Chain of Gold (The Last Hours #1)

I hate to give this book 3 stars because I love the Shadowhunter world, but, in my mind this book deserves it. I have a litmus test for giving a book 5 stars. First of all it has to be written well. I can’t deny CC’s talent as a writer and that is why this sits at 3 stars. Secondly, I must not be able to predict important plot points and thirdly, the book must affect me emotionally. Chain of Gold failed the last two. Sorry kids, but I knew exactly why James was in love with Grace. It was very obvious. For a character who is so smart and clever, it should have been obvious to James Herondale, too. Alas, it wasn’t and now the reader will have to suffer through the obstacle to the real love story in this series. Kinda like the reader suffered through Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn until it reached a totally contrived and starnge reconsilliation. I bet I can predict the tropes/story in the next two books of the series, too. I am so disappointed.

I truly anticipated the release of this series. I’m not angry. I’m just sorely disappointed that after waiting a while, CC had to fall back on a formula instead of writing something new-ish.

I found myself not caring. This is the death knell for fiction for me. The only emotional response I had, other than frustration, was evoked when parts of Will, Tessa and Jem’s story were referenced. I still contend that The Infernal Devices is her best set of books. Those books had it all. By the end of the book, I just didn’t feel strongly enough about James and Cordelia to want to subject myself to two more books’ worth of frustration as they figure it out. I wish she had spent as much time on Lucie as she did on James. (By the way, Lucie is spelled Lucy in at least 2 places in the book. I’m sure those are typos.) Lucie has great potential, and like the other characters have overlooked her in the narrative, so, too, has Clare.

I did like that in making Cordelia of Persian descent that Clare has been able to incorporate some of her native culture into the tale. I really found that part interesting. I’d like to see more about the Carstairs family, their origins and their singular brand of shadowhunter. What other traditions do the Carstairs family have? The parallel telling of the Persian tale of Laila and Majnun is a very nice touch. It reminded me of how Rick Riordan incorporates mythology in his books.

My feelings about this book are not going to dissuade the die hard Shadowhunter fan. To them I say, please read it. I know you’ll enjoy it. Truth be told, I will be reading the next two when they come out because I am a fan of the series and I can’t leave a series unfinished once I’ve started it. I just hope that CC sees my review and maybe changes some things around in the subsequent volumes so that I am totally wrong about how I believe the story will play out.

Id almost given up on Clare after her last book but I was always a bigger fan of the Infernal Devices series so I thought Id give it a shot.

Its…fine. Compelling and easy enough to read that I got through it in just a few days but not something Id reread or recommend to others who arent already fans of her work.

Theres too many characters, so many that its difficult to even really work out who the main protagonist is supposed to be. So many characters also makes it difficult to distinguish personalities. In her other books the characters had clear personalities and you could imagine how different people would react to different things. Theres some of that here, some characters are well defined but others are kind of cookie cutter and very easy to mix up.

The mystery of the plot was mediocre, I didnt even realize there was supposed to be a mystery or a twist until it happened.

The retconning is insane. Clare clearly did not plan to add more to the Infernal Devices and has changed a lot of things (including claiming that a family tree included in one of the Mortal Instruments books is a fake). If you know the other stories well its a little bizarre.

My biggest pet peeve by far is how underused the LGBTQ characters are. There are 5 gay/bisexual characters in this story…set in England in 1903…and other than one or two asides from bad characters, nobody seems to care. Everyone shows a level of acceptance that doesnt even exist today outside certain bubbles.

I want to be clear: I dont have a problem with the inclusion of the these characters. I have a problem with the fact that their sexuality and gender nonconformity is not explored within the text. It would be so fascinating to see a character struggle between their love for their gay brother and the societal norms they were raised in (Huck Finn anyone?). But no, every single hero character is open and accepting without any question, without even any shock.

And I know that the Shadowhunter world is not more accepting that mundane because a gay character literally says that in her very first book, set in the 2000s!

One of the charters is obsessed with Oscar Wilde, hes referenced often…but nobody ever mentions that he was tried and imprisoned for sodomy, became ill in prison and died in exile. Thats the world they live in, it should be part of the narrative. And frankly, that would make for some much more interesting and complex plots than some of the love story nonsense in this book.

It almost feels like Clare wants the credit for including these characters but is afraid that her readership will reject a hero character that struggles to accept someone elses sexuality.

Chain of Gold is the first book in the new Shadowhunters series, The Last Hours, and if you like fantasy, you need to read it. I absolutely loved it!

There has been a Shadowhunters family tree going around for years that say that a certain couple were the ancestors of Jace Herondale. Then if you read “The Midnight Heir” (and some of Cassandra Clare’s comments) you might wonder how this will all come about. And I have to answer… very well. The ships in this book are complicated, but that shouldn’t be a surprise, as Clare is also the author that wrote about Tessa/Will/Jem and Cristina/Mark/Kieren. I’m left at the end of CoG wanting Chain of Iron just to find out about the ships alone!

Then you have the characters. The main characters are the children of all the characters in The Infernal Devices. You don’t have to read TID to enjoy CoG, but as the worlds are so interconnected, I think you’d appreciate them more if you do read them. I have a little trouble remembering which parent belongs to which kid (at least where the Lightwoods are concerned) but that doesn’t matter because the parents are in the background. I especially love Cordelia. She’s kind and brave.

The plot is excellent and I was wondering for the longest time who was behind all the evil-doing. You don’t find out until the very end what the true source of evil is, however. The book sets itself up very nicely for Chain of Iron, the next book in the series, but not with a Lord of Shadows moment where you’re so frustrated that you have to wait a whole year to read the next book.

I loved this book and highly recommend it, along with all the other Shadowhunters books. Clare builds such intricate and complex worlds, it always impresses me. Read it!

I love the Edwardian era when it comes to Cassandra clare and Shadowhunters. I would recommend reading Infernal Devices before reading this as it is a sequel to the main characters children.

This is a book that will give you all the feels [squealing with delight at new characters to love. Cordelia, James, Lucie, Matthew, Kit, Thomas, Jesse, Grace etc and seeing the ones we already know Will, Tessa, Jem, Gabriel etc. Crying out no that cant be especially the end. New ships to love, yes you will have new ones to love as well as the new ones]

I loved the build in this story and the way it felt like we knew the characters even though we have just really met them except little tasters before. I cannot wait till the next one as I feel like I need more.

It will be a book I am going to read again and again. At the moment I feel will be in my top 3 reads for 2020.

Stories offer a thousand fresh starts ”

It’s no secret that Cassandra Clare is one of my favourite authors. Having said that, it doesn’t mean her books aren’t sometimes without faults for me. Her previous series, The Dark Artifices was very hit and miss for me so, admittedly, I was a bit nervous going into a new series: especially one primarily centred around the Herondales who I care very little for. Yet Chain Of Gold feels like the reset the Shadowhunter world really needed.

Cassandra Clare’s ability for storytelling, world building, and her ever improving writing technique is just a fantastic combination for a book. Where I had issues with info dumping in previous books, it felt balanced perfectly here and there was just enough for you to pick up the relationships between new and existing characters without feeling lost an overewhelmed. As always with Clare’s books, the first few hundred pages are more about establishing everything and setting the scene before things got going. This worked well when things did start to go down because I had become so relaxed that suddenly all the bad stuff became an even bigger shock.

What amazes me about the shadowhunter world is that even with the amount of books out there, Clare is yet to really repeat anything. Each book has another corner turn that was impossible to predict and Chain Of Gold had me pacing the floor several times.

It feels more like this is a book someone could use as their first entry to the shadowhunter world compared to those comments made about The Dark Artifices but with these characters I was reminded deeply why I am so fond of returning to the shadowhunter world.

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