Book Review: The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson

ISBN: 1442495995
Published: November 11th, 2014
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Received: purchased
Read from April 17th to 20th, 2017
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Fans of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices can get to know warlock Magnus Bane like never before in this collection of New York Times bestselling tales, in print for the first time with an exclusive new story and illustrated material.
This collection of eleven short stories illuminates the life of the enigmatic Magnus Bane, whose alluring personality, flamboyant style, and sharp wit populate the pages of the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices.
Originally released one-by-one as e-only short stories by Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson, and Sarah Rees Brennan, this compilation presents all ten together in print for the first time and includes a never-before-seen eleventh tale, as well as new illustrated material.

Review:

In my review for The Infernal Devices I talked about knowing quite a bit about the series before reading but also not all that much, and I feel like it was the same way for The Bane Chronicles. I had an idea of what happened in a few of the stories (namely the ones with Malec), but there was plenty I didn't know as I read.

This book is a collection of short stories that follow Magnus Bane, the only character to appear in every Shadowhunters book. While having read other Shadowhunters books isn't necessarily a requirement for reading The Bane Chronicles, I do think it would be a good idea. As these are short stories, there isn't much worldbuilding, and it seems to be assumed that readers will understand the basics.

That being said, as Magnus is a Downworlder, the world of the story actually looks much different than that of the other Shadowhunters books. Of course, The Infernal Devices also has a main character who is a Warlock like Magnus, but she spends the entire series with Shadowhunters, meaning that series still focuses on the world primarily through the lens of the Shadowhunters. Magnus, however, tries to stay out of Shadowhunter business, and despite how often that doesn't go as planned in The Bane Chronicles, you see the universe from a point-of-view that's different from the other series, which makes it a unique experience.

As for the merits of each short story, I enjoyed some more than others. I think that's the nature of short story collections. There will always be a few that aren't as good as the others. I found myself getting into the later stories more than the earlier ones, which was probably combination of having gotten into the book and the stories overlapping more with events and characters we already knew from other books.

Camille is definitely portrayed in a different light in this book. This is the first time where I could say that I understood why Magnus fell in love with her in the first place. It's not something that's easy to see from The Infernal Devices and Mortal Instruments books.

This is undoubtedly because I'm biased, but my favorites of the short stories were "The Course of True Love (and First Dates)" and "What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything (And Who You're Not Officially Dating Anyway)" because of the Malec. I love having those empty spaces of Magnus and Alec's relationship filled in a bit as we don't get to see much of the start of their relationship in The Mortal Instruments, and both stories were adorable, even if the demon sitting around Magnus's loft was a bit odd.

Overall, I would say that this book is meant for people who are already fans of the Shadowhunters books and of Magnus, but if you are a fan of the books, it's great to get a better look at Magnus's life and things he's been through.