Clara’s Verdict
I came to Chain of Gold with genuine trepidation. Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter universe is one of the most extensively built fictional worlds in contemporary young adult fantasy, now spanning well over a dozen novels across multiple sub-series with an enormous and vocal readership that has extremely developed opinions about every aspect of the mythology. The question of whether a new trilogy set in Edwardian London can carry narrative weight for readers at both ends of the familiarity spectrum, those who have read every prior Shadowhunter book and those who have never encountered the world at all, is not straightforward. Chain of Gold manages it better than it should.
The Last Hours trilogy is set approximately thirty years after The Infernal Devices, which means the children of Will and Tessa Herondale, James and Lucie, are the protagonists here. If those names mean nothing to you, that is informative: you will get more from this book if you have some Shadowhunter background, ideally The Infernal Devices trilogy. That said, Clare provides enough context that the novel functions for new readers. The Edwardian London setting, with its electric lights, its artistic movements, its careful society manners, and its very specific social anxieties about women and class, gives the world a distinct texture that differentiates it meaningfully from the contemporary New York of the Mortal Instruments.
About the Audiobook
The audiobook runs to 21 hours and 20 minutes, published by W. F. Howes Ltd in March 2020 and narrated by Finty Williams. The 4.7-star average from 12 Audible ratings suggests a satisfied if modestly sized listener base; the print edition has a substantially larger readership and more extensive community discussion.
The plot introduces Cordelia Carstairs, a young Shadowhunter whose father has been accused of a terrible crime, forcing her and her brother to travel to London in an attempt to salvage the family’s honour. James Herondale, the hero of the piece, is in love with the mysterious Grace Blackthorn. Then Shadowhunters begin falling to a plague that cannot be stopped by conventional means, and the comfortable social world these young people inhabit is turned upside down. The combination of social comedy, drawing-room romance, and genuine existential threat is very Edwardian in its structure, and Clare handles the juxtaposition with more assurance than the premise might suggest.
The Narration
Finty Williams is an excellent casting decision for material that requires genuine period register. Edwardian London demands a vocal sensibility that can hold the formal proprieties of drawing-room scenes and the urgency of demon-hunting action within a single coherent performance, and Williams manages that transition convincingly without jarring. Her characterisation of Cordelia is particularly strong: she conveys the gap between Cordelia’s public composure, the dutiful daughter performing social acceptability, and her private determination to be a hero rather than a wife, and she does so without ever making either register feel like performance. Will Herondale, who appears as a secondary character here and whose presence is clearly a deliberate gift to long-term series readers, gets a charismatic, instantly recognisable voice from Williams that makes his limited page time feel substantial.
What Readers Say
A Brilliant Start to a Stunning New Series (5 stars, RyanReviews): « Chain of Gold is a dazzling introduction to The Last Hours series. The characters are vibrant and complex, with their struggles and relationships instantly drawing you in. »
Brilliant start to a new trilogy (4 stars, Zeanna H): « Cassandra Clare doesn’t miss. It felt like reuniting with an old friend, a friend that likes to hurt me before healing. The Herondales were Herondaling very much in this. »
A good book (5 stars, Miss R. A. Connor): « This is the first in the sequel series to the Infernal Devices. If you haven’t read them, I would advise doing so as you’ll find out the reason Matthew is as he is. »
Who Should Listen?
Readers who have some familiarity with the Shadowhunter world, ideally The Infernal Devices trilogy, will get the most from this book. The full weight of the Herondale legacy and the significance of various family connections require prior context that Clare gestures towards but does not fully spell out. New readers can begin here, but they will be missing layers of meaning that are apparent to established series readers. The novel sits firmly in the young adult fantasy tradition while addressing themes, family honour and its cost, romantic longing and its misdirection, the weight of power on the person who holds it, that are serious enough to hold adult readers who enjoy the genre. One important note from the long-standing community: reading The Shadowhunter Academy short stories and The Red Scrolls of Magic before this volume provides useful context for Matthew Fairchild’s backstory, which this book references without fully explaining.
One aspect of the novel worth noting for listeners unfamiliar with Clare’s method: she manages a large ensemble with skill, giving each character in the group of young Shadowhunters at the novel’s centre a distinct voice and a personal stake in the plot. Cordelia’s friend Thomas, Matthew Fairchild, Christopher, and Anna Lightwood each have their own arcs running alongside the central mystery. This ensemble structure is part of what makes the series feel more novelistically substantial than lighter entries in the young adult fantasy category, and it is also what rewards the investment of series reading: each character’s backstory deepens across the three books in ways that would not be apparent from reading only this first entry.
