| The demon exploded in a shower of ichor and guts.
Thus the story commences. The Clockwork Angel (the first book under the trilogy called The Infernal Devices) by Cassandra Clare is a prequel to The Mortal Instruments by the same author. While it was Clary in The Mortal Instruments (TMI), this time it’s Tessa Gray. As far as I’m concerned they just got too many things in common I almost thought Tessa was Clary’s previous incarnation.
Tessa, like Clary, was also brought up not knowing who she really is. And when they were awakened to their true selves, they almost always did not have time before they are flung into some conflict their innocence can barely catch up with. And while there’s a Jace in TMI, there’s a Will in TID. Again, these guys always are gifted with super good looks, have an air of too much confidence, and always with some kind of pain hidden inside. And sidekicks who are equally good looking but with some form of weakness, e.g. being gay (pardon me if this is not supposed to be a weakness), or having an irreversible illness.
Having read 4 of Cassandra Clare’s books, I have now began to wonder how other readers are imagining how the characters look. Of course, Cassandra Clare has commissioned an artist to paint the characters (the book covers themselves are not much of a help as they don’t show the faces). There’s a site called, theinfernaldevices.com, that showed some artworks (by Val Freire) of how the characters look. Here are some of his works.
Will, Tessa, and Jem.
Jessamyn, George, and Charlotte.
See more of Val Freire‘s art here.
I hope though that if ever these novels are given a chance in the movies, the casts would give justice to the good looks that Cassandra gave them. The artworks just seem to fall short of what I imagined these guys should look. But I do have suggestions.
Tom Welling of Smallville seem cool enough as Will. What do you think?
Would Emma Watson be good enough as Tessa?
I also found that some enterprising folks have created pendants, rings, and other jewelry based on Cassandra Clare’s books. Shown below are just some of them
If you are interested, you can check them out at etsy.com.
Also, The Mortal Instruments is not a trilogy as I earlier thought it to be. There are 3 more books coming out sometime this year in the mortal instruments series.