Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy

Great narration and story about Shadowhunters

I listened to the audio of Shadowhunters. And I don’t know how Cassandra Clare managed it, but she wrangled some seriously famous actors (well, famous to me at least!) to narrate the ten tales. And each narrator brought their own flare and style to the books. Some of my favorites include: Devon Bostick, Luke Pasqualino, Keahu Kahuanui, Brett Dalton, and of course Sam Heughan.
While I enjoyed all ten tales, I really appreciated how the tales were interconnected, and provided us with both modern Shadowhunter stories as well as historic tales. It’s not practical to review all ten tales; here are some individual reviews. My favorite of the collection was Born to Endless Night, written by Ms. Clare and Ms. Rees Brennan. In this tale, Magnus and Alec decide to adopt a baby warlock. The baby shows up on the doorstep of the academy where Magnus is guest-lecturing. Of the two, Alec takes to adopting the baby first. And let’s just say that Magnus making a bottle for the baby was totally swoony. I don’t really know what this tale had to do with Simon, but I also don’t really care. This was also the tale where I realized I picture the actors from the TV series as the characters.
Another favorite tale is Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy, also by Ms. Clare and Ms. Rees Breenan. (I think I see a pattern here!) This story is hilarious and all Simon. Who else would pack nothing but funny t-shirts when going off to Idris to learn to be a Shadowhunter. The scene with the girls and talking about when Simon bit Jace had me literally laughing at my desk at work.

“I might have bitten him. It was more like a tiny nibble.”

“Was he delicious”, Julie asked? “He looks like he would be delicious.”

And Izzy staking her claim on Simon? Just as great. Excellent narration by Devon Bostick. And a great start to a compilation book.

Pale Kings and Princes by Ms. Clare and Ms. Wasserman was one of my least favorite of the collection. This tale focuses on the history of the Blackthorn family, specifically Mark and Helen. Most of which I learned from reading Lady Midnight. This tale emphasized for me the fact that I really should have read the books in publication order. All the questions I had reading Lady Midnight were answered here. It would have made much more sense to have read Shadowhunter Academy first.

Across the board, I really enjoyed all of the tales. And especially the audio narration. If you appreciate Simon’s sense of humor and are interested in more Shadowhunter history, check out Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy!

9 sur 9 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Revisiting Beloved Characters

I really enjoyed this collection. The stories were wonderful. The only drawback was the narration of the final chapters by Brett Dalton. I found it more difficult to discern which character was speaking and missed hearing the Scottish brogue of George's character that had been consistent until that point. Overall, I loved having more stories involving the Mortal Instruments' characters.

2 sur 2 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Totally Recommend

wonderful collection of stories! I cry for one character though I love how his last name is tied with Simon. This also makes me excited for future books. Mainly of Malec and the Warnock baby and the blackthorn family . I love that we got to see the old cast too. Pick this up. It's completely with the listen. Great voice acting as well. LOVED it all.

1 sur 1 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

better than expected

I was more engaged on some of the stories, but overall they are all great. Narration is awesome and gets you into what's happening.
Also easy to follow as a non-native speaker.

Too many voices

Every few chapters the narrator would change and it takes some time to get back into the rhythm of the story.
Once you adjust to the new voice the story flows smoothly again.

who doesn't love Simon, amirite?

as with most offshoot anthologies, it's not as well written as the official novels, but still fun. who doesn't love Simon, right? some stories were definitely better than others, and some narrations were better than others. I was stunned to see Sam Hueghan on the narrator list, as a huge fan of outlander, and looked forward to hearing his sexy voice in my ear for two hours. what I GOT was Sam doing an American accent the whole time, which got worse as he tried dialouge for Simon and Clary, and a truly awful attempt at a Brooklyn Magnus. and when he finally got to voice the Scottish character, it was in a whisper and sounded odd. please, if Sam ever does an audiobook again, which, let's be honest, would be questionable at best, please let him do it in his own accent!

Great Collection Of Stories

I loved these Simon stories although I do wish they all had the same narrator.

YOU MUST READ

This book took look at how things became. mostly for Simion, but also how Magnus and Alec got thier first son. it was just too good.

Simon Lewis Story

This is a description of Simon's life to become a Shadowhunter and the journey to getting his memories back. It should be read before reading The Dark Artifices. The collection brings back the characters in Mortal Instruments and shows a glimce into their lives.

Simon & The Herondales Get More Stories

If you thought Simon didn't get enough love in the Shadowhinter series you are in luck. Here he gets the much deserved spotlight with side adventures about the Herondale family (specifically Tessa, Will, their children and Jem).

Is this the best book in the series? Absolutely not. But it was an enjoyable experience for anyone that's looking for more worldbulding and connectivity of characters. At times, things were a little disjointed, but overall I was invested in and intrigued by most of them. It also was interesting to see them fill some gaps that were left by not explaining things in between the other two series. Everything is pretty perfectly set up for the newer triology.

My only main complaint is that I hate that since these stories are compiled from single shorter episodes, they all have different readers and the chapters don't actually break up into the stories singularly (it was about 2 "chapters" per story).