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Cassandra Clare – Clockwork Prince | Review

Title: Clockwork Prince

Author: Cassandra Clare

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 512

Rating: 2.5/5

Cassandra Clare – Clockwork Prince

Yeah, I’m still not a fan of this series. The Mortal Instruments has been okay so far, but both of The Infernal Devices books that I’ve read have been so dull and lifeless. I don’t like Clare’s depiction of Victorian London, mainly because I don’t think she actually bothers to do it too much, and I feel as though these books could just as easily be set anywhere else in the world at any time period given that they spend most of their time inside Shadowhunter institutes or whatever anyway.

I was also under the impression that this was supposed to be urban fantasy, whereas the two books so far have just been romance novels with maybe ten pages of fantasy thrown in. This one has a love triangle in, a trope which I’ve always hated, and Will Herondale is such an asshole that it physically pains me to read about him. I hope he dies in the next book. This book tried to explain why he’s such a douchecanoe, but I don’t think it’s any excuse.

Not that I really care for the other characters, either. Tessa is a wet blanket, Jem is okay but again, because such a big deal is made about the fact that he’s dying, I hope that he does actually die so that it’s not all a big cop out at the end of the next one. I’m pretty sure that some cure will be found or something, though. In fact, if her other books are anything to go by then he’ll die and be brought back to life, which is another thing that I hate. Death isn’t a joke and shouldn’t be used so lightly, and Cassandra Clare isn’t the only author to devalue it by constantly killing and resurrecting her characters.

Cassandra Clare

But I’m going off on a tangent. Part of the problem for that is that I just don’t have too much to say about this book. Nothing much happened because like I say, it was all about romance. A bunch of different people hooked up and then hooked up with other people like some giant game of pass the parcel where you don’t want to see what’s inside. Then it ended, and I already can’t remember what actually happened. And I only finished it a couple of hours ago.

Granted, I’m not necessarily the target audience for this book, but The Mortal Instruments series is at least tolerable. With this one, I’m just so over it and the thing I liked about it the most was the fact that it had massive print. When your favourite thing about a book is the size of the print, you have to start asking yourself questions about why you’re even reading it, and I’m actually not sure. I’d have given up on Clare’s books by now if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m buddy reading them with some friends. Eh. Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t re-read.

Cassandra Clare Quote

Click here to buy Clockwork Prince.

J. R. R. Tolkien – Tales from the Perilous Realm | Review

Title: Tales from the Perilous Realm

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 403

Rating: 9/10

J. R. R. Tolkien – Tales from the Perilous Realm

Tales from the Perilous Realm is a beautiful collection of some of Tolkien’s finest but most obscure works, illustrated (in my copy, at least) by Alan Lee. Lee also worked with the Tolkien estate on The Children of Húrin, which was edited by Tolkien’s youngest son Christopher, and I was impressed by that as well.

Here, five of Tolkien’s short stories are gathered together alongside an essay of his On Fairy-Stories – despite being an essay, it’s highly readable and a fascinating insight in to both the way that Tolkien’s mind worked and the secret history of the fairy tale. You’d be surprised at what is, and what isn’t, a fairy tale, for example.

In fact, this entire collection is very easy-to-read and surprisingly enlightening – I’ll admit that I struggled through The Lord of the Rings, and I often found it tedious when Tolkien went off on a tangent. Here, he’s lucid, entertaining and ready to please children and adults alike with his wonderful words.

J.R.R. Tolkien

In particular, be sure to check out Roverandom, the first story in the collection and possibly the finest. It tells you the story of an adventurous dog who’s magicked away on an adventure after biting the leg of a crochety old wizard – along the way, he meets the Man on the Moon and his dog, discovers an underwater kingdom where the wizard has been appointed ‘PAM‘ (Pacific-Atlantic Magician), and learns that ‘Rover’ is a pretty common name, for a dog.

Farmer Giles of Ham is also pretty epic, a story about a simple farmer who ends up battling giants and dragons to save his honour – it ends happily, and I’m pretty sure it contains a moral, although I’m not sure what that moral might be. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil follows, but it’s not as good as you might expect – it’s written in verse, and grows tedious after the first thirty pages.

Smith of Wootton Major and Leaf By Niggle round out the collection, and though they’re both strong stories, they’re not as strong as the others. Still, they’re the finishing touches on a killer arsenal that will make you fall in love with Tolkien all over again, a book that’s easily enjoyed by anyone, whether they’re a fantasy reader or not.