Shadowhunter Chronicles: Short Fiction Collections

About the Shadowhunter Chronicles: Short Fiction Collections series

Alongside the main Shadowhunter novels, Cassandra Clare co-wrote three collections of interconnected short stories that fill in corners of the same world. The Bane Chronicles gathers eleven stories tracing centuries of Magnus Bane's life, from his first meeting with a young Will Herondale to his early days with Alec Lightwood. Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy follows Simon Lewis's uneasy return to Shadowhunter training after The Mortal Instruments, told across ten linked stories. Ghosts of the Shadow Market turns to the past, following the parabatai Jem Carstairs and Tessa Gray as they search the underground Shadow Markets across the decades for a way to help someone Jem cannot save alone.

Each collection is co-written with other YA authors -- Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson appear across all three, joined by Robin Wasserman on Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy and by Robin Wasserman and Kelly Link on Ghosts of the Shadow Market. They're written as companion material for readers already invested in the Shadowhunter Chronicles rather than as an entry point, filling in backstory and side characters that the main novels only gesture at.

How to read this series

These are best read after finishing (or being well into) the main series they draw from. The Bane Chronicles rewards readers who've met Magnus in The Mortal Instruments; Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy directly follows the end of City of Heavenly Fire and is best read right after it; Ghosts of the Shadow Market draws on Jem and Tessa's history from The Infernal Devices, so read that trilogy first. There's no dependency between the three collections themselves -- pick whichever character interests you most.