Cassandra Clare concludes her 'Mortal Instruments' series with 'City of Heavenly Fire'

Bestselling author Cassandra Clare has concluded her young adult series “The Mortal Instruments” with her latest novel “City of Heavenly Fire,” which hit shelves on May 27. 

“Fire” is the sixth novel in the series, which follows a teenager named Clary Fray who discovers she has the abilities to become a Shadowhunter, or someone who protects normal humans from supernatural creatures.

The book’s release was celebrated with an event at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, where Clare signed books beginning at midnight and participated in a panel with fellow authors Holly Black, Scott Westerfeld, Kelly Link, and Maureen Johnson.

Clare told Publishers Weekly that it was difficult to finish the series.

“It is bittersweet,” she said. “I keep likening the experience to raising a child and sending them off to college. You try to do your best job, and then there comes the moment where you have to say ‘OK, go – you belong to the world now.’ That’s how I feel about a finished series. It leaves your hands, your ability to make changes that would affect the outcome, and belongs to readers afterward. I just hope they like it!”

Clare noted that readers have been especially fearful about the release of the last book because many other young adult series have concluded with tragic events.

“I think there are probably some deaths that will sadden them, but what the book is really about is the cost to good people of winning a war against evil,” she said of her own book.

A film version of the first book in the “Instruments” series, “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones,” was released in 2013 and, in addition to performing poorly at the box office, was not well-received critically. However, a second movie based on the second book, “Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes,” is still planned, according to Variety.

Clare concluded her series “The Infernal Devices,” which was set in the world of “Instruments” but took place in Victorian times, in 2013. The author is set to publish the first book in a new series that takes place in the same world, titled “Lady Midnight,” in 2015. The book will be the first in a series titled “The Dark Artifices,” which Clare says takes place in contemporary times but is set in Los Angeles, unlike the New York setting of “Instruments.”

“We do meet many of the characters who are central to Dark Artifices in ‘City of Heavenly Fire,’ which I hope will pique interest in what will happen to them down the road,” the author said.

Clare is also planning another series set in her “Instruments” universe titled “The Last Hours,” which would take place in Edwardian England.