Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices, #1)

by Cassandra Clare

When sixteen-year-old orphan Tessa Fell's older brother suddenly vanishes, her search for him leads her into Victorian-era London's dangerous supernatural underworld, and when she discovers that she herself is a Downworlder, she must learn to trust the demon-killing Shadowhunters if she ever wants to learn to control her powers and find her brother.

• ISBN10: 1416975861
• ISBN13: 9781416975861
• Publish Date: 31 August 2010
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Margaret K McElderry Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 496
• Language: English

Reviews

[lizarodz]

Let me start by explaining why I took so long to start this series. I was mad. There, I said it. Why was I mad? Well, I loved Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments, that is until she turned it from a trilogy to a series of six books. I was happy with the ending of City of Glass and so disappointed when I realized that it was not the ending of the series. Anyway, I decided to read (listen) to Clockwork Angel, and I loved it!

I think in many ways I enjoyed Clockwork Angel even better than the Mortal Instruments. I love steampunk and this book has plenty of it, from angels to robots and nice doohickeys.

I think what made the book for me were the characters. Tessa, is a mystery for sure. She doesn’t know what she is, but she has a really neat power. Tessa is very pragmatic and tries to take this new world and her new circumstances in stride. She is loyal, smart, and not afraid to voice her opinion. Will and Jem are Shadowhunters, blood brothers and best friends; and yet so different. Will is very handsome, strong, stubborn, loyal, intelligent, and devious and tries very hard to push everyone away. Jem is so sweet, calm, composed, resigned, yet strong, loyal and the default peace maker. Can you smell the love triangle coming? I can from a mile away!

There is no shortage of amazing supporting characters: strong Charlotte, scatter minded Henry, bitter Jessamine, lovely Sophie, the always grand Magnus, and much more. Our evil figure here (well, the main one at least) is The Magister and we really don’t know too much about his throughout the story.

Cassandra Claire is a genius in many levels. Her writing is so good, it takes serious talent to invent a world full of new and old beings, of mythology, stories, culture and make you not only understand what it all means, but learn to love it. The plot of the Clockwork Angel is very intricate, full of mystery and betrayal. It is one of the things that makes the story so interesting and addictive.

I already had the chance to listen to Clockwork Prince and it is, if at all possible, even better. I can’t wait to read the last book in the series, and I will. Soon.

About the audiobook: I really like the narrator of the book, the pace and voices.

About the cover: The cover of the Clockwork Angel is beautiful. We can see Will in all his handsomeness and with light coming out of his runes. In the background we see clockwork and the city of London. On the forefront is Tessa’s angel. As I said, beautiful.

[mrs_mander_reads]

I feel like I'm constantly writing reviews that hail books as the "best I've read in awhile!". But this time, I really mean it. I was 250 pages into this book before I even noticed it. The story is compelling; I found no elements unbelievable, the plot was seamless. There is not a single character that I dislike. Even the villains are perfect. I can't wait to get the second book. I have the first book of The Mortal Instruments, but I can't decide if I want to finish this series first. I just don't know!! Read this book.

[tweetybugshouse]

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It was a bit weird with the clockwork steam-punk twist that was thrown into the story, but it starts to feel in some of the characters from the Mortal Instruments series, which I read before I knew about this series. The story gives you a look at the world we fell in love with in the Mortal Instruments series, but throws a much darker feel over it. This is a great start to a series that will keep me enthralled until the end I am sure.

[angelarenea9]

I think that as far as writing goes, this book is defiantly better than some of the previous ones and I really enjoy the plot. I did not, however, like that it seemed as though there were a lot of reused characters and scenes. I often felt like I was rereading the Mortal Instruments books. I guess that the point may be to draw parallels between them but I think that if that was the case it was poorly done. Characters who resemble their ancestors is one thing, but it is another think when they are just a patchwork of the original characters. Tessa seems to be a Simon/Clary Will a Jace. Jessamine reminds me of an angry Isabelle. The list goes on and on. The only character that I felt was truly a new character was Jem. I think that the reason I noticed this was the small scenes that were almost identical in events and even wording. (Clary/Tessa yelling at Alec/Charlotte, feeling bad for yelling, but continuing anyways is the example that really stuck out to me although it happened all through out the book)
I was really impressed with the way that the author described Victorian times. I am no expert but she seemed to incorporate little details that I wouldn't have even thought of.
Altogether I thought that it was pretty good, I hope that there is more Magnus Bane and Camille in the next book.

[elysium]

16-year old Tessa is heading to Victorian England in search of her brother. She’s kidnapped by mysterious Dark Sisters and learns she has the ability to transform into another person. She also learns there are Shadowhunters who are fighting against the demons.

Hmm…. What to say about the book? So this is a prequel to Mortal Instruments but I’ve only read the first book City of Bones.

Tessa is a likeable person but just couldn’t connect with her. I liked Jem who was a sweetheart but couldn’t see what’s the deal with Will. Most of the time he was just annoying and rude. I also didn’t see any chemistry between Tessa and Will or is it supposed to be in later books?

I don’t really know what to say about this. This was easy and quick to read but in couple of months I won’t be able to remember what happened here. It was entertaining but that’s it. I’m in two ways if I should try the second book but we’ll see.

[sstaley]

If the whole book had been as good as the last 100 pages I would have rated this much higher. I read The Mortal Instrument Series(The first 3 books) very quickly. So I was a tad disappointed that this book didn't have the same feel to it. I wasn't connecting to the characters in the same way. I am starting Clockwork Prince and hope that it is a better read for me than this first book in The Infernal Devices series.

[ellieroth]

JEM ♥



Merged review:

Bueno, este libro me hizo desesperarme la mayor parte del tiempo. Nunca había tenido tanto problema con una protagonista cof cof desde Bella cof cof, hubo momento en que quise dejar el libro por lo pesada que podía llegar a ser. Lo bueno (espero no sea spoiler) es que llega su redención. Pero aún así me dejó un mal sabor.

[cornerfolds]

I have recently taken to listening to audiobooks rather than music on my way to and from wherever I'm on my way to. I love to read and, by doing this, I feel like I can get in that extra bit of information that I didn't have time for before. While it had its downfalls, this particular audiobook was definitely entertaining.

Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel is a story about a girl who is thrown into a world that she has no knowledge of and is forced to survive. Along the way, she meets several characters, one of which she falls in love with. After completing the entire first installment of this series, I am unsure of whether I like Tessa Gray. She had a few moments that made me want to punch her in the throat. For example, the scene in the de Quincey's house. I was so livid with her that I literally walked into work on edge. To be completely honest, my dislike of Tessa probably had a lot to do with the performance given in the audiobook by Jennifer Ehle. Her annoying, shrill voice made me want to give up completely in several instances. Because of this, I have based my rating on the book content itself and not her performance.

On the same note, Cassandra Clare got under my skin on a couple different occasions. One particular issue I had with Clare was that she mentioned how much Tessa liked novels, both explicitly and implicitly, at least 20 times throughout the book. I realize that this fact is very important to Tessa's character, but it came up over and over to the point of it becoming annoying.

Bringing it back to the characters, Will is a shadow hunter and an apparent badass. It is never really clear what his issue is, but he obviously has one. It seemed a little too forced, however. His character went from passionate enthrallment to, "get the f*** out!" from one sentence to the next. He seemed a little bipolar, in my opinion. Hopefully we'll find out what his problem is in the next book.

Alternatively, I really enjoyed Jem's character. At first, I thought he would be too dainty, but he ended up being one of my favorites.

Overall, the book was extremely entertaining, at least for my purposes. I'll admit that by the end I was rooting for Tessa. I've already begun reading (listening to) the next book and I hope to get some answers in this one. I can already tell that the voices are going to be much more desirable. In my honest opinion, Ehle should never narrate another book, and I'll be sure to avoid any that she does grace with her screechy vocal skills.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Cassandra Clare’s prequel to the Mortal Instruments series reminds me of the writing of Neil Gaiman – very much so, in fact. I liken her to something between Gaiman and the author of one of my favorite series – Jonathan Stroud. Clare adds her own elements to the story, and twists Victorian London around a little bit to her heart’s content. And I find her London beautiful and haunting and sad and grey. I love the idea of her clockwork mechanisms and the Shadowhunters and the quirky husband who lives in the basement and invents things that do not work. I want to hear so much more about these things.

But I didn’t.

Instead, Clare tells the story of Theresa Grey, a dreary mortal-who-isn’t-really, who spends a great deal of time worrying that people are not behaving like perfect ladies and gentlemen, worrying about her no-good brother, and pondering her origins. After a while, her daydream like comparisons to literature I am not intimately familiar with become dreary and it is easy to find oneself skimming forward a bit.

I wanted desperately to like this book, and I think I would have, if I had been in anybody’s mind but Tessa’s. Jessamine’s snobbery and secrets are equally alluring to William’s, and even the small stories that do get shared are interesting of their own accord. Maybe Tessa’s word be too, if it was unraveling a bit more rapidly! Clare tends to drag on a little, generally caught in a scene that – to me at least – feels mundane. Nonetheless, despite my issues with the flow of the writing and excitement of the protagonist, Clare paints such a vivid, peculiar world that one cannot help but to be intrigued. Even though I found this book a bit slow and boring, I absolutely would not toss aside Clare’s work altogether, because there were many aspects of the novel I enjoyed. In fact, when my (endless) reading list starts to dwindle down, I don’t doubt that I would pick up the sequel, or perhaps City of Bones. I simply became bored with this, but not so much that I couldn’t push through the more tedious points

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Clockwork Angel has an interesting premise, based on the interactions of various supernatural groups and the humans who associate with them during the Victorian era. It is the first steampunk book I have read that leans more toward fantasy than science fiction, and I enjoyed the blend of history and fantasy immensely, as it made the story exotic on more than one level. However, it is a bit disappointing that the tale does not lean very heavily on its setting at all; it gives the distinct impression the exact chain of events could have happened in a book set in the present.

The story itself is little on the long side, but it features some great characters, including absolutely wonderful villains, and it offers a few nice plot twists. Things in Clockwork Angel are never as straightforward as they seem. Also, a lot of hard choices need to be made about whom to trust and what to do when there is a conflict between friends and family and what might be right.

On the romance front, there is not really a triangle, but there are two different guys for Tess to be interested in. Will is a bit of a mysterious bad boy with a difficult past, which many readers have found appealing. For those who prefer nice guys, there is Jem. He is an incredible fighter who likes poetry and is protective of Tessa. He also, like Will, happens to be quite handsome. On the downside, I think he came across as a little too sensitive at points. It is hard to argue he is not manly, with the warrior thing going on, but the thought is tempting.

Clockwork Angel was exciting and quite fun to read. I will definitely be checking out the sequel, but this is not one over which I will suffer sleepless nights until I find a copy. Nice, but not mind-blowing.