The Bane Chronicles

"When one steals a flying balloon and animates it to fly over Paris, one should, ideally, have some idea how said balloon normally works.” I immensely enjoyed getting to know Magnus better throughout his lifetime. The distinct change in his character from the earlier stories where he was younger and more carefree to the later stories where he is older, wiser and more mature is fascinating. Also the different stories blended together really well, making the read feel seemless even though there are huge jumps in time. Magnus is so chaotically and unapologetically himself that it's impossible to imagine he has any hardships. He lives in a world practically of his own creation. He sees the ugly and then proceeds to shatter it with glamour, glitter, kindness, wisdom and love. Magnus is my favourite character from the books that I've read so far. He is the bisexual and asian warlock of dreams and I was so excited when I saw there is a novella about his life.

El gran brujo de Brooklyn regresa con ‘Las Crónicas de Magnus Bane’, un libro con once historias contando sus aventuras, amistades y sus relaciones con el paso de los años. Los relatos que se presentan en el libro son buenos. Aunque los primeros se me hicieron extremadamente largos (no son short stories como dice la sinopsis), una vez fui avanzando y empezaron a aparecer personajes que ya conozco/amo de Los Origenes y Los Instrumentos Mortales, se me hizo más entretenido y me terminaban gustando los capítulos. Ver la aparición de Will, Tessa y Jem unos años después del epilogo de Princesa Mecánica que me llenó el corazón, conocemos más a James Herondale de quien necesito llegar a su historia, nos hablan del origen del famoso collar de rubí y por supuesto los inicios de la relación con Alec. Magnus es un personaje bastante único y posee una forma de ser que lo destaca, es por ello que pasando los capítulos pude reírme de sus ocurrencias, emocionarme e incluso conmoverme un poco. Aunque hubo uno que otro detalle al menos en los primeros relatos que siento que estuvieron de más, del resto la lectura estuvo buena. <b>— 3,75 estrellas. </b>

I really liked this, but I had a hard time getting into the stories in the beginning, mainly because I just wanted to read about Malec... But the ending was on point!

AWESOME! What else is there to say about this book??? Now to the proper review: 1 – What Really Happened in Peru This part of the story shows a side of Magnus that we know but at the same time we don’t. This book shows his thoughts, his life, his friends as never seen before. And I have to say: I do not like Ragnor. He’s gloomy and sad to Magnus’s bright spirit, and that saddens me… I mean, he stills follows Magnus and doesn’t leave him, but he also keeps saying things that have the potential to burst his friend’s bubble if he didn’t have happiness to spare. But he bursts my bubble of happiness for Magnus and that’s the reason why I don’t like him much. Catarina, though, seems softer and sweeter, indulging Magnus more and being closer to him than Ragnor. This story shows Magnus’s wild spirit and had some extremely funny moments of the warlock we love so much. It showed the love he’s capable of and the heartbreak that can follow. 2 – The Runaway Queen Blue-eyed men with black hair always get Magnus in trouble. In this story our beloved warlock is in Paris during the French revolution and is asked to help save the King and Queen of France by the Queen’s lover, a blue-eyed man with black hair for whom Magnus would do just about anything it would seem. He goes along with the established plan in which he places a glamour on her and goes to the vampire party he said he’d go to (and to which his refusal was unacceptable). But the Queen is found wandering around near the vampires’ party after she took a wrong turn. Magnus hides his panic well, though, and pretends that she’s merely the wife of a client of his that he was asked to completely transform into Queen Marie Antoinette. The vampire in charge accepts his lie but says she’ll be his, so Magnus says he still has to sign his work and is left alone. Magnus is a very powerful warlock but even he has his limits. With a large amount of magic poured into the spell, he brings a hot-air balloon, made invisible to anyone looking, to his window and shoves the Queen into it. She gets to the man that hired Magnus and then he drives her away. 3 – Vampires, Scones and Edmund Herondale It’s so fantastically easy to recognize a Herondale! They have these traits that just seem to run in the family, like sarcasm and flirtation! And they are always introduced using one of the two, and I just love it! And of course Magnus is immediately attracted to him. And the Shadowhunters in the room are all scandalized and backwards, I want to hit them upside the head! Also their personality, the Herondale’s I mean, is very similar: tell them not to do something, and they’ll bend over backwards if need be to do it! Adventure, debauchery…! This has Will Herondale written all over, right? Traits passed down from his (lovely, fantastic) father! And Magnus was lucky enough to meet them both! After drinking and playing cards, Edmund and Magnus are making their way back when they come across a couple of women being attacked by a demon. Edmund immediately joins the fight and gets the demon away from the women, with some intervention from Magnus. One of the women there is a lady, come to search for a husband who can help her and not take her estate and lands from under her, and she is so calm and normal in that situation that Edmund falls for her, right then and there. She even banters a little with him! It’s a match made in Heaven! But Edmund has a very difficult choice ahead of him: ask the love of his life to risk her life trying to Ascend and become a Shadowhunter herself or give up his life’s dream to be with her. It is such a painful conversation he happens to have with Magnus… I was crying while I read how Magnus thought he looked like “an angel brought to his knees”, and his brightness diminished… But it was so much worse to hear his cries of agony as he was stripped of his Marks… So unbearable… 4 – The Midnight Heir In this story Magnus meets Will and Tessa’s kid, James, giving us an unexpected (for me) insight to the Last Hours trilogy. James, much like all the Herondales, it would seem (except Edmund, he seemed to be the only half rational one), thinks himself cursed somehow. He does the stupidest and most dangerous things while drunk, while Magnus follows him to make sure he doesn’t die, like he almost does. He also takes the boy back to his parents, who are just as sweet as in their own trilogy, and who call Jem to try to help, and then it’s sweetness overload! But James doesn’t want to be helped, he thinks he’s cursed and he’ll soon die. Leaving the boy be, since he does not want any help, he makes his way to his client, the youngest daughter of Benedict Lightwood, the man who contracted demon pox and who turned into a giant worm his sons and the gang had to kill. She hates Shadowhunters now because of the fate that befell her family and wants Magnus to kill five of them, random, so she can use that energy for dark purposes. Of course he says no and turns his back to leave as fast as he can. But the woman’s young ward, a girl named Grace who seems very detached from the human side of a person and worse seems to be coated in magic to make people love her or something, follows him. Magnus thinks she needs to be saved, but quickly realizes that is not the case when she puts a blade to his throat. He also realizes that poor James truly is cursed, but not because of an actual curse. He’s cursed because he was taught to believe that love was pure and good by his parents and uncle, because there is nothing stronger and purer than their love, and he was just forced by whatever magic Grace has that makes people love her. And that is going to be hard to change… And of course this little story peaks my interest about James and the new story on this new trilogy! 5 – The Rise of the Hotel Dumort It’s interesting to know how this “famous” hotel came to be! It was smack in the middle of the Prohibition so of course our dearest warlock is the proud owner of a speakeasy. One day he gets weird news from a vampire, that he later finds out is one of Camille’s, to watch the mundanes’ money, whom he later finds out were the sponsors to the building of the hotel. He dismisses it but the next day he hears very similar news from the at the time High Warlock of Manhattan and it intrigues him enough to try his luck with the local Shadowhunters. The conversation feels a little dismissive so Magnus checks out the hotel himself and sees a group of rich humans enter. Nothing happens for weeks but the day the stocks collapse a light appears above the hotel and Magnus rushes toward it. The High Warlock got the humans killed, in a demonstration they asked for, after getting a dozen demons out. But that is not even the biggest problem! The biggest problem is the crazy warlock who made the hotel the biggest Portal ever and opened it into Pandemonium. Well, he didn’t, his spilled blood did when a Shadowhunter killed him. Thankfully Magnus avoided a real crisis and managed to close the Portal, leaving the hotel as we know it from The Mortal Instruments. 6 – Saving Raphael Santiago This story gives an amazing insight to another beloved character: Raphael Santiago. Magnus met him when he was “playing” at being a private detective. Raphael’s mother hires him to find and save her son from the vampires he was after. Magnus inquires after it before he goes to the hotel and finds Raphael. At first he thinks that the boy is being drained and shoves the vampire away, but then he realizes that Raphael is the vampire. He wants to kill himself for what he is but Magnus prevents it and takes him to his place, telling him that he can be with his family all the same. From that moment on Raphael trains and trains and trains a little harder to control everything about him: his hunger, his strength, his aversion to the cross, holy water and God’s name, to the point where he’s frequently hurting but is also an inspiration of strength. He’s also sassy and constantly making fun of Magnus with a straight face which is just hilarious! And when Ragnor joins him? Magnus is down for the count with those two constantly poking and making fun of him, it’s really fun! And, with a little lie saying that Magnus saved Raphael by making him an immortal warlock, Raphael goes back to his family, joins Camille’s ranks and becomes her second in command, always remembering Magnus’s act of kindness and his invaluable help but never being any warmer towards him. 7 – The Fall of the Hotel Dumort In this story Magnus returns to New York after a vacation to find the city has descended into chaos. Vampires are running wild, killing too often, drugs are running rampant in humans’ blood streams and werewolves need to act before Shadowhunters do, so they ask Magnus for help. Against his better judgment he goes to speak to Camille, who is high, reckless and untamable in that moment. He’s sent away, unable to do anything, but shortly after the city descends further into chaos. Vampires get too close to bring Shadowhunters down on the Downworld and no one wants that, so the werewolves take matters into their own hands. Magnus intervenes, forces Camille to call every vampire under her control to the hotel, where he locks them in and werewolves patrol so no one gets out. In the end, Magnus calls Catarina Loss to lock away every memory Magnus had of Camille in the last century, so as to make the pain easier again… 8 – What to Buy to the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything (And Who You’re Not Officially Dating Anyway) Magnus’s love for Alec is so sweet and soft, right from the start!!! On Alec’s 18th birthday Magnus, who has to work, spends the entire day worrying about what he’ll give to his yet-to-be-official boyfriend, until he finally knows what to do. Izzy stops by to say that she knows about them and is perfectly fine with it, and he takes advantage of the fact that she’s there to give her Alec’s gift: extra protecting to his sister, a gift he doesn’t know he received. It’s really sweet! I love these two so damn much!!! 9 – The Last Stand of the New York Institute Magnus is called to help with in an emergency situation in which the Circle is involved! Valentine is attacking werewolves that were in the pack that killed his parents and Magnus does his best to help but he’s badly outnumbered until the members of the New York Institute join the fight. Most of the werewolves are saved but only because the Circle killed all the other Shadowhunters and Luke called Valentine to reason. Magnus, as it is obvious, gained a profound dislike for any and all members of the Circle. Even Jocelyn has a hard time convincing him that she wants Clary far from her old world and it’s partly due to Tessa’s help that he helps Jocelyn and Clary. 10 – The Course of True Love (And First Dates) What to know what I have to say about this chapter? Malec! That’s all you need to know! It’s tentative, shy, almost, to be honest, before it sets itself on the sweet, lovely rhythm of (dare I say it) the most beloved pairing in this series! 11 – The Voicemail of Magnus Bane Simply hilarious! Izzy constantly calling Magnus about how it’s his loss that he broke up with Alec. Izzy harassing several characters into doing the same thing (hell, I’m pretty sure that she’s the one that dragged poor Maryse Lightwood into this). And poor Alec, asking friends to “put in a good word” for him! It was quite funny to read this!

So so good.

This is a must-read for all the Magnus Bane fans out there! Most of all it's a fun read and it also gives you little prequels of his long life and stories about characters we all know at some point or another. It's nice to get to know those stories from the past.

I don't know why but every time I read Cassandra Clare's short stories I can relate so much more to the Lightwoods and other side characters. Of course ma favorite part was everything with Herondales, most of all The Midnight Heir!!! I can't wait for the Last Hours to get more of Jamie!!! Edmund was so different than I imagined him to be and most of all I loved Linette, she could definitely kick some ass hahah My least favorite parts were the first stories "What Really Happened in Peru" and "The Runaway Queen". Apart from the Herondales I really loved the Malec Scenes and also the throw back to the young Circle or Jocelyn coming to Magnus and Tessa for help! If you love the Shadowhunter World you should pick this up, it gives you such a great insight into things that are not included in the regular plot and many characters who deserve it get more attention!

Overall Rating: 4⭐️ (3.9⭐️) In the beginning, I wasn’t really vibing with the short story collection. Most of the first half was a bit meh, but luckily, I loved the second half. I also enjoyed the single graphic novel/illustrated page at the beginning of each story. I think it is obvious that this was written by more authors than just Cassandra Clare. You obviously don’t need to read this book to understand the story, but I am a big fan of Magnus Bane and really had a good time with almost every story. 1. What Really Happened in Peru: 3.5 ⭐️ there wasn’t a lot of stuff going on, but I loved the beautiful descriptions of Peru and now I really want to go there! 2. The Runaway Queen: 3 ⭐️ Magnus Bane and Marie Antoinette, a combination I never thought about and didn’t really need. 3. Vampires, Scones and Edmund Herondale: 3.5 ⭐️ I usually love a Herondale guy, but I was expecting a bit more of this story. 4. The Midnight Heir: 4 ⭐️ My favorite story so far. Meeting James Herondale made me super excited for Chain of Gold. 5. The Rise of the Hotel Dumort: 3.5 ⭐️ I don’t really care about the Hotel Dumort… the best part of this story was imagining Magnus and all the vampires seriously having a book and tea club, not just as a cover-up. 6. Saving Raphael Santiago: 4 ⭐️ I loved reading about Raphaels origin story. He is one of my favorite side-characters from the series. 7. The Fall of the Hotel Dumort: 3 ⭐️ Yup, still not caring about the Hotel Dumort, or Camille and her drug problem. 8. What To Buy The Shadowhunter Who Has Everything: 4.5 ⭐️ What can I say? I stan Malec, and I love the relationship that Magnus and Izzy are forming. 9. The Last Stand of the New York Institute: 4.5 ⭐️ I hate Valentine with all my heart. I also really loved the ending, with Jocelyn coming to Magnus and Tessa for help. It felt a bit like coming full circle, as this situation is talked about in City of Heavenly Fire. 10. The Course of True Love (And First Dates): 5 ⭐️ The Butt Song was a personal highlight of this story. This whole story was just hilarious. Best worst first date ever. 11. The Voicemail of Magnus Bane: 4.5⭐️ I wasn't really sure how entertaining voicemail messages could be, but I wasn't expcecting them to be this funny.

Das Buch beinhaltet insgesamt 11 Kurzgeschichten über die Abenteuer des Magnus Bane. Dabei kann man alle Kurzgeschichten unabhängig voneinander lesen. Allerdings würde ich empfehlen, vorher die Chroniken der Schattenjäger oder die Chroniken der Unterwelt gelesen zu haben, da in diesem Buch die Welt der Schattenjäger nur begrenzt erklärt wird und Spoiler auftauchen könnten. Im Großen und Ganzen hat mir das Buch richtig gut gefallen. In jedem Kapitel lernt Magnus neue Leute kennen, die man selbst als Cassandra Clare Fan schon kennt hat. Außerdem hat mir gefallen, dass man sowohl verschiedene Zeitepochen, als auch Orte kennen lernt. Der Schreibstil war wie gewohnt sehr detailreich , aber dennoch gut zu lesen und flüssig. Mein Highlight war natürlich Magnus Bane selbst. Ich könnte mir keinen charmanteren und lustigeren Hexenmeister vorstellen. Einen Stern muss ich jedoch abziehen, da mir manche Geschichten weniger gut gefallen haben als andere und mir teilweise die Spannung gefehlt hat, wodurch sich das ganze in die Länge gezogen hat. Fazit Alles in allem ein tolles Spin-Off für jeden Cassandra Clare und Magnus Bane Fan.Es ist wirklich sehr unterhaltsam und man lernt noch mehr über die Welt der Schattenjäger hinzu. Außerdem kann ich empfehlen, dieses Buch auf englisch zu lesen. 4 Sterne !

Oh boy, I had a really hard time rating this book. I love C. Clare and her Shadowhunter series, but I have my problems with The Bane Chronicles. Somehow I was really looking forward to this book and yet I was disappointed. I liked some of the short stories - especially the ones where familiar characters appeared who also play a very important role later on. Other short stories I didn't like at all. Linguistically, too, it was - in my opinion - very different from Clare's solo works - that's clear. I found "Saving Raphael Santiago", "What To Buy The Shadowhunter Who Has Everything (And Who You're Not Officially Dating Anyway)", "The Course of True Love" and "The Voicemail of Magnus Bane" really good and entertaining. All the others were not really my cup of tea. However, I found many mentions nice, I was especially happy about Anna Lightwood <3 It was just super nicely done!