Lord of Shadows is the second book of the The Dark Artifices trilogy.
Description[]
Sunny Los Angeles can be a dark place indeed.
Emma Carstairs has finally avenged her parents. She thought she'd be at peace. But she is anything but calm. Torn between her desire for her parabatai Julian and her desire to protect him from the brutal consequences of parabatai relationships, she has begun dating his brother, Mark. But Mark has spent the past five years trapped in Faerie; can he ever truly be a Shadowhunter again?
And the faerie courts are not silent. The Unseelie King is tired of the Cold Peace, and will no longer concede to the Shadowhunters' demands. Caught between the demands of faerie and the laws of the Clave, Emma, Julian, and Mark must find a way to come together to defend everything they hold dear—before it's too late.[1][2]
A Shadowhunter's life is bound by duty. Constrained by honor. The word of a Shadowhunter is a solemn pledge, and no vow is more sacred than the vow that binds parabatai, warrior partners—sworn to fight together, die together, but never to fall in love.
Emma Carstairs has learned that the love she shares with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, isn't just forbidden—it could destroy them both. She knows she should run from Julian. But how can she when the Blackthorns are threatened by enemies on all sides?
Their only hope is the Black Volume of the Dead, a spell book of terrible power. Everyone wants it. Only the Blackthorns can find it. Spurred on by a dark bargain with the Seelie Queen, Emma; her best friend, Cristina, and Mark and Julian Blackthorn journey into the Courts of Faerie, where glittering revels hide bloody danger and no promise can be trusted. Meanwhile, rising tension between Shadowhunters and Downworlders has produced the Cohort, an extremist group of Shadowhunters dedicated to registering Downworlders and "unsuitable" Nephilim. They'll do anything in their power to expose Julian's secrets and take the Los Angeles Institute for their own.
When Downworlders turn against the Clave, a new threat rises in the form of the Lord of Shadows—the Unseelie King, who sends his greatest warriors to slaughter those with Blackthorn blood and seize the Black Volume. As dangers close in, Julian devises a risky scheme that depends on the cooperation of an unpredictable enemy. But success may come with a price he and Emma cannot even imagine, one that will bring with it a reckoning of blood that could have repercussions for everyone and everything they hold dear.[3]
Chapters[]
There are 29 chapters; the titles are derived from lines (in no particular order) in the poem "Dreamland" by Edgar Allan Poe.[4][5]
Part One: Dreamland
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Part Two: Thule
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Characters[]
Shadowhunters[]
- Emma Carstairs — Seventeen-year-old Emma is a Shadowhunter who is bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.
- Julian Blackthorn — Emma's parabatai, Jules has been responsible for his younger siblings, and indirectly the Los Angeles Institute, from a young age.
- Mark Blackthorn — Half-faerie, half-Shadowhunter, Mark is returned to his family in Los Angeles as a bargaining chip after years with the Wild Hunt.
- Cristina Rosales — Emma's eighteen-year-old best friend who currently resides at the Institute to learn about how their Shadowhunter culture differs from Mexico's.
- Diana Wrayburn — The tutor of the young Shadowhunters of the Institute.
- Arthur Blackthorn — The head of the Institute whose shock and trauma over the events of the Dark War has driven him over the edge.
- Diego Rosales — A Shadowhunter from Cristina's past who is also a Centurion.
- Livvy Blackthorn — Mark and Julian's younger sister and Ty's twin, incredibly brave and protective of her family.
- Ty Blackthorn — Mark and Julian's younger brother and Livvy's twin who continues to help his siblings and helps ease newcomer Kit into the Shadow World.
- Kit Herondale — Johnny Rook's son and a lost descendant of the Herondale line.
- Dru Blackthorn — Mark and Julian's younger sister who's frustrated at—for being young—not allowed to help with "adult" matters but constantly makes discoveries around them.
- Tavvy Blackthorn — Mark and Julian's baby brother and the youngest of the Blackthorn children.
- Annabel Blackthorn — Malcolm Fade's lover whom he successfully resurrected.
- Centurions — Graduates of the Scholomance; well-trained warriors who deal specifically in affairs with Downworld, namely Zara Dearborn, Manuel Casales, etc.
Downworlders[]
- Kieran — Member of the Wild Hunt and prince of the Unseelie Court
- Malcolm Fade — Former High Warlock of Los Angeles
- Gwyn ap Nudd — Leader of the Wild Hunt
- Unseelie King — King of the Unseelie Court
- Seelie Queen — Queen of the Seelie Court
- Barnabas Hale — Landlord of the Los Angeles Shadow Market
Gallery[]
Art[]
Editions[]
International covers[]
Trailer[]
Special content[]
- First edition: All first editions include 30 new runes designed by Valerie Freire printed on the inside cover of the book jackets.
- Barnes & Noble edition: This edition will have the above runes and a deleted scene with Emma and Jules on Blackfriars Bridge talking about The Infernal Devices characters and indirectly relating their relationships to their own.
- Target edition: This edition includes the runes and a map of Alicante by Drew Willis.[6]
- Waterstones Exclusive Edition: These include the above deleted scene of Julian and Emma and a map of Alicante by Drew Willis. The cover features the parabatai rune and all 1,000 copies are stamp signed with a rune and Cassandra Clare's signature.[7]
- An additional paperback special edition by Waterstones also includes the deleted scene and blue sprayed edges.[6]
- Fifth anniversary edition: A special edition by Simon & Schuster UK released on September 1, 2022 to commemorate the book's 5-year anniversary since its first release. It includes an introductory letter from Cassandra Clare, the bonus story Emma's First Kiss (a version of which was previously released in her newsletter),[8][9] and the deleted scene of Emma and Julian on Blackfriars Bridge.
Trivia[]
- The cover features Julian Blackthorn underwater,[10] the London skyline, with the Tower Bridge prominent, in the backdrop, a map of constellations behind Julian, and a "Magnitudes of the Stars" scale from 1 to 5 by the bridge.
- The first announced title of the book was Prince of Shadows.[11][12]
- This book is told from several points of view, namely: Emma, Julian, Cristina, Mark, Kit, Ty, Dru, Livvy, Kieran, Diana, and Annabel.
- As with Lady Midnight and its eponymous character, the title of this book is also in reference to a character: the Unseelie King who is called the Lord of Shadows. After the release of Queen of Air and Darkness, it became the only book whose titular character isn't Annabel Blackthorn.
- The beginning of the book is set about two weeks after the events of Lady Midnight.
- An easter egg in the book was the line "Fire wants to burn", etched onto a table in Zara's hideout. "Fire wants to burn" is from Cassandra Clare's Magisterium series.
- In some early editions of the book, the engraving in Cristina Rosales's room says "MF + LH" (Matthew Fairchild and Lucie Herondale) which is changed in later editions to "JB + LH" (Jesse Blackthorn and Lucie). Though Cassie claims the change to be unimportant and not an indicator of final relationships in The Last Hours series.[13]
- Editions of the book bought at Costco in the US contained Julian's portrait of Emma that was mentioned in Lady Midnight, drawn by Cassandra Jean;[6] it has since been sold separately as a poster on TopatoCo.com along with a few other promotional posters for the book.
References[]
- ↑ Lord of Shadows on Simon & Schuster's website
- ↑ Lord of Shadows on Amazon
- ↑ Lord of Shadows' blurb — Cassandra Clare on Instagram
- ↑ "The chapter titles of Lord of Shadows are based on the poem Dreamland by Edgar Allan Poe." Cassandra Clare on Tumblr
- ↑ "In Lady Midnight, Annabel Lee, and in Lord of Shadows, Dream-Land, both by Poe." Cassandra Clare on Tumblr
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Preorder Cassandra Clare’s ‘Lord of Shadows’ on TMI Source
- ↑ Lord of Shadows Exclusive Edition on Waterstones' website
- ↑ "Lord of Shadows to match Lady Midnight!" Cassandra Clare on Twitter
- ↑ Cassandra Clare's July 2022 newsletter
- ↑ "They're all underwater, like sunken cities." Cassandra Clare on Twitter
- ↑ "Prince of Shadows" 1 — Cassandra Clare on Tumblr
- ↑ "Prince of Shadows" 2 — Cassandra Clare on Tumblr
- ↑ "It reflects only that at some point, one person had a crush on another person." Cassandra Clare on Tumblr