City of Fallen Angels

The Mortal Instruments, Book 4

By: Cassandra Clare

Narrated by: Ed Westwick, Molly C. Quinn

Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

City of Fallen Angels take up where City of Glass left off. With Valentine out of the way, Clary thought she and Jace could finally be together--but when someone starts murdering the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine's Circle and leaving their bodies around New York City in a manner designed to destroy the new peace between Downworlders and Shadowhunters, she realizes the past can never be left entirely behind. As the Shadowhunters scramble to find out what's really going on, Jace breaks off all communication with her, refusing to tell her why. Desperate to help him, Clary plunges into solving the mystery, coming ever closer to a secret whose revelation may mend her relationship with Jace--or rip it apart forever. Meanwhile, when Camille Belcourt, the elegant bloodsucker who used to rule New York's vampire clans with an iron fist, returns to the city determined to re-establish her control, a vampire war is born. Only Simon--the Daylighter who everyone wants on their side--can decide the outcome; too bad he's caught up in his own complicated love life and wants nothing to do with Downworld politics! Love, blood, betrayal and revenge: the stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.

Listen to more in the Mortal Instruments series.

©2011 Cassandra Claire LLC. All rights reserved. (P)2011 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Does Audible hire illiterates now?

I understand that both of these readers are celebrities, and that they get preferential treatment because they are supposed to know how to act out parts, but after listening to two hours of this book, I hate every show these two have ever been in...AND THE BOOK.

Ed sounds like he would rather be doing anything but reading the story. He gives all the characters a terrible half New York accent and seems to think that the way to imitate any other accent is to speak in as choppy of syllables as possible. He makes Jace sound like he's drunk and half awake. That said, I could suffer through him.

Then the female gets on. The second she starts speaking, I'm asking myself how many downers did she take before starting this book. She has no expressions, no voices, and no idea how to read about a fourth grade level. She literally sounds out half of the multi-syllable words! Not to mention, she sounds like she's seconds away from dying of a heroine overdose. I'm asking for a refund for this book and reading it the old fashion way. If you've got any love for these characters, you would too!

Good Book So So Narration

If you could sum up City of Fallen Angels in three words, what would they be?

So So narration

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the book. However Mr. Westwick and Ms. Quinn could not seem to keep the pronunciations of places and things together. They each pronounced places and objects of the story differently which I felt really detracted from the story.

Reader is so bad I wish I hadn't started the set..

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator is so bad it is distracting. I could almost hear someone whispering in her ear and telling her to enunciate. She most of the time speaks in a very casual and relaxed way, dropping consonants and joining words the way we do in casual conversation. This would not be so bad except that is clashes with the style of the writing. Despite the fact that the main characters are teenagers (or ancient immortals who look like teenagers) the writing style is rather formal. Casual conversational reading I could get past, except that she delivers the entire book in a slightly whiney deadpan and every so often, she will over-enunciate a word which is ALWAYS jarring and weird. She is awful, awful, awful as a reader. If the series was not so good, I would never have listened to her.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Despite the reader, who was, as I have mentioned AWFUL, I really enjoyed this book and the entire series. The writer has done a wonderful job of creating a believable world and mostly staying true to the sets of magic laws she has created. The characters are interesting and the story is excellent. I listen to it every available minute, even though I have heard it through several times. Again, this is a real testament to the writer as I HATE the sound of the readers voice so much, I am sure it would drive me insane if I could not manage to get past it and into the story.

My Review

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I adore this book series. I had previously bought and read the series and now I started listening to the audio books. This book is a fun addition to the series.The switch between the narrators was odd but it did not ruin the audio book for me. I understood why they felt reading those two perspectives by two different people might be better. I even liked Ed Westwick and the way his characters sounded. The rest of my review will not be as nice. I almost gave up on the book 3/4 of the way through. Molly Quinn's parts were painfully slow and absolutely boring to listen to. She whispered through lots of characters and had long pauses in between sentences and characters talking. The Silent Brothers chapter & the voices were one of the most annoying things I have ever listened to. Honestly the only reason this audio book was 12 hours was due to the slow reading. I would recommend someone pick up the book and read it instead of listening to the audio book.

Best ever

What made the experience of listening to City of Fallen Angels the most enjoyable?

Well I wanted to read this book for awhile but it being read to me's much funner

Who was your favorite character and why?

Clarie. Shes brave and stronge minded.

What about Ed Westwick and Molly C. Quinn ’s performance did you like?

great

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes absulutaly

Any additional comments?

If yu havent listened you should.

Good Book, But.....

The story was good but it would have been better read because the narration was horrible.

Why two narrators?!

The two narrators are each fine in their own right, but why use two? And why these two? They clash terribly causing a need for volume adjustments at the turn of each chapter. Also the contrast in accents makes it very difficult to follow the story line at each shift between. This does not enhance the experience AT ALL to have two narrators. Just stick with one. This was a poor choice in performance.

Yes and No

Mr Westwick was an excellent choice. Ms. Quinn, however was not. She would be better suited to something a bit less mature. I am afraid to say that it was like listening to a romance novel being passed around by an eighth grade reading class...juvenile and ackward.

Good team narration

I feel like a Molly finally got her narration perfect during chapter 16 and after.
Ed did a wonderful job narration Simon, but I feel like Jace had a too hard core New York accent. He wasn’t raised in NY but in Idris.
All in all, it was narrated pretty good.

Good story, bad narrators

I have to agree with other reviewers-- I did not like the narrators. I understand that they were trying to be "hip" by using famous young actors, but they sadly didn't do the story justice. Ed Westwick is British, so all of his chapters were read in a British accent even though the story takes place in New York. No sense of excitement in either narrator, and words were mispronounced, or at least pronounced differently than they had been in prior books and it was jarring. Very hard to tell different characters apart. Pretty much one "girl voice" and one "boy voice" for each narrator.

The story, however, was still strong enough to hold my attention, but I wish they had used a different narrator. If you're a fan of the series, this is better than not having an audiobook, but if you're able I would recommend reading a physical copy.