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![]() | This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience.(August 2017) |
Author | Cassandra Clare |
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Audio read by | James Marsters[1] |
Language | English |
Series | The Dark Artifices |
Genre | Fantasy |
Publisher | Margaret K. McElderry Books |
Publication date | December 4, 2018 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook |
Pages | 912 |
ISBN | 9781442468436 |
Preceded by | Lord of Shadows |
Queen of Air and Darkness is a young adult urban fantasy novel by Cassandra Clare. It is the third and final book in The Dark Artifices, which is chronologically the fourth series in The Shadowhunter Chronicles. The book is set in the Los Angeles area in 2012. The title is based upon “Her Strong Enchantments Failing” by A.E Housman.
Plot
The book takes place right after the events of Lord of Shadows. With Livia Blackthorn and the Inquisitor, Robert Lightwood, dead, the Shadowhunters are on the brink of a civil war. While a few of the Blackthorns try to find a cure for the mysterious warlock sickness that is wiping them out, Emma and Julian put their forbidden love aside to take on a mission that leads them into Faerie once again, to retrieve the Black Volume of the Dead. In Faerie, they are sucked into an alternate Shadow World with a dark future that was almost theirs. Now, Emma and Julian must save the Shadowhunter race before the parabatai curse takes over them.
Characters
- Emma Carstairs - a 17-year old Shadowhunter who resides with the Blackthorn family, including her parabatai, Julian. She has brown eyes, blonde hair, and many scars, significantly a deep one on her right arm from hugging her sword, Cortana. Emma is considered to be the most promising Shadowhunter of her generation.
- Julian “Jules” Blackthorn - a 17-year old Shadowhunter who has lived in Los Angeles all his life with his siblings and his parabatai, Emma. He has messy dark brown hair and blue-green eyes. He is deeply concerned with his siblings, always putting the responsibility of taking care of them upon himself.
- Mark Blackthorn - a 21-year old half Shadowhunter and half faerie. He formerly rode with the wild hunter before returning to the Los Angeles Institute. Unlike Julian and the rest of his siblings (other than Helen), he has blonde hair and pointed ears, a sign of his faerie lineage. He does, however, carry the Blackthorn signature blue-green eyes.
- Tiberius “Ty” Nero Blackthorn - a 15-year old Shadowhunter. He lives in Los Angeles with her other siblings. Tiberius has black hair and grey eyes. He is not like any of his other siblings, thinking of the world in different ways due to his autism. Shadowhunters do not understand autism, unlike Kit, who Ty sees as a real friend.
- Livia “Livvy” Blackthorn - a 15-year old Shadowhunter and Tiberius’s twin sister. She lived in Los Angeles with her other siblings. Livia has brown hair and blue-green eyes, unlike her twin, Ty.
- Drusilla “Dru” Blackthorn - a 13-year old Shadowhunter. She lives in Los Angeles with her other siblings. She, too, has brown hair and blue-green eyes. For a 13-year old, her body is quite developed, already displaying curves that not many girls her age would have, because of this, she often gets mistaken for being 17 or 18-years old. Drusilla is very self-conscious about her body, as it is not like typical Shadowhunter physiques.
- Octavian “Tavvy” Blackthorn - a 7-year old Shadowhunter and the youngest in the Blackthorn family. He has brown hair and blue-green eyes.
- Annabel Blackthorn - a Shadowhunter who was resurrected from the dead by warlock Malcolm Fade. In her time, she was killed for having a relationship with Malcolm. When Fade resurrects her, she immediately kills him and begins her revenge on the Shadowhunters who tortured her decades ago. She is very attached to Ash, son of the Seelie Queen and Sebastian Morgenstern.
- Cristina Mendoza-Rosales - an 18-year old Shadowhunter originally from the Mexico but is spending her travel year in Los Angeles with the Blackthorns. She is a very close friend to Emma.
- Diego Rocío Rosales - a 19-year old Shadowhunter and one of the youngest Centurions to graduated from the Scholomance. He is nicknamed, mostly by Emma, as “Perfect Diego.”
- Diana Wayburn - the Blackthorn’s tutor. Formally a weapon shop owner, she applied to be the family’s tutor after the Dark War. She has black hair and dark skin. Diana also has a tattoo of a koi fish across her cheek.
- Kieran “Kier” Kingson - the youngest son of the Unseelie King and thus a prince. He and Mark rode together in the Wild Hunt, becoming close with each other. He has dark blue hair and is said to be able to change it depending on his mood. One of his eyes is black while the other one is silver.
- Christopher “Kit” Rook - a 15-year old Shadowhunter raised in a mundane life until demons attacked him and his father, Johnny Rook, at their house. He is the descendant of disgraced Shadowhunter Tobias Herondale. With having previously lived a mundane life, Kit understands many things Shadowhunters do not, including autism. He and Tiberius slowly become good friends partly because of his understanding of how to deal with his autism.
- Magnus Bane - is the High Warlock of Brooklyn. Magnus has had his fair share of entanglements with Shadowhunters over the 4 centuries he’s been alive. He likes to wear glittery and very flashy outfits. He came to Los Angeles to investigate spontaneous necromantic magic.
- Gwyn ap Nudd - the leader of the Wild Hunt. He is described as being tall and broad-shouldered, with one of his eyes being black and the other being a pale blue.
- Ash - Son of the Seelie Queen and Sebastian Morgenstern. He is 13-years old with blonde hair and green eyes. Annabel has taken a liking to him, seeing herself as his protector.
- Nene - the sister of Lady Nerissa, Helen and Mark Blackthorn’s mother. She is a healer of the Seelie Courts and the Queen’s handmaiden. She has blonde hair tied back with a rope of flowers. She is kind and gentle, shown by helping Emma, Mark, Julian and Cristina when they encounter trouble in Faerie.
- Horace Dearborn - is the leader of the Cohort, a group of Shadowhunters who support putting Downworlders under strict laws and constant monitoring.
- Zara Dearborn - is the daughter of Horace and a Centurion. Supports the Cohort and is willing to do anything to maintain her lengthy list of achievements, by all means, even lying about them. Her entourage consists of other Centurions who help her lie. She proves herself to be ruthless, and will only rest when she’s at the top.
- Theresa “Tessa” Gray - an American warlock who is half Shadowhunter, half Eidolon Demon. She appeared as the protagonist in The Infernal Devices in which she moved to London in 1878 and got caught up in the lives of the Nephilim. Being immortal, she still looks like she is in her early 20s, with brown hair and grey eyes. Tessa is described by her friends as not conventionally beautiful, but pretty nevertheless.
- James “Jem” Carstairs - a former Shadowhunter and Silent Brother turned mortal. He lived in the London Institute in the 1870s with his parabatai Will Herondale. He has black hair with a streak of silver from his days where he was dependent on yin-fen. During his days as a Silent Brother, he aged slowly, hence still looking like he’s in his 20s.
Reception
The book was met with mixed reviews with Common Sense Media saying that “This 912-page volume is more soap opera saga than fantasy tome, with a cast of characters so large and brooding that the otherwise intriguing story falters,"[2] while others such as Culture Fly say " It’s an immersive novel, tackling everything from friendships and family, to politics and uprisings, and while at times you may feel like you’ve read it before, you’ve also enjoyed it before, so there’s nothing wrong with giving yourself over to the wonder of the world once again." [3]
References
- ^ "James Marsters reads from QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS by Cassandra Clare". Retrieved 13 January 2019.
- ^ Wheadon, Carrie. "Queen of Air and Darkness: The Dark Artifices, Book 3 Book Review". Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ Davies, Megan. "Book Review: Queen of Air and Darkness". Retrieved 14 February 2019.