Mundie Moms

Friday, August 28, 2015

Snippet From AWAKE by Cassandra Clare (It's Jace's POV from the Opening Scene from City of Bones)



Check it out Shadowhunters! The repackaged The Mortal Instruments series will be hitting book stores this next week! To celebrate, Cassie shared a snippet from AWAKE, which is the opening scene from City of Bones from Jace's point of view. You can ONLY get this story in the Barnes & Noble special edition copy of COB, which will also be the only book out of the series that will also be a sold as a hardcover. All the books will be sold in paperback form, except the B&N special edition (get it here). 

In her post on Tumblr from this morning, here's what Cassie said about the repackaged TMI series, and the special edition copy of COB from Barnes & Noble:
The repackages of the TMI books are coming out this week and next — expect them to trickle into bookstores near you. The special edition of City of Bones is the only repackage that’s hardcover. 
It is only available through Barnes and Noble. Unless people decide to sell it on Ebay, it will never be available anywhere else. 
All the repackages have maps of New York (TMI) or London (TID) and forwards by me talking a bit about why I wrote each series. Only the B&N edition is 1) in hardcover 2) a book that contains the opening scene from City of Bones from Jace’s viewpoint.
It’s called “Awake”, from this quote: It was like he was always half-awake where other people were concerned. And then we met you, and he woke up.— Isabelle to Clary, City of Glass

Check out this snippet from AWAKE!
Jace glanced over at Alec and Isabelle. Killing a demon in front of a mundane, unless there was an immediate threat, was something of a no-no. Mundanes weren’t supposed to know about demons.  For one of the first times in his life, Jace found himself at a loss. They couldn’t leave the girl with the Eidolon; it would kill her. If they left the Eidolon alone, it would escape, and kill someone else. If they stayed and killed it, they’d be exposed.
“Knock her out,” Alec muttered, under his breath. “Just … whack her on the head with something.”
“Just go,” Jace said to the girl. “Get out of here, if you know what’s good for you.”
But she only planted her feet harder. He could see the look in her eyes, like exclamation points: No! No! 
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “If I do, you’ll kill him.”
Jace had to admit that was true. “What do you care?” He pointed at the demon with his knife. “That’s not a person, little girl. It may look like a person and talk like a person and bleed like a person. But it’s a monster.”
“Jace!” Isabelle’s eyes flashed. They were depthless, black, angry. Isabelle never got angrier than when Jace risked getting himself in trouble or danger. And he was risking both, now. Breaking the Law — talking about Shadowhunter business with mundanes — and what was worse, he was liking it. Something about this girl, her stormcloud of red hair and her snapping green eyes, made him feel as if his veins were filled with gunpowder and she was a match.
As if, if she touched him, he’d burn up. But then, he loved explosions.

* * * * * * * * * *

Aww, Clace! I've missed reading about these two. I need more from Jace's point of view. I've got my special edition pre-ordered! Do you? Get it here!

The Soul of A Book: TV And Film Adaptations



Nothing is more exciting as a reader than when the announcement comes that one of your all time favorite, beloved book series is being made into a movie or TV series. It's an exciting possibility to see the book world you've fallen in love with and its characters come to life. The possibilities are endless. What scenes will be featured, which of your favorite lines will be said, how will the book series be adapted for the screen or TV, who's going to be cast etc, etc. It's exciting. It's also a chance for others who haven't read the books to see what it is you love about the series so much. 

But above all, the book is coming to life!

As a reader, and having been a part of the book to movie/book to TV fandom (both Twilight and Shadowhunters) for eight years now, I know that it is impossible for the movie/tv show of any book to be exactly like the book. Nothing will ever be the book. Ever. The book is adapted for the big screen or for the TV show. Changes have to be made in order to create the book's story into something that not only book fans will love and support, but a new audience who's not read the books, will also be supportive of. That's no easy feat. 

Lately I have been super saddened to see "fans" of the unreleased television show telling longtime book fans that of course everything in the show will have to be different, from the characters' ages, to the way the magic works, to the jobs everyone has, to the entire plot.

I just wanted to reassure the overwhelming majority of fans who've read the books, and are hoping to see some of what they loved in the books onscreen — that that is not true. It is possible to create a film or TV adaptation that's both faithful to the spirit of the books, and yet has changes that grab the interest of those who have never read or heard of the books and enough new stuff to keep books fans on their toes. How do we know that? Because we have seen it. 

The Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter, were all very faithful to the books they were based on, and were successes. Movies that diverged from the books they were based on, from Percy Jackson to Beautiful Creatures to City of Bones, were flops.

Is it different for TV? No. Quality shows like Outlander and Game of Thrones are enormously faithful to the books they are based on, and their success has ushered in a new generation of television. Everything points toward faithful adaptations of American Gods, the Magicians, and Shannara. No one is bored by Game of Thrones because it sticks to the plots of the books. No one slept through the Red Wedding because it unfolded as it had in the books. Entertainment doesn't work that way. A huge quantity of people who tune into a show or watch a film based on their favorite books want to see the scenes they love unfold on screen. If there are no scenes from the books at all, they will walk away. That's just how it is.

It is simply a fact that all the evidence we've seen so far for Shadowhunters TV — sides, leaked pilot scripts, behind the scenes shots, what the cast and crew have said — points toward a show that doesn't just make changes, but makes enormous, sweeping changes. Can a show that changes so very much about the source material be something that book fans could still enjoy? I just don't know.

I, in no way want to upset any of you, I wish I knew what to do about it myself. I would love for the show to be good. I would love to think I was going to see a scene, any scene, from the books come to life. It just doesn't seem, from the evidence of the sides, the auditions, the pilot, and the comments made by cast and crew, that this will be so. Per an interview Kat McNamara recently had with Zap2It (you can read her interview here), she had this to say about the show,


Picture Source: Tweet via TMI_India on 8/13 here

The problem there is that "Cassie's interpretation of the books" is just the books and what's in them. If they're not doing that, then what are they doing? It's not like there's anything wrong with interpretations, but when news first broke about Shadowhunters TV, it was said that the show would be based on Cassandra Clare's books. For book fans, that was beyond exciting. It was a chance for us book fans to see a redemption from the flop the Shadowhunters movie was. With credible sources whom have purchased the slides which contain the actual script for the show, we know that the story has completely been re-written. As in not even the same story as the books. True, the character names are the same, and there's a Shadowhunter world, and some of the relationships are similar to the books, but that's it. Valentine lives in a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl in this show. Alec is the head of the Institute. Luke is a cop. Isabelle hates her mom and loves her dad. Simon has a girlfriend who isn't Clary or Isabelle or Maia. Faeries (sorry "Seelies") are forcing Alec into an arranged marriage with a girl. The Institute isn't deserted, but full of people. The Shadowhunters don't dislike technology, but are covered in iPads and expensive computers. Michael Wayland is alive. Does any of this sound to you, Shadowhunter fans, like the books you read? More importantly, does it sound like books you'd want to read?

Only an individual fan can answer that for themselves. Recently some Shadowhunter fansites have spoken up about the changes. They are not lying, they have not created these changes out of thin air. They're changes any fan can read for themselves via the script sides that can be purchased on showfax.com. While I want the Shadowhunters series to be successful for Cassandra Clare's sake, reading all the changes (interpretations) that have been made is hard. Having been a huge fan of the Shadowhunters world since 2008, my loyalty lies with the books, not the show. That doesn't, however mean that I'm not supportive of the show, but it does mean that my loyalty will always side with the original story because that is what I cared about first. So while I understand that people may be upset when they see other fans angry about the changes . . . it is hard for me not to feel worried and heartbroken too.  

I think it's important for fans to remember that no matter our stance is on what's being done with the Shadowhunters TV, the only reason we are even interested in the show, the only reason there is this debate happening, is because these are books people care about. How much change can be wrought on the stories and characters without destroying them is something people can only decide for themselves. But every fan and fansite deserves to have their own opinion, because we all share something -- we share a passion for these books and this world, which will be around long after the show has ended.

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