A few days back, Cassandra Clare had revealed the mysterious THL is short for
The Last Hours. The title is inspired by
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since — on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hours of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil.
The Last Hours talk about the next generation after Will and Tessa (i.e. their children)
The Last Hours is a new Shadowhunters series set in 1903. It deals with Will and Tessa’s children, James and Lucie Herondale, as well as Cordelia Carstairs, Charlotte and Henry’s children, Tatiana Blackthorn’s children, the Lightwood kids, and many more. 1903 is right around the time the Victorian era tips over into the Edwardian era — beautiful clothes, fabulous history and so much more that I’m excited to write about!
There will be 3 books in this series:
Chain of Thorns, Chain of Gold, and
Chain of Iron. These titles are also inspired by
Great Expectations:
Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.
Just like
The Infernal Devices is interconnected with
The Mortal Instruments,
The Last Hours will be interconnected with
The Dark Artifices:
The books will interconnect with The Dark Artifices trilogy as two separate trilogies that are also the stories of the Blackthorns, Herondales and Carstairs, much like TMI and The Infernal Devices interconnected despite taking place in different time periods and locations. The exact order of publication isn’t decided yet. Lady Midnight, the first of the Dark Artifices, will certainly be the next Shadowhunter book coming out, and I’ll keep you up to date on the publication order when it’s nailed down.
Here are some characters from
The Last Hours illustrated by Cassandra Jean:
Find out more information about these characters
here.
So that's a whole lot of upcoming Shadowhunter novels.... If you're slightly confused, check out the timeline bellow:
The Runaway Queen 1791
What Really Happened in Peru 1791
Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale 1857
Clockwork Angel 1878
Clockwork Prince 1878
Clockwork Princess 1878
The Midnight Heir — 1903
The Last Hours — 1903-1904 (We know the titles are Chain of Thorns, Chain of Gold, and Chain of Iron, but not which is book 1, 2 or 3 ;)
The Rise of the Hotel Dumort 1929
Saving Raphael Santiago 1953
The Fall of the Hotel Dumort 1977
The Last Stand of the New York Institute 1989
City of Bones August 2007
City of Heavenly Fire December 2007-on into 2008
The Dark Artifices: 2012