The Mortal Instruments Trilogy by Cassandra Clare

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS TRILOGY

by Cassandra Clare

Paranormal Young Adult
Simon and Schuster
www.CassandraClare.com

2 signed copies of City of Glass, 1 copy of City of Bones and 5 autographed Mortal Instruments posters will be given away on Friday, June 26, 2009!


About City of Bones (Book 1):

Their hidden world is about to be revealed....

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Clary knows she should call the police, but it's hard to explain a murder when the body disappears into thin air and the murderers are invisible to everyone but Clary.

Equally startled by her ability to see them, the murderers explain themselves as Shadowhunters: a secret tribe of warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. Within twenty-four hours, Clary's mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know....

About City of Ashes (Book 2):

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go -- especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil -- and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings -- and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.


About City of Glass (Book 3):

To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters -- never mind that enter-ing the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadow-hunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadow-hunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City -- whatever the cost?

Love is a mortal sin and the secrets of the past prove deadly as Clary and Jace face down Valentine in the final installment of the New York Times bestselling trilogy The Mortal Instruments.






Check out our exclusive author interview with Cassandra Clare!

1. The Mortal Instruments series is definitely an interesting one! How did you come up with the idea?

I was in a tattoo shop in the East Village with a friend who was trying to convince me to get a tattoo. I didn't wind up getting one, but I did get the idea for a secret world of demon hunters whose magic system was based on tattoos. From that, I developed the world and the story. I knew right away I wanted to set it in New York City because I had just moved there and I found it to be such a fantastical place, so the series is something of a love letter to New York.

2. We’re giving away signed copies of the third (and last) book in the series, for those readers out there who haven’t read books 1 and 2 can you catch us up quickly?

The series is is about a fifteen-year old girl named Clary Fray, whose search for her missing mother leads her into an alternate New York called Downworld, filled with mysterious magical creatures like faeries, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and the demons who want to destroy it all. She also finds herself torn between two boys — her best friend, Simon, for whom she’s developing new feelings, and Jace, who is one of the demon hunters, or Nephilim. As she gets drawn into his world, she discovers that she's more a part of it than she originally thought. City of Bones is followed by the second book, City of Ashes, and the third, City of Glass.

3. The titles for all the books are great! When you first sat down to write book 1, was City of Bones the original title or did that develop as you went along?

I had attended a play called "The Bone Chandelier" which was about, as you might imagine, a chandelier made of bones. It reminded me of the Catacombs in Paris, which is like an undeground city made literally out of the bones of the dead — and I thought, wouldn't it be great to set part of the book I'm working on in a city made of bones? Thus: City of Bones. It's very literal.

4. Vampires and Werewolves are popular topics in books these days. But in your books, they’re treated very differently. Can you tell us how they’re different and why you chose to write the world that way?

I actually think they're a throwback to extemely classic folklore about vampires and werewolves. My vampires fear the sun, crosses, can't go into churches, and live forever. My werewolves are allergic to silver and change every full moon. What I was really interested in was not so much in changing up existing mythology but in developing a new explanation for why these folkloric creatures exist. My whole world is built on the assumption that demons and angels exist and sort of use our world as a battleground, so all mythical creatures are explained as being part of that paradigm — warlocks are half demons, and vampires exist as a result of a demon virus.

5. I hear you’re working on a new series. Can you tell us about that?

It's a prequel series to the Mortal Instruments — prequels in the sense that they take place earlier than the events in MI. Much earlier, in fact. The first book, The Clockwork Princess, is set in Victorian London and deals with a new group of teenage Shadowhunters, the ancestors of the ones in the MI books — you'll meet the forebears of Jace, Clary, and the Lightwoods, among others. Also there are a few crossover characters, like Magnus Bane, and as usual there's lots of romance, demon-fighting, angst, and urban backdrops. You can read all about them here at the shiny new website: www.theinfernaldevices.com


About the Author:

Cassandra Clare worked for several years as an entertainment journalist for the Hollywood Reporter before turning her attention to fiction. The Mortal Instruments trilogy has been on many bestseller lists. Cassandra lives in Brooklyn. Visit her website at cassandraclare.com. Learn more about The Mortal Instruments trilogy at mortalinstruments.com. Learn about her new trilogy The Infernal Devices at theinfernaldevices.com.


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