Yesterday, I finished listening to The City of Heavenly Fire, the sixth and final book in the final book in The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, which was generously provided by Audiobook Jukebox.
I read about half of the previous 5 books and listened to the other half. As series go, they work really well as audiobooks, although I wish there had been more consistency of narrators over the series.
The City of Heavenly Fire was the first book to be narrated by two readers. I am not sure why this decision was made because I found it a distraction. Rather than simply listening to the story and reflecting on it, I was trying to figure out why each narrator got each section. Sophie Taylor, who portrays Sana Stark, was by far the better of the two narrators. That said, I wish she had just read in re regular English accent, rather than switching between English and American accents. She did the accents well, but it was unnecessary. Jason Dohring, and actor known for Veronica Mars, was a terrible narrator. I suspect they were both chosen for their “star factor”, but I’d rather have had one good narrator. Dohring’s delivery was flat and he should never do English accents.
The book itself was enjoyable, full of action and a high body count. It was a much better book that a couple of the idle books which irritated me because Clary spent an awful lot of time mooning over Jace. She has her mojo back in this book, thank goodness. The arc of the story itself ended on disc 15 and the last 2 discs are devoted to wrapping up all the loose ends of the series, which I found satisfying. One criticism I have of the book is that Clare spent time introducing characters who will form the core of her next series, The Dark Artifices.
If you’ve made it through the first five books, however, you will enjoy reading this conclusion.
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