The ending to another series in the Shadowhunter Chronicles that we have all been looking forward to. There are many spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution.
Cassandra Clare has always had terrific series endings. Clockwork Princess and City of Heavenly Fire are some of my favorite books of all time, so I was looking forward to how Cassandra Clare would approach the conclusion of this series. Like I had thought, Queen of Air and Darkness was a gripping and satisfying end to the Dark Artifices trilogy.
I enjoyed all the characters, but if you’ve seen my prior reviews, Mark and Kieran are still my favorite. I did find their relationships with Cristina awkward and I didn’t really like the love triangle (I felt like the one with Cristina and Kieran came out of nowhere). They don’t get developed as much in the book though, and I feel like their biggest role in the story was the romance along with Kieran and the Unseelie court (as well as Kieran killing the Unseelie King/Cristina killing Kieran’s brother). What I did like was Kieran’s involvement with the Unseelie court and interactions with his brothers. I liked Adaon’s presence but Oban was kind of tossed in there (I think as a plot with the Dearborn’s).
The relationship between Emma and Julian was alright, however I did feel that things were too rushed for them. Majority of this book focused on their parabatai curse, yet the solution to this curse was quite abrupt. One minute they were giants, and the next minute Jem tells the two that their parabatai curse is gone. There isn’t much context given as to how the curse disappears, which made their relationship less interesting, and it also was quite disappointing.
The side plot with Ty and Kit raising Livvy was pretty interesting, but Ty’s recklessness bothered me. It did fit his characteristics though so that’s all personal preference. I liked how Shade was brought into the story from this and I also like them as a duo altogether. With Dru, she didn’t really play as much of an important part of the story as Ty and Kit, and what she did do was random. I didn’t like her character as much as the others. Gwyn and Diana did a little for the story, but I just wish they had done more altogether. Diego and Jaime were okay, along with all the other side characters in the story. Also with the weddings, they were kind of random and unnecessary but I guess it was nice to see what happened to all the TMI characters.
I liked the plot throughout the story because it developed upon everything from the prior two books. Like I said before, the Unseelie stuff was pretty interesting and it was nice to know about The First Heir and it’s impact on the story. The Dearborns and the Clave were good plot devices and it helped set up what was happening in the book. Also, the book picks up right where Lord of Shadows left off, so we get to see what becomes of Annabel as well. I did feel like the antagonists of the story (Dearborn and his followers) were dull, and there wasn’t much to their character besides the fact that they hated the protagonists. I think it would have been better if there was more depth to them.
Overall, it’s a pretty good book and I think that it was a really good last book. Now that the series is over, I would recommend this to anyone who has read TMI and Clockwork because it was pretty good (and characters from the two series made appearances). I thought that the length would have made the book too slow, but I think that there was enough detail and plot to last through the book and keep the reader interested.