The Dark Artifices

Cassandra Clare announced that she has another Shadowhunter series in the works that will take place five years after City of Heavenly Fire, the final installment of The Mortal Instruments.

Here are the basics:

Series: A trilogy

Setting: Los Angeles, 2012

Characters: Emma Carstairs, Julian Blackthorn, Mark, Helen, Cristina, Olivia, Tiberius, Arthur + more

Release Date (s): 2015 (Book One: Lady Midnight)

Synopsis (Book One): Los Angeles, 2012. It’s been five years since the events of the Mortal Instruments when Nephilim stood poised on the brink of oblivion and Shadowhunter Emma Carstairs lost her parents. After the blood and violence she witnessed as a child, Emma has dedicated her life to the eradication of demons and being the best, fastest and deadliest Shadowhunter since Jace Lightwood. Raised in the Los Angeles Institute, Emma is paired as a parabatai with her best friend, Julian. As Emma hunts those who caused the death of her parents, the trail they’re following leads back to those they’ve always been taught to trust. At the same time, Emma is falling in love with Julian — her closest friend and, because he is her parabatai, the one person in the world she’s absolutely forbidden by Shadowhunter Law to love. Set against the glittering backdrop of present-day Los Angeles, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches from the warlock-run nightclubs of the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica.

Here’s what we know so far:

Clare shared the following:

The Dark Artifices: Okay, a quick recap. I have a plan for another Shadowhunter trilogy (contemporary, but not about the characters from TMI).

Working title: The Dark Artifices. It takes place five years after the end of TMI (ie in 2012) and deals with the Shadowhunters of the Los Angeles Institute. There is a tangential connection to the characters of TMI but they are not main characters. The main characters are teens (meaning that during the events of TMI they’d be 11, 12 years old.)

The main female protagonist’s name is Emma, the main male protagonist’s name is Julian. They are both Shadowhunters. They both have always known they are Shadowhunters.

There is love, magic, romantic confusion, etc. and so on. I have not sold these books; I haven’t written any of them, I won’t until I’m done with what I’m writing now. So I don’t have a pub date beyond “after CoHF”, and I have other, non-Shadowhunter projects I’m also planning on. But thanks for being so interested, everyone!

* Since it takes place 5 years after the end of CoHF it is reasonable to assume that surviving characters from TMI will make cameos. They will be in their early twenties so you’ll get to see what they’re up to in their more adult lives.

Here is some more as to what the surviving Mortal Instruments characters might be up to:

“If I did Dark Artifices, the surviving main cast of TMI would be 21-24 years old. We would see where they are in life, where their relationships are, how they’re moving into their positions of power in the Clave, etc…”

On progress of the series (Jan. 6):

“I’m pretty busy with TMI and ID but I do work on Dark Artifices a little when it’s really nagging at me. I’ve done enough to have gone around Los Angeles and taken pictures for photo references (resulting in an exciting bit of activity in which Holly Black was nearly washed away by a freakish wave), I know the basic plot, the main characters, the manner in which it explores the fallout of what happens in the Mortal Instruments series, but it’s still at that fun stage where mostly it’s just an idea marinating in my brain, waiting for its time to come.”

Here are the names of the main characters:

“Emma, Julian, Mark, Helen, Carmen, Olivia, Tiberius, Arthur — a few others. It’s a big family.”

Here’s an update from Cassie (Jan. 7):

Just cobbling together things I’ve said about TDA in the past (with the help of FYMI):

Okay, a quick recap. I have a plan for another Shadowhunter trilogy (contemporary, but not about the characters from TMI). Working title: The Dark Artifices. It takes place five years after the end of TMI (ie in 2012) and deals with the Shadowhunters of the Los Angeles Institute. There is a tangential connection to the characters of TMI but they are not main characters. The main characters are teens (meaning that during the events of TMI they’d be 11, 12 years old.) The main female protagonist’s name is Emma, the main male protagonist’s name is Julian. They are both Shadowhunters. They both have always known they are Shadowhunters. There is love, magic, romantic confusion, etc. and so on. I have not sold these books; I haven’t written any of them, I won’t until I’m done with what I’m writing now. So I don’t have a pub date beyond “after CoHF.”

As it’s set 5 years after the end of CoHF it is reasonable to assume that surviving characters from TMI will make cameos. They will be in their early twenties so you’ll get to see what they’re up to in their more adult lives…we would see where they are in life, where their relationships are, how they’re moving into their positions of power in the Clave, etc.

Also, if you are curious about the characters from TDA, look out for characters either in or mentioned in CoLS and CoHF who might be 11, 12, 13 years old. (As five years later, they will be sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen.)

Now, this is all speculation. I do enjoy writing in the world of the Shadowhunters and I think there are infinite stories to tell in it. I also think that there are stories I would like to tell that are not necessarily about Shadowhunters. It is just a matter of what order I write what in.

The Washington Post reported on March 13, 2012, that Cassandra Clare had officially signed on for a three-book deal with Simon & Schuster to pen the spinoff Shadowhunter series The Dark Artifices.

“The series follows Emma Carstairs, the fiercest warrior and most skilled young Shadowhunter since Jace Wayland, and Emma’s sworn partner in arms, Julian Blackthorn,” the statement reads. “Despite Emma’s complicated feelings for Julian, the two must band together to investigate a demonic plot that stretches from the warlock-run nightclubs of the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica.”

Clare said in a statement that she was sure readers would love both her new and her established characters.

“I know readers will come to love Emma, Mark, Cristina and Julian just as they have loved Jace, Clary, Will, Tessa and Jem,” she said. “Readers have often asked what will happen in the Shadowhunter world after the events of the ‘Mortal Instruments’ and this series will give them a chance to find out.”

Cassie spoke to Entertainment Weekly about The Dark Artifices:

“The Dark Artifices takes place in Los Angeles, and it’s really a direct outcome of what happens in the sixth Mortal Instruments book, City of Heavenly Fire, which is pretty much that the Shadowhunters’ whole world has changed forever—the way the Nephilim live and they way that they operate. The next generation of Shadowhunters is going to grow up in a very strange world. I wanted to write about that and those kids. In The Dark Artifices Jace and Clary are going to be intertwined too, but as slightly more distant figures who are very famous in the Shadowhunting world to this new generation of kids. The new generation of kids have this whole new set of problems. And it has many of the elements that I always love: humor and romance. I wanted to take the Shadowhunter world and work a really fundamental change on it, so that when I was writing the new series it would have a different feel to it.”