of all of Faerie, though I will admit that storyline did not interest me much at all. To me the most interesting Herondales will always be Will and Jace. And I'm disappointed every time Jem and Tessa take the stage and don't interact with Jace...or the Lightwoods for that matter. (Jace is one of her descendants and acts like her beloved Will. I want Jem to interact with him so bad!)

Old time favorites, Alec and Magnus. It warms my heart to see Alec come into his own and be acknowledged for it. And his patabatai bond with Jace is sweet, but.... It wasn't like that before. I sort of feel like the author didn't really know what she wanted that bond to mean until she wrote Will and Jem and though oooh, that's nice! Alec and Jace need to be like that...and she changed them for the sequel series. Suddenly Jace really acts like Alec's friend and brother and Alec isn't just crushing on Jace. It's been this way since City of Fallen Angels, but I cant help but look at their relationship on this book and think back to City of Bones and shake my head. I know they're older now, but I still think it's the author correcting herself. I don't mind, I love it actually, but yeah, it wasn't always like that.
And I did get annoyed with parabatais suddenly calling each other that like it was a pet name. Also something none of them ever did before.

Jace being Jace, just when I think I don't favor him anymore because his relationship with Clary makes him boring, he reminds me why I love him. Smart aleck.

Mark Blackthorne. Gotta love Mark. He's such a Faerie. He and Kieran crack me up. I love Faerie talk, and Cristina is one lucky girl...or one patient girl, lol. I would love to read stories about Mark's struggle with The Hunt and how Kieran helped him and cared for him.

The Cohort... They made me so angry. I just hate how things went down in the very end, but a good hate. It was interesting but made me feel some kind of way.

Julian and Emma... I like them individually, as a couple, like Clary and Jace, they are boring. I wanted more Simon and Isabelle or more Faerie trio! But Julian is a true leader, clever, cunning... And Emma kicks butt. I loved her whooping Sara Dearborn's behind and taking back what was hers.

Overall, there was so much to love about this book. The themes of family, friendship and loyalty were strong. The story was exciting and creepy and intriguing where it needed to be. There were laugh out loud moments too. While there were missed opportunities for character interaction and relationship development, some unclear moments and some things that seem like danglers that may never be answered, I loved being swept away for three nights by this book.

My only rant is: way back when, the Seelie Queen told Clary that she would fall in love with the wrong person. Was this ever resolved?

Also... I'm still trying to figure this out, probably have some more rereading to do but... Did Jace or Will ever mention anything about seeing ghosts????? ...more

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Mar 27, 2019 Lauren⁷ 💜 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-teen-new-adult, library-has-a-copy, fantasy-science-fiction, favorites, best-books-read-in-2019

This book was, I just, I almost lack words! It was incredible! Just when I thought that Cassandra couldn’t top herself, she does! But you know what stuck out most to me in this sea of crazy plot twists and turns and shocking reveals? (view spoiler) This book was, I just, I almost lack words! It was incredible! Just when I thought that Cassandra couldn’t top herself, she does! But you know what stuck out most to me in this sea of crazy plot twists and turns and shocking reveals? (view spoiler)[The relationship between Kieran, Cristina and Mark. I know that Clare hinted at it and was seemingly laying the groundwork for them to get together in LoS. But I honestly never expected her to actually go there. Why? Because serious explorations of polyamory/polyfidelity in mainstream entertainment are quite rare. The last serious mainstream exploration of polyfidelity that I can think of is Vicky, Cristina (ha!), Barcelona. Which came out back in 2008. Yeah, “Three” by Britney Spears came out in 2009. But that was hardly serious. And threesomes are depicted like crazy in porn. But porn, is, well, porn. It’s not mainstream at all. And those threesomes are purely sexual. No actual feelings are involved. Polyamory/polyfidelity is often explored in depth in erotic romance. But even that’s not super mainstream. We all know what the most mainstream erotic romance is. Fifty Shades of Wretchedly Bad Writing. And that trilogy exclusively features a traditional couple. And we’re talking entertainment aimed directly at adults. So to see Clare tackle something like polyfidelity in a YA novel shocked me. Because she’s a very mainstream writer and her publisher is a very mainstream publisher. She’s not some indie author self publishing on Kindle. She’s a #1 New York Times bestselling author. And this is YA. But I applaud her for it. And she wrote their relationship in such a beautiful way. I fully believed that they were going to make it by book’s end. And speaking of romantic relationships... I was so glad that it was all’s well that ends well for, well, nearly everyone. I was seriously concerned that either Julian or Emma were going to die because of the whole parabatai thing. It was actually pretty remarkable seeing what could become of the parabatai bond and seeing them become true nephilim and their bond getting burned away as a result of heavenly fire. And I’m glad that’s how Cassandra solved the problem. Is it convenient? Yes. But I’ve never liked tragedy romance and I’m fine with convenient. And I was so happy that Diana and Gwyn got together! Theirs was such an unexpectedly sweet romance and I really enjoyed it. And I’m thrilled that Magnus and Alec got married at long last! And that Clary and Jace are on their own path to wedded bliss! But as for couples who didn’t end so happily? Ah, me. Poor Kit and Ty. Theirs is going to be a complicated love, I think. And I cannot believe what Ty did. Raising Livvy from the dead? I can already tell he’ll pay dearly for that in The Wicked Powers. Ty is a very interesting character and I’m eager to learn more about him. And as for interesting? Oh mama! My jaw dropped when it was revealed that Kit is no less than the descendent of the first heir of the fairie courts! I absolutely cannot wait to read more about that and how it’s going to royally complicate his life, lol. Do we expect anything less?And in the vein of complicated... I cannot wait to see what Cassandra is going to do with Ash! The son of Sebastian and the Seelie Queen? That was one heck of a twist! I’m sure he’s going to have a major and very important part to play in The Wicked Powers. I wonder if he’ll get together with Dru? We’ll see. I did find Annabel’s death and overall storyline to be slightly anti climatic. She protects Ash and Julian stabs her in Thule and that’s it? Meh. But that’s a minor quibble.
I think I’m done with discussing characters. The new dynamics of the Clave are shocking. I can’t believe the Cohort is so wedded to their bigotry that they’d split themselves off from the Clave to form their own government. I’m dying to see where that’s going to go in The Wicked Powers! I’m pleased that Alec was elected Consul. He’ll be a good one.
Swinging back to Thule... I found Thule to be a really interesting plot point. A kind of dystopian Shadowhunters world where at least in part thanks to the blight, Sebastian won and most of the cast of TMI died but Livvy is still alive? It was an intriguing if very sad what if. I’m glad it’s going to be such a major plot in The Wicked Powers. It’s quite captivating. I could easily read an entire trilogy dedicated to Thule and whether or not power can be taken back by the rebels. Cassandra seems to have a talent for writing a dystopia. And I’m definitely really interested to see what’s going to happen now that Thule!Jace is in our world and has his sites set on Clary. (hide spoiler)]
This was a truly epic and incredible way to wrap up this trilogy and I thought this was just an all around excellent book that hummed along quite briskly in spite of being close to 1,000 pages long and brought everything mostly full circle for many of the characters and kept me absolutely glued to the pages! I’m so excited to read The Wicked Powers and see what happens with the plot threads that were left dangling! ...more

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Jul 20, 2020 Kate H rated it liked it

Shelves: goodreads-yajuvenile

Cassandra Clare is an author whos books I d0n't exactly enjoy but who I cannot seem to stop reading. Everything aobut her stories, characters, and writing style should appeal to me and yet something about it just doesn't work. I have tried them as physical books, e-books, and audios and they don't really hold my interest and still I soldier on hoping I will enjoy them... ...more

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