Cassandra Clare’s last Mortal Instruments book has yet to be released, yet she has announced her book plans far into the future.
After City of Heavenly Fire is released May 27, Clare will be working on three series simultaneously: The Dark Artifices (the sequel to The Mortal Instruments), The Last Hours (the sequel to prequel series Infernal Devices), and Magisterium (a pentology she is co-authoring with Holly Black, set outside the Shadowhunter World.)
Clare has also announced the order these books will be released in. We have made our best guesses for release dates, knowing that she can do two books of her own a year at best, and most series have at least a year between installments.
– Magisterium 1: The Iron Trial (September 2014)
– TDA 1: Lady Midnight (2015)
– Magisterium 2 (Late 2015)
– TDA 2: Prince of Shadows (2016)
– TLH 1 (late 2016/early 2017) – Clare said she plans to release this and Prince of Shadows “quite close together,” but her publisher said it does not expect this until 2017.
– Magisterium 3 (2017)
– TLH 2 (2018)
– Magisterium 4 (2018)
– TDA 3: The Queen of Air and Darkness (2019)
– Magisterium 5 (2019)
– TLH 3 (2020)
And there is more! Clare revealed last week that the fifth (and allegedly last) Shadowhunter series will be titled The Wicked Powers. The title comes from a children’s poem in the Shadowhunter universe, “And bronze to summon wicked powers.” The poem was released as a snippet from the upcoming City of Heavenly Fire. The series will be set three years after The Dark Artifices, and will be focused on two of the younger Blackthorns (a Shadowhunter family to be introduced in TDA). If the above schedule holds, The Wicked Powers could start getting published in 2020.
Are you excited for The Wicked Powers? Will you be sticking loyally with Clare over the next eight years or so, or are you ready to pack up your stele after City of Heavenly Fire? And will reading the last Mortal Instruments book be more bearable knowing there are so many more Shadowhunter stories on the horizon?