"We are all what our pasts have made us, the accumulation of thousands of daily choices. We can change ourselves, but never erase what we've been"
― Catarina Loss ―

Hello everyone! Welcome to another chapter of Author Works Face-off where i compare two books (or series) from same author and see which one i like the best. Today i bring you two book companions from Shadowhunter' world by Cassandra Clare. To be clear, i will call The Bane Chronicles as Magnus' side story and Tales from Shadowhunter Academy as Simon's side story since the titles themselves are too long to type it down, so please endure it with me.

I know i should have made an is it worth reading? for Tales from Shadowhunter Academy academy since it's a companion book, but since i read it after bane chronicles, i felt huge urge to compare them both since both of the main characters here are the characters that i love in TMI (The Mortal Instrument, the series that i don't really like in comparison with TID (The Infernal Devices), specially since i'm not a big fan of Jace and Clary. But anyway, i decided to compare this two anyway instead of is it worth reading? for Simon's book

Which should i read first?

I would highly suggest you to read Magnus Bane's side story "The Bane Chronicles" first then Simon's side story "The Tales from Shadowhunter Academy" later. but of course you have to read at least TMI first before jump into these two. 

What's it all about and Comparison

I've made the book review for The Bane Chronicles, so i won't tell much except that it's Magnus Bane's side story (please, just click the picture above if you missed the review and curious). Tales from Shadowhunter Academy also in same format with Bane Chronicles, which is a collections of short stories but in Simon's POV this time.

So let me talk about Simon's a little bit more. The story start AFTER the war in TMI, and yes our simon, a mundande who accidentally get bitten by vampire, turned into vampire, become blessed (or cursed, depends of your POV) as a Daylighter (the only vampire who can walk in daylight) and then back to human, sacrificing his vampirism (if it even count as really sacrificing since he hate being vampire actually) in order to save Magnus and Isabelle. Lost his memory, don't know anything about shadowhunter, not even Clary, his bestfriend. Later with the help of Magnus he got his memories back, but some of it. Decided to become Shadowhunter and learned about it in Shadowhunter Academy (the first after long time closed since the mortal cup was lost) in order to find his memory back and discover himself, after feeling that he just dissappointing Clary and Isabelle for not meeting their expectation at some point since he got this amnesia.

In Comparison

 They both were companion book from a point of view that we never got in main story before, a downwolder warlock, and a mundane. This two books also came in same format, separated in chapters, with each chapters include a comic style illustrations for the highlight of the chapter. 

Plot

Magus' story start from the event long time ago even before our oldest series by timeline : TID series, and ended in the plot at last two of TMI series. So by the timeline it is actually older than Simon's. Magnus' story take us in different timeline of his life in each different chapters, while Simon's story is based in same timeline while he started his live in Shadowhunter Academy, but with tales added in each chapter that basically kind of history of some character that mentioned in whole series that actually need more story of it, i guess that's why Cassandra Clare decided to publish this two books, to dig deeper into that potential characters. Like for example Will Herondale and Tessa Gray's son, James Herondale really catches my attention in first time i encounter in Bane Chronicles, and his life also mentioned again in Simon's story.

But back again, Simon's timeline is not back and forth, it's straight from after TMI into 2 years after that, but with story that he learned either by special guess tutor in the academy about history of shadow world so it's sometimes split POV from Simon's story into the other person POV (the one who tales the tale) but his private story while studying in there also included too. That made few differences, unlike Magnus' one are all based on his POV since all are based on his own life.

Character Development

Simon already had such an adventure for characters through TMI series, but yet again he discover himself from hating himself for not be able to remember what he was, to separate himself from the old self (the Daylighter who saved the world) and his new one, the demon amnesia simon who can't really remember what happened to himself, sometimes the memories come back but the most important one, the one about Isabelle are not, being questioning himself why he dated Isabelle at first time, why she wanted him. Then he turns into a mundane who came to shadowhunter academy that breaks the "elite" class Shadowhunters vs mundane that they once called the dregs. He become the one that defend Downworlders in lots of time by shadohunter's classy paradigm of each downworlder. And of course at the end, become the mundane that successfully graduated from the shadowhunter academy and become the shadowhunter himself.

So yeah, that character development definitely happened a lot. Also i'm gladly to spoiled you, that we know that Magnus and Alec finally have a baby! so go read Simon's story if you want to know how.

Loveline 

I think i've mention it a lot about the loveline here, since Magnus' story actually rotated from that. Also Simon rotated around Isabelle too. But!! i was so curious about one thing that Magnus mentioned in Simon's story.

"But there had never been a lighwood who touched his heart, as some shadowhunters had : Will Herondale or Henry Branwell or Clary Fray"

I mean whatt???? is that Henry Branwell, the husband of Charlotte Branwell?? The head of former London institute in TID era??? how can i missed this story? what happened between this scientist man and Magnus? is that when they collaborate creating the portal? or is that waaaay before that? i definitely need to read more about Magnus trivia. 

My Verdict

I love both of them, but i will pick Simon's to be the winner! I love the tales, and completed with his journey to become the shadowhunter. The love interest was okay, but i love his own self discovery a lot. Also the ending is.. full-ish (i know it's not a word, but well...) for me. Such Simon style! I love Magnus' story, but Simon's are just heartwarming and funny to me. I laughed a lot while reading it. 

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