Book 3 Review

Speculative fiction is a wonderful genre. It can take us to places we have never been, worlds we will never see.  Two books, Will, an unpublished novel by Alison Bewley, and City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, the first in a trilogy, both fit into this genre. Each story involves fellowship, secret organizations, and mythical beings of immense power, which are common themes of speculative fiction, but at their core are very different.

 

Clare

 

One of the major differences between the two novels is their main plotline. City of Bones, is, at its heart, a love story. Will, on the other has, has very little romance in it at all, much less a major one. Clare’s novel is about the love triangle between the characters, and their quest to find the Mortal Instruments. Bewley’s book has no grand adventure where abnormal people cross the world to save it. The main purpose of the characters in this book is achieving peace, and the people who are working hard to make that peace a reality; “’The Human-Abnormality Reconciliation Team,’ Christina explained. ‘Will and I are a part of that. Our goal is to foster understanding between humans and abnormalities. ”

The main characters in City of Bones fit well into the set of characters in popular novels today. One girl falls in love with two different guys, who she likes for different reasons. The reason for one of them is explained in painful detail. “Jace was seated at the grand piano, his slender hands moving rapidly over the keys. He was barefoot, dressed in jeans and a gray t-shirt, his tawny hair ruffled up as if he had just woken up. Watching the quick, sure movements of his hands across the keys, Clary remembered how it had felt to be lifted up by those hands, his arms holding her up and the stars hurtling down around her head like a rain of silver tinsel.” In Will, the cast is varied and interesting, with the setting allowing countless amounts of characters that care essential to the plot, and some less so. Characters in speculative fiction novels need to be fun to read about, and Will definitely has the edge here. Both books, and many magic realism and fantasy books, actually do take place in our world, on our planet, usually in the United States. Both Clare and Bewley’s novels follow this trend of taking place in the U.S. of A. Only Clare introduces a fictional country, one in Europe, but it is not visited in the first book. Setting, however, is not only about location.

The setting is also the different species in the world, more often than not species that are more, or less, than human. City of Bones has three major races aside from humans; Vampires, werewolves, and faeries. The usual. The setting of Will allows for only a few races, but thousands of variations. New York in real life has its fair share of crazies, and the same applies in Will. From a man who can talk to plants to a teleporter, the city is as alive as it should be. Most of them are still human, but with certain, significant genetic mutations that make them more than normal. Both Will and City of Bones are definitely fun to read, because of their varied cast alone.

 

There are moments of good and bad in each. The love-struck characters in City of Bones gets annoying after a while, and some parts of Will seem to be totally unnecessary to the final product. Each has its fair share of decent characters alongside bad characters, and the settings are equally well implemented. Both novels take from their genre and use that well, creating interesting and engaging stories that take their place next to the good books of speculative fiction. In regards to the score,  City of Bones gets a 4.5/6, and Will a 5/6. The rating system was out of six, and not five, because everyone else rates out of five, and things are done differently here.