Saturday 5 December 2020

Review of Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artificies #2) by Cassandra Clare

 


A Shadowhunter's life is bound by duty, constrained by honour. It is a Shadowhunters word is a solemn pledge and no other vow in the world is more sacred than the vow which binds Parabatai. Parabatai are warrior partners who are sworn to fight together, die together and never fall in love.




Emma Carstairs has learned that the love that she shares with her own Parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, isn't just forbidden but it could also destroy them both She knows that she should run away from Julian however how can she when the Blackthorns are threatened by enemies on all sides of the battle. Their only real hope is to get the Black Volume of the Dead - a spell book of terrible power. And what makes it worse is that everyone wants it. However only the Blackthorns are the ones which can find it. Being spurred on by a dark bargain with the Seelie Queen, Emma; her best friend Cristina and Mark and Julian Backthorn are thrust into a journey into the Courts of Faerie. In this land the glittering outlook revels a hidden bloody danger and shows that no promise can be trusted when dealing with the fae, Back in the normal world, the tension between the Shadowhunters and the Downworlders has reached fever pitch and produced the Cohort, and extremist group of Shadowhunters dedicated to registering Downworlders and any unsuitable Nephilim. This band of extremist will do anything in their power to expose Julian's secrets and take the Los Angeles Institute for themselves and start to take over the leadership.


When the Downworlders turn against the Clave, a new threat rises in the form of the Lord of Shadows - the Unseelie King, who sends his greatest warriors who aim to slaughter those with Blackthorn blood and seize the Black Volume. As the danger closes in, Julian starts to devise a risky scheme which depends on the cooperation of an unpredictable enemy. However his success may come with a price he and Emma cannot imagine, one which will bring with it a time of reckoning of blood which could have severe repercussions for everyone and everything they hold dear. 


Every single book I read of Clare's the more in love I find myself with all of the characters and how the different families are all entwined. This was the sequel which i have been waiting for. It has the same amount of high-intensity and beautifully constructed content which we have all come to expect from The Shadowhunter Chronicles. With this installment we go further and deeper into the world than we have seen before. Following on from the repercussions from the cold peace, there is significant tensions between all races in the shadowhunter universe. This is accompanied with the fact that there are bombs set to detonate the relationships, every page builds on the tensions which are anticipated from the character arcs. This has given me everything which i wanted to happen in the story and more which i didn't know i wanted. 


I love the multi prospective from the wide range of characters, which i feel that every character in this series gets their moment in the sun and it is a pleasure to see that we get to know more about this new collection of characters. I can not wait to see where these characters go from now one and how Clare takes this to the next level.


For your copy of this novel, please click the following link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lord-Shadows