Infernal Devices – Book 1 & 2
After reading all of the Mortal Instruments books to date by Cassandra Claire, I have to admit I have become addicted to the sci fi world she’s created. There’s something fun and exciting about having all these demons, angels, vampires, werewolves, and superhumans called shadow hunters all in one novel running around and fighting each other. So I decided to check out the Infernal Devices, which is a prequel to the Mortal Instruments and follows the tale of another heroine, Tessa Grey.
Tessa starts off the first books captured by some evil witches who are holding her for some authority figure called “The Magistar”. One thing I do like about Claire’s writing is that she definitely knows how to dive right into the action parts. Within a chapter or two she is being rescued by some shadowhunters, most notably a boy named Will Herondale. His personality matches up with Jayce’s from Mortal Instruments very much, which makes me a little sad because it seems like she’s almost recycling the same character with a different name.
Anyway, after she is rescued, she goes to live with the Shadowhunters at the institute, which is the same institute from the Mortal Instruments book, so that is a nice tie in. The Shadowhunters have offered to help her find her brother in exchange for her helping them find the Magistar. I should mention at this moment that Tessa has the power to transform completely into another person, which was why she was being held by the witches, they were honing her power before turning her over to the Magistar. Of course, there is a love triangle in the books, involving Tessa, Will, and Will’s parabatai Jem. For those who haven’t read the Mortal Instruments book, which you don’t need to in order to enjoy these, Will and Jem are basically closer than brothers, according to the parabatai bond. Naturally, this makes things complicated for the relationship part.
Without spoiling anything, they eventually find out who the Magistar is in book one, and spend all of book two trying to track him down, all while Charlotte and Henry, the caretakers of the institute, are fighting to hold onto the institute amidst the governing body of the shadowhunters trying to take it away from them for letting the Magistar get away. I’m trying not to spoil anything, but they are very entertaining reads, and I’m excited to finish the 3rd book in the series.
Movie Review: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
Saturday night I finally got to the movie theatre to see Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. I read the book, and you can find the review here. I thought the movie was going to be different from the book, as I said in the review, because of a lack of action in the book which would be necessary in a movie. So I wasn’t surprised by most of the changes but I was by others. Certain parts were excluded (such as the first woman Abe was interested in and instead we jump to his meeting Mary Todd) due to the length of the movie. I understood those changes because everything in a book cannot be included in a movie due to time restrictions. Also the characters differed slightly. The vampires were given a face with actual “bad guy” characters versus just vampires in general. Along with giving the vampires a face, there is also a bigger plot point/action scene than in the book. Another change, which I didn’t understand, was vampires cannot kill other vampires. Weird change, I don’t get it. Also the ending is different. I didn’t mind that change though because as I said in the book review I really didn’t like the original ending.
Okay enough about the changes, there were a lot. Overall I enjoyed the movie. I really enjoyed the action. Ax wielding, blood splattering goodness! They did a great job bringing the story to life; I really didn’t mind the casting at all. I’m not going to get into a whole analysis of the movie because analyzing movies isn’t really what I do. Overall I liked the movie. Despite being different from the book I think they did a good job with the adaption.
Recollections: Reviews by a Book Lover 