City of Ashes

The Mortal Instruments, Book Two

By: Cassandra Clare

Narrated by: Natalie Moore

Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Clary Fray just wants her life to go back to normal - but that turns out to be impossible. For one thing, her mother is still in the hospital, in a mysterious coma. For another, she and her brother, Jace, have fallen under a cloud of suspicion now that the Shadowhunter world knows that Valentine is still alive - and that Jace and Clary are his son and daughter. Not to mention that someone in New York is killing Downworlders and draining their blood, creating a climate of suspicion that sends Downworld Manhattan to the brink of civil war.

When the Silent Brothers are murdered and the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Sword of Souls, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor is dispatched from Idris to investigate. She clearly harbors a personal grudge against Jace, and she drives a wedge between him and his adoptive family. When Clary's romance with her best friend, Simon, starts to heat up, Jace feels abandoned. But has he, as the Inquisitor accuses, joined up with his father?

Then Simon is turned into a vampire and kidnapped by Valentine, who intends to sacrifice him as part of a bloody ritual that will make the Mortal Instruments his own forever. Jace knows he needs to save Simon's life, for Clary's sake. But what if he's too late? What if Valentine has already made the Mortal Instruments his own?

©2008 Cassandra Claire, LLC (P)2008 Simon and Schuster, Inc.

really good!!

I love Jace's character!!! I love the passion the characters feel! The series is very entertaining!!!

optional?

I feel like done of the voices could hand been done better. But they weren't bad.

Just pick one reader

I wish there was just one person that was reading all of the books. The first book was fine and now the second book the person that is reading isn’t matching the accents that the reader of the first book had done 😡😡😡 it’s super annoying

Terrible narrator

Love the story! Narrator was dreadful, the first book’s narrator was great! Idk why they got rid of her…

This Narrator leaves a lot to be desired

I won't comment too much on the story itself because tbh this series is a long-time favorite of mine, but while listening to them again (its been several years since I've read/listened to them), I just find myself continually irritated with Natalie Moore (narrator).

Her accents are not good, but despite this she keeps giving characters - who are not written as having accents - accents of all kinds. Her voices are inconsistent; she will suddenly give a character a thicker accent or a deeper tone, for example, which leaves you momentarily confused by who is speaking. She is also terribly lazy at reading lines as if the character were actually saying them in the moment; like for example reading a line plainly when both the text itself and context state the character is out of breath or whispering. I really wish there was more effort put into this recording, because so much of it sounds like they just did a single read and couldn't be bothered to re-do or edit anything.

My 4/5 stars is closer to a 3 for the audiobook, but for the sake of the story itself being something I enjoy, I didn't want to rate it too low. I do wish they would re-record ALL of these books with a consistent and accurate narrator (give one narrator a series each, like Finty Williams with The Last Hours! That was so great!), because it would make the listening experience so much better. I listen to audiobooks so I can work or do chores at the same time, otherwise I would skip this one (and City of Glass, due to the same narrator) and read the paper version for the sake of my own sanity. I regularly found myself complaining out loud about this narrator, and ended up listening at a much faster speed than normal so I could be done sooner.

Mixed Feelings

Lame& sucks that they’re siblings & in love & can’t be together! Simon is too sexual in his comments, first AND second book, it’s not even funny, has no positive reason for being in the book! Other than that, love the book, very engaging & I love the characters!

Awesome again

I love this series and can't wait till City of Glass comes out. The story line totally sucks you in and makes you want to know more. i am stil in love with Jace and hope things work out the way i want in the third book... :-)

very good

very good book indeed can't wait to get my hands on the next iteration on here

awesome

amazingly interesting and decently kid friendly can wait to hear the next one.!! loved it!!

Wonderful series

Would you listen to City of Ashes again? Why?

I will listen again because there is so much more to learn when you hear it the second time

What did you like best about this story?

I like how they made the characters so understandable and likeable