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

by Cassandra Clare

Dark secrets and forbidden love threaten the very survival of the Shadowhunters in Cassandra Clare’s Queen of Air and Darkness, the final novel in the #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling The Dark Artifices trilogy. Queen of Air and Darkness is a Shadowhunters novel.

What if damnation is the price of true love?

Innocent blood has been spilled on the steps of the Council Hall, the sacred stronghold of the Shadowhunters. In the wake of the tragic death of Livia Blackthorn, the Clave teeters on the brink of civil war. One fragment of the Blackthorn family flees to Los Angeles, seeking to discover the source of the disease that is destroying the race of warlocks. Meanwhile, Julian and Emma take desperate measures to put their forbidden love aside and undertake a perilous mission to Faerie to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. What they find in the Courts is a secret that may tear the Shadow World asunder and open a dark path into a future they could never have imagined. Caught in a race against time, Emma and Julian must save the world of Shadowhunters before the deadly power of the parabatai curse destroys them and everyone they love.

Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, Holly Black and Sarah J. Maas.

Also by Cassandra Clare:

The Dark Artifices:
Lady Midnight
Lord of Shadows

The Eldest Curses:
The Red Scrolls of Magic
The Lost Book of the White
 

• ISBN10: 1471116727
• ISBN13: 9781471116728
• Publish Date: 4 December 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[liz089]

I can not say anything else but... Perfection.

I have to admit I was a bit intimidated at first, I mean.. almost 1000 pages ! That is a lot.. and it took some time before I took the challenge on, but once I got started, 1000 pages were not enough ! Everything about this world, these characters.. is just amazing. I could not get enough of it.

And the worst part; I kept my eyes dry throughout the whole novel, but was in tears with the bonus story haha XD I have so much love for this world, I can't wait for it to continue.

3,5 stars

"The seeds of this poison tree were planted long ago. We are only now watching it begin to flower." (Helen Penhallow Blackthorn)

Cassandra Clare tries to achieve a lot in Queen of Air and Darkness, juggling many different character arcs and story lines, and while the scope of her work is impressive, the execution of it is not so great. It kind of feels like she fell out of love with The Dark Artifices series. However, my love for the characters and the heartwarming and emotional scenes held my interest.

THE CHARACTERS
★Emma and Julian.
Emma is my favourite Cassandra Clare protagonist. She's strong and fierce, but she's not afraid to be vulnerable. She's also hilarious. What a legend!

I have mixed feelings towards Julian. In this one, he steps up to the plate when it comes to antihero intensity and while I love antiheroes, there's something about him being an antihero that seems so off. Julian's personality in previous books revolved around the fact that he'd do anything to protect his siblings, but in Queen of Air and Darkness, he's more interested in being with Emma. His personality took a complete 180 and I hated it.

I love the idea of Emma and Julian being together, but in Queen of Air and Darkness, Clare tries too hard to get us to like them as a couple and they were missing the spark that made me love them in the previous Dark Artifices books.

★Christina, Kieran and Mark.
Christina is my favourite character in The Dark Artifices series. She's kind, compassionate, wise, understanding and mature. However, her character arc is one of the weakest arcs in The Dark Artifices series because it's all about romance.

I didn't love Kieran in previous Dark Artifices books, but after reading Queen of Air and Darkness, I love him so much. His character arc is pretty impressive and some scenes involving Kieran made me so emotional. That scene where the gentry from the Unseelie Court don't humiliate or hurt Kieran because of his kindness and the little girl who gave him a flower that symbolised forgiveness warmed my cold, emotionless heart.

Mark is another one of my favourite characters and he's come so far from the character that we first met in Lady Midnight.

I could never choose who was more perfect for each other between Christina, Kieran and Mark. The whole back-and-forth between them is quite repetitive and while I'm happy with the way that their relationship turned out, it isn't entirely resolved.

★Ty and Kit.
Ty's character arc revolves around how he chooses to deal with the loss and grief that he feels after the events that occurred in Lord of Shadows. One of the things that I've always appreciated about Ty is that he's on the autism spectrum and he isn't reduced to condescending stereotypes. He's a fully fleshed out character with dreams, motivations and desires. I'm also interested to see how the dark magic that surrounds him will affect him and his adventures at the Scholomance in The Wicked Powers.

I have so much of love for Kit. His character arc involves him going along with Ty's plans while also figuring out how to stop him. Kit also has claim to the Seelie and Unseelie Crown and after what happened with the Riders of Mannan, he's going to be a pretty powerful character in The Wicked Powers.

Kit's gradual realisation that he might have feelings for Ty is done so well and the only reason I'm interested in The Wicked Powers series is because I care about Kit and Ty.

★Dru and Tavvy.
Dru is the character that surprised me most in Queen of Air and Darkness. In previous books, I couldn't really get a sense of her personality, but in Queen of Air and Darkness she's a shining light and I wish more emphasis was placed on her character development.

Tavvy is an unimportant character in Queen of Air and Darkness, but that's mainly because he's extremely young.

★Diego.
I've warmed up to Deigo, but in comparison to the other characters in The Dark Artifices series, he's quite dull. I love the unexpected friendship that develops between him and Kieran.

★Helen and Aline.
I love that Helen wants to show her family that she loves them and cares about them. I love that Aline has a no-nonsense personality and that she'll never allow anyone to hurt her wife. I love Helen and Aline. They are such an adorable couple.

★Diana and Gwyn.
Diana has been an amazing character from the beginning of Lady Midnight and I love her so much. I also love that Gwyn is an awkward romantic. Diana and Gwyn forever.

★The TMI characters.
Queen of Air and Darkness felt like another TMI book. I didn't mind cameos from character that I liked and that seemed to have a purpose in Queen of Air and Darkness, but there was too much of Jace and Clary and the Simon and Isabelle cameos felt so forced. Queen of Air and Darkness would have been stronger if more emphasis was placed on the Blackthorn family and their arcs. Instead, the emphasis is placed on Jace and Clary because apparently six books about them weren't enough. However, I don't mind reading more about Alec and Magnus. I only started liking Alec in City of Heavenly Fire and he's come so far from being insecure and closeted to becoming assertive and open and he's also the new Consul!. I love Magnus and Alec and their children and their wedding was so beautiful.

★Annabel.
A waste of a character who had the potential to be a fantastic villain.

★Horace, Zara, Manuel and the rest of the Cohorts.
I hate them with the fire of 1000 suns and if I ever have to hear about them again, it will be too soon.

THE PLOT
The plot is the weakest part of Queen of Air and Darkness and it's so inconsistent.

★Part One. The first part is amazing! It shows how the Blackthorn family deals with grief and loss and it's so sad to read about. Aside from that, so many different things were happening at the same time and I was on the edge of my seat. There are alliances, betrayals and unexpected occurrences as well as an epic showdown between the Seelie Queen and the Unseelie King that ends in chaos and blood.. The first part made me feel like giving Queen of Air and Darkness five stars.

★Part Two. This part involves Thule, an alternate dimension. I understand that Thule allowed Emma and Julian a space to deal with their grief and the idea of an alternate dimension is quite cool, but it doesn't add much to the main plot. I also didn't like that that characters, villains and main conflicts were recycled from the TMI series. I also don't give a damn about Ash. There are, however, some highlights from the second part such as seeing Livvy be a badass, witnessing Cameron being a funny guy, seeing Raphael again and reading the letter that Thule Livvy wrote to Ty.

★Part Three. This is the part where everything goes wrong. There's lots of plotting and planning and I'm usually a fan, but everything felt over-the-top and contrived. The main action of part three became so unrealistic and cringy and the way that everything was resolved felt too easy and was unbelievable. Emma and Julian become giants and start ripping their enemies apart with their bare hands. They are saved by their family and friends who talk them down and tell them how much they love them. The heavenly fire that turns them into giants destroy only their parabatai bond and leaves everything else intact. Yeah, I'm not buying it.

WTH IS THAT EPILOGUE
The epilogue is an introduction to The Wicked Powers series and it dulled my excitement about The Wicked Powers because the plot seems like it's going to be a TMI rehash.

I read The Dark Artifices series in a month and it's been an amazing journey. The characters stole my heart, the plot is gripping for the most part, mainly because of all the faerie politics, and I actually enjoyed all the angst.

"He would be as everyone was, especially Shadowhunters: a patchwork of love and grief, or gains and losses. The love helped you accept the grief. You had to feel it all."

I really wanted to like this book, just as much as I loved the previous two books in The Dark Artifices. Unfortunately, I did not. There was nothing wrong with the story itself, yet there were other factors that made this book one of my least favorite of the Shadowhunter world.

There were too many point of views to make this story relevant. Normally, I would always encourage multiple POV, but in this book it felt like we had twenty different POV and half of them were not relevant to the story in any way. They were used only in a way such that the reader could see a bit more about characters that they loved before. Characters that did not contribute to the story of this book. If these irrelevant stories would be cut out of this book, it would have been a lot shorter, which would have made it more pleasant to read. Now, it felt as if we were just reading about characters because there was nothing to tell, as if this book was a filler to a next book, or a last homage to all the beloved characters, instead of the end of a series of the Shadowhunter world. I would not have minded it as much, if this had been the last book in this world, but it isn't. It was not necessary to drag this story out, namedrop every character that was ever in the series, just because they could.

I also did not like the way Cristina, Mark, and Kieran were portrayed in this book. As if their relationship defined them. There was not a single scene that they were just our beloved characters. Every single scene they had to bring up their love for each other, no matter if they were held captive, if their family was in danger, every single time their love between each other overshadowed the scenes that their personality could have been portrayed in. I have always loved these characters, yet in this book I found myself trying to rush over their POVs, because I knew that their personality seemed to be gone in this book.
Now I come to think of it, this could be said about a lot of characters in this book. With Emma and Julian I understood why the majority of their scenes were about their romance, because of the parabatai curse. Yet other characters, like Diana, only had scenes that always referred to her relationship with Gwyn, which seemed really unnecessary to me. These characters have always meant so much to us, and now they are reduced to their relationships. The same goes for Clary and Jace, Isabel and Simon, and more. Almost every time they are mentioned, so is their significant other in a way that they a lightly touching them or expressing love, which just does not seem realistic. Not every couple is expressing how much they love each other all the time.

It also felt as if Cassandra Clare did not really knew how she could solve the problems she had created in this story, so she just send Julian and Emma to this other world called Thule, where they magically got all the answers handed to them and their enemy creates a portal for them to flee back to their own world? And fighting Sebastian, again, really? As if her imagination was stuck, and she just wanted to revisit old characters over and over again, instead of trying to make a new interesting plot.

This book could have been so good. I really wished it was, but the length of the book was just unnecessary. Cassandra Clare could have better made yet another book just about revisiting every character and how they were doing, instead of putting it all in this book, losing content that would have been highly appreciated. I would have loved to see more scenes of Cristina / Mark / Kieran which were about their personality, not their relationship. I would have loved to see more of Dru and how she felt, not only about how she felt in regards to Jaime and not being able to connect with Ty. I would have loved to see Helen and Aline more bonding with the children. I would have loved to see their personalities more. I would have loved to see more of Tavvy, because he was just someone who was there, nothing more. Just someone.

[Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub]

Buckle up, I'm about to annoy a lot of die-hard fans: I thought this book was a disaster. I was so disappointed, because I'd been looking forward to reading this book for so long. My sweet husband gave it to me the day it released. I smiled, opened the book and was treated to 912 pages of blah.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad. But the good was overshadowed by how bad the bad was. Let me start by saying that my lack of enjoyment in this book is at least partly my fault: I am one of the few people who don't read these books for the romance, so the fact that this installment had so much of that in it didn't interest me. That's a point against me, not the writing.

I think the best way to express my thoughts on QoAaD would be to use pro and con bullet points. So, here goes:

*Pro: The family these books follow (the Blackthorns) have varied, unique personalities, all of which are interesting in their own way. Ty, in particular, is my favorite.

*Con: The cast of characters seemed almost too big for Cassandra Clare to write well, and they all began to blur into fuzzy pictures of their previous selves. It felt as though she'd lost confidence in her ability to write these characters well, instead choosing to shoehorn in characters from the Mortal Instruments.

*Pro: The demons in this book, as in all of them, are unlike any I've read elsewhere in description. Ms. Clare is also skilled at describing battle scenes that make them easy to picture in my mind.

*Con: There was much more time spent on who should be in love with who, instead of the battle scenes I enjoy. Also, certain constants from throughout the other books seemed to ebb and flow, an example of that being the naming of the seraph blades. Sometimes they were named, sometimes not.

*Pro: The Fae are done very well, borrowing from classic faery tropes, while having an original spin on them. The Unseelie vs. Seelie drama brewing had the potential to turn into something truly exciting.

*Con: Sebastian. Again???

Despite what I see as an excruciatingly bad book, I'm still planning to read Cassandra Clare's next book. That's the thing. A misstep doesn't necessarily become a deal breaker for me, as far as reading more by a certain author. I'm just going to go into it with more caution, and less excitement.

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[Cocktails and Books]

It has taken me days to finish this book, but I finally did it! I didn't love this book quite as much as the other in the series, but I was happy to see key characters get their HEA. The epilogue was interesting and leaves the door open for more in this world. Would be interesting if Ty ended up in Thule somehow.

[Stephanie]

It's... a lot, man. Just, so much.