Cassandra Clare

Ooooh! City of Heavenly Fire is out? I'll wait for the paperback to come out before snagging it (my budget sadly does not extend to hardbacks).
 
Just finished the Infernal Devices trilogy and I will say this:

Though the trilogy has its faults, the way in which she resolved the Will-Tessa-Jem triangle was absolutely masterful. When I read the closing pages, it was with sigh of satisfaction.

This one is a cut above more YA romance plotlines, and yes, dare I say even better than the Jace-Clary romance.

And that's saying a lot given that I usually skip over/cringe at paranormal romances or the romance plotline in YA.
 
I love all of her books. While I do realize there were some major faults with the film I thought the cast was fine especially Simon. I am glad they will not use the same director if they do finally make City Of Ashes. But as far as the rest of them I hope they keep the cast intact and don't dub over Magnus' voice.

The Infernal Devices are my favorite series of hers.
 
Alysheba said:
I love all of her books. While I do realize there were some major faults with the film I thought the cast was fine especially Simon. I am glad they will not use the same director if they do finally make City Of Ashes. But as far as the rest of them I hope they keep the cast intact and don't dub over Magnus' voice.

The Infernal Devices are my favorite series of hers.
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I agree with the casting except for Jace. The actor isn't the right fit that the others are. I hope they change the actor and leave the rest the same. And yes - Simon's casting was PERFECT!

Was Magnus's voice dubbed? Funny - I thought it was his voice. Why did they dub it?
 
Godfrey has an accent. This was his first English speaking role. I can only imagine they felt it would sound better with an American accent. Why I don't know. He sounded just fine in interviews. That was the only reason I knew it wasn't his voice. That and the timing is off on the dubbing at times.

I do have to agree that I think that TMI would have made a great TV series as opposed to a movie.

I also heard rumor that they are considering making The Infernal Devices a TV show. In all honesty I think that would make a better film series and TMI a better TV series. But what do I know??? LOLOLOLOL

In the next movie (if ever it is made) I hope they let the actors do stunts like Harold did. While I am not a fan of what he allowed to be changed, he was gracious enough to allow that. Which made it more real. The writing did not follow the book and City Of Ashes was postponed in part due to the script because fans were outraged by the changes made to COB. If they are smart (and I'm really hoping they grow some brains) they will follow the book. I wonder though if they will try to incorporate City Of Glass with COA due to the possible fact we may not get to see COG on the screen.
 
Alysheba said:
Godfrey has an accent. This was his first English speaking role. I can only imagine they felt it would sound better with an American accent. Why I don't know. He sounded just fine in interviews. That was the only reason I knew it wasn't his voice. That and the timing is off on the dubbing at times.
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Yeah, I watched a few of his promotional interviews for "City of Bones" and he sounds fine. His accent sounds a little like mine because his mother is a Straits-born Chinese from Malaysia but you can hear more of the Taiwanese accent there.

I was slightly surprised though because he spent a good portion of his growing up years and college years in Canada, so he should have a bit of North American mixed in with his accent (I assumed so because I still have a British accent mixed into my Malaysian Chinese accent because of a decade spent in England).

Seriously though: they could have hired someone to coach his accent. That would've been better than dubbing over his dialogue. Besides, Magnus was born in Indonesia, so if Godfrey still retained some Southeast Asian accent, it would've been quite authentic, yes?

Alysheba said:
I also heard rumor that they are considering making The Infernal Devices a TV show. In all honesty I think that would make a better film series and TMI a better TV series. But what do I know??? LOLOLOLOL
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Agreed! 101% agreed!

Alysheba said:
In the next movie (if ever it is made) I hope they let the actors do stunts like Harold did. While I am not a fan of what he allowed to be changed, he was gracious enough to allow that. Which made it more real. The writing did not follow the book and City Of Ashes was postponed in part due to the script because fans were outraged by the changes made to COB. If they are smart (and I'm really hoping they grow some brains) they will follow the book. I wonder though if they will try to incorporate City Of Glass with COA due to the possible fact we may not get to see COG on the screen.
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I read somewhere that the screenwriter adapted "City of Bones" was a first-time screenwriter. Unfortunately, the lack of experience with adapting books into screenplays showed, and it showed BADLY.

Hopefully, they'll get the screenwriter(s) for "The Hunger Games" or "Harry Potter" to do the "City of Ashes" adaptation. TMI fans will not forgive a second gaffe...
 
I loved the City of Bones film, especially the actor who was Jace (he wasn't like he was portrayed in the book, really, but I didn't care!). A bit tragic they're not making the next. Bah.
 
As one who read the book first (and loved it) I think it's tragic they made the first one.

I hope the television series is better and more true to the book.
 
I've read the book! Honest! And I liked it a lot. I'll seek out the others with great enthusiasm (one advantage of being a bit behind is that there are second-hand versions everywhere) but I also liked the film very much. That might be partly because I really didn't expect to, but having finished the book and not having anything else from the series to read, I wanted to stay in the world (also, I really liked Jace's vulnerability in the film -- which is nothing like the character in the book -- so different, that I could enjoy them both in different ways, perhaps).

Anyway, I'm sad they won't make another film with the same actor but mainly I'm delighted to be enjoying Cassandra Clare's books, because she's written a lot and I won't need to come up for air until after Christmas.

Thinking further about what I liked/ didn't. I liked some of the new scenes in the film -- especially the one where
you see Jace being persuaded by Valentine that he's his father. Because in the book it just happens off-screen (or page) and it feels odd for such a fundamental reversal in someone's knowledge about themselves to be so easily done away with. I didn't like that in the book although I'm sure it happened for a good further-down-the-line type reason. And it probably wouldn't have bothered me so much, only there's the scene where Jace is in his room and Clary comes to tell him that she's worked out where the cup is, and that's from his POV, so why not something similar with the scene where he's persuaded?
 
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Huh, I didn't know Cassandra Clare wrote fan fiction before her "Mortal Instruments" series. Might want to check some of it out.
 
You are right, Hex, that it might have been more effective if that scene had appeared in the book. I didn't notice it being better in the film because I thought that both those characters were mis-cast. I think Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a wonderful actor, but I don't think he played that role well (I blame the director) and of course he looked all wrong.
 
I'm about a third of the way through City of Ashes, and the differences between the characters in the film and the characters in the book are becoming more glaring.

Honestly, I thought many of the people in the film didn't look as I'd imagined them -- Clary, especially, wasn't red-haired and freckled as I'd seen her inside my head, Isabelle wasn't the sort of beauty I'd imagined, Alec was so stiff...Jocelyn was pretty good, and Valentine was so far removed from book-Valentine it didn't bother me too much after my initial confusion.

I can't imagine film-Jace doing what book-Jace did at the start of City of Ashes.

And, thinking more about the film, I didn't like the overall structure much but there were some wonderful scenes
(the kiss in the garden, I thought was the best kissing scene I've seen in years, and I liked the fight with the vampires)
I hope I will continue to enjoy them as different things, though, because I like enjoying things :)
 
Good books. My brother has been trying to get me to read them for quite some time. Only got through half of the first book. Should probably get around to reading those.
 
I enjoyed the film and was disappointed in the fact it was a failure but I have to say they could've done better. The actors IMO did everything they could to make it succeed. While I'm anxious for the TV series I certainly hope they don't ruin that too. We were promised a movie in 2014 and well you see how that went. Now they are promising a TV series. I wouldn't mind some liberties taken with a TV series seeing how it has to appeal to a wide audience and sometimes that means changing things. I doubt they will some of the story intact. But I hope that they at least try to do the books justice.
 
I enjoy Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments for what they are: teen adventure novels with an urban fantasy flavour. However, I do agree they rarely stray far from her initial inspiration. It's easy to see parallels: Jace is Draco, Simon is Harry (down to the glasses and the mark on his forehead in some books) and Clary is Ginny (though with a lot less chutzpah!).
I've read the first in her new series, the Magisterium, and again it's more Potter pastiche. Enjoyable and worth a read, but shows its literary heritage too clearly.
 
I'm kind of apprehensive to read Magisterium. I'm not a big witch fan. I only read a couple of Harry Potter books. They were great but at the time I wasn't as into reading as I am now. Plus that book has a cowriter and to be honest her Chronicles of Bane was not as good at TMI.
 
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