Heather reviewed The Bane Chronicles by Maureen Johnson
Review of 'The Bane Chronicles' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I had a really hard time reading Cassandra Clare's two series about Shadowhunters who fight demons. I couldn't keep them apart in my head. One was set in England in the 1800s and one was in New York in present times but I still don't know which series title refers to which. I didn't know they had different locations either. I was reading them as they came out intermingled and with time in between. I was never clear on who the bad guy was supposed to be in each series. Everybody had the same last names in both series so I kept waiting for characters that I thought were in one book to show up in another only to realize halfway through that they were in the other series. The only character I could keep straight was the warlock Magnus Bane because he was in both series because he was …
I had a really hard time reading Cassandra Clare's two series about Shadowhunters who fight demons. I couldn't keep them apart in my head. One was set in England in the 1800s and one was in New York in present times but I still don't know which series title refers to which. I didn't know they had different locations either. I was reading them as they came out intermingled and with time in between. I was never clear on who the bad guy was supposed to be in each series. Everybody had the same last names in both series so I kept waiting for characters that I thought were in one book to show up in another only to realize halfway through that they were in the other series. The only character I could keep straight was the warlock Magnus Bane because he was in both series because he was immortal.I downloaded the audiobook version of the stories from the library. These were really good. They are co-written by several authors and read by different actors including David Oyelowo and Gareth David-Lloyd (I went to his shrine!). What Really Happened in Peru? - Magnus convinces his warlock friend Ragnor to accompany him on several trips to Peru, none of which end well.The Runaway Queen - Magnus tries to help Marie Antoinette and her family escape from Paris.Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale - The Shadowhunters and the Downworlders are trying to make a peace agreement but neither side can trust the other.The Midnight Heir - Magnus meets the son of the protagonists of the first Shadowhunter series.The Rise of the Hotel Dumont - It is the 1920s in New York and an ancient warlock is playing with humans for his own evil plans.Saving Raphael Santiago - Magnus is hired to find a young man who went hunting a vampire.The Fall of the Hotel Dumont - Vampires are acting strangely and Magnus needs to figure out what's wrong before they are all killed.The Last Stand of the New York Institute - This chronicles the rise of the villain who is in the second Shadowhunter series.The Course of True Love - Magnus takes a Shadowhunter on a horrible first date.What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything - Magnus tries to figure out a birthday present while summoning a demon for a client.I actually understand what happened in the series now. Seeing it in chronological order helped. These stories made everything else fit together.When I read both Shadowhunter series I kept thinking that the Shadowhunters were pretty horrible people. The nice thing about this book is that Magnus has pretty much nothing but contempt for them either. He likes a few individuals here and there but as a race, he despises them. That's a risky choice for the author to make in writing a book about a minor character. It is hard to cast your heroes as the bad guys. I like it.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story