The Bane Chronicles, from Cassandra Clare

An irresistible protagonist
This collection centers around Magnus Bane, a beloved character from Cassandra Clare’s bestselling The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series. Bane is a 300-plus-year-old warlock who’s had a lot of riveting adventures. He falls in love easily, but he knows his immortality will inevitably destroy his relationships. He relishes a good time, but never at the expense of others. He romances men, women, vampires, and Shadowhunters with a balance of lust and chivalry. And his extreme minority status (half-demon, half-Indonesian, Downworlder, immortal, pansexual) makes him a champion of any other oppressed person (or nonperson).

A historical tour
Some stories in The Bane Chronicles are inspired by offhanded references in the novels, like the mention of Magnus being banned from Peru (“What Really Happened in Peru”). Others give a more serious perspective on events that set the novels’ stories in motion (“The Last Stand of the New York Institute”). In other entries, Magnus foils guano pirates in South America, attempts to save Marie Antoinette in a hot air balloon as a favor for a handsome Swede, runs a speakeasy in the 1920s, and witnesses the death of many friends during the AIDS crisis.
On trend
Bane keeps his fashion sense intact in all ages and places. He’s a bit warm in Paris, 1791, wearing a “striped blue-and-rose-colored coat, made of taffeta and satin, and the silk faille waistcoat, embroidered with a scene of birds and cherubs. The wing collar, and the wig, and the silk breeches, the wonderful new gloves in the most delicate lemon yellow.” And he spiffs up the standard private investigator uniform in 1953 by ditching the trench coat and adding green velvet cuffs, a curly-brimmed bowler hat, and emerald green suspenders to a gray suit.
Tumblr-ready quotations
This collection is full of gems. To choose but one example, here’s Magnus on his guiding principles: “I have very few rules in life, but one of them is to never decline an adventure. The others are: to avoid becoming romantically entangled with sea creatures; to always ask for what you want, because the worst thing that can happen is embarrassment but the best thing that can happen is nudity; to demand ready money up front; and to never play cards with Catarina Loss.”

Something for everyone
Even those who’ve never read Clare before can enjoy these romps out of context: there’s very little mythology or world-building standing between readers and great storytelling. Fans of Clare (or her coauthors, Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson) may have encountered these tales last year, when they were published as ebooks. But they’ll need to pick up the bound version, which contains a wealth of new material: comic-style illustrations by Cassandra Jean at each story’s beginning, and a bonus story consisting of a collection of voicemails Magnus received after his breakup with Alec (before City of Heavenly Fire).
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