Bestselling YA author Cassandra Clare spends a large amount of Sword Catcher, the first book in a fantasy trilogy and her first work for adults, building out the city-state of Castellane while Kel and Lin shed their naivete and expand their worldviews. Kel begins to see that Castellane has secrets which even he is not privy to. And Lin, having fought to be the only female physician among the Ashkari, discovers a stone of secret, magical history that could be the key to curing her terminally ill friend. Throughout the story, Kel and Lin’s paths rarely cross; their stories run parallel but for a few chance twists of fate. The city was inspired from a trip Clare took with her husband which “in an odd way” followed parts of the Silk Road and during which Clare read Roger Crowley’s City of Fortune, an examination of Venice’s nautical and merchant power over a 500-year period. “The idea came to me to write a fantasy novel that was set in an imaginary city that sat at the confluence of both the maritime trade routes and the overland trade routes, that derived all of its power basically from trade.” Politics is a tool, power is a tool and magic is a tool. You decide how significant these things are going to be in your world I allowed the book to surprise me, to subvert the expectations I had built. For the first time in many years, I was not sure where a Cassandra Clare book would lead me, so used as I am to her style and patterns. It felt refreshing. It was thrilling. Review: Sword Catcherby Cassandra Clare

The info dump that was done throughout the book paired with long chapters kept making me zone out. Idk what the author was trying to achieve with such useless information at times. From the world building to the color of a wall, everything is being dumped. Trust me this book needs like two more edits. I was skimming in the second half. After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina’s world travels and Britney Spears’ wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again. I think much is being made of the fact that Clare has finally written what is being marketed as an adult book, but as someone who has reluctantly at times followed the Shadowhunter Chronicles since childhood it really deserves to be underlined that it's just the first book to be marketed to an adult audience. Her middle-grade work aside I think Clare has long ceased writing for an actual teenage demographic, and the price of her books has been on the rise long before the YA category as a whole has seen the slow creep out of books that are readily accessible to every teenager. In some ways this being a non-Shadowhunter book feels more important, and honestly, the more telling factor in whether this was enjoyable.I have seen many people worried about the similarities of this book to A Darker Shade of Magic. Whilst the names sometimes felt similar, and certain personality traits cropped up, I didn’t feel there was any copy. When coming to write any piece of work, creating something totally and completely new and unique is impossible. People are going to compare these two series and I think that’s unfair to both authors involved. If you have read A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab, this might not interest you much, and if you also love that book (series), you might even end up dnf-ing this one due to all the similarities you might find. These two storylines intersect much later in the story than I might have expected, but there’s an instant connection between the characters - hostility, animosity, and intrigue. You’ll have to read to find out who feels what, and why. I for one must agree with Martin on every point. Clare’s first high fantasy novel is set a wonderfully built world that’s introduced bit by bit, something fantasy often forgets to do. Moreover, Sword Catcher finds a triumphant balance between plot and character, but more on that later. The plot of this book is linear but unexpected; in the beginning it could feel slow to readers who may be used to a lot of action early on, but I appreciated keeping the stakes low as I learned about the world and the cast of characters in Castellane and beyond.

Cassandra Clare’s writing has a reminiscence to it. As if those who grew up reading the Shadowhunter Chronicles have been given space to explore the adult fantasy genre in the skin that they have been so comfortable in all these years when following her previous series. Whilst the worlds are vastly different, Clare’s strongpoint across all her work is her characterisations. She has the unique ability of making her readers severely attached to her characters. Kel is a fine young man, and a thrilling protagonist; he is witty, smart and multi-faceted. His struggle with identity takes the centre of his characterisation in this book, as we find he struggles to grasp on to who he truly is and who he is supposed to be. You would expect him to develop a sort of hatred towards the Prince he is to die for, but he is instead fiercely protective of him, which I found quite refreshing. His friendship with Conor falls into the remit of brotherhood (not a theme unfamiliar to Clare), and it is truly one of my highlights of the novel. In a Court of corruption, the love between Kel and Conor is a beam of light. Conor is the most morally lenient of the two; he never truly does anything quite immoral, but he often toes the line. At a Sword Catcher event, Clare stated that ‘loving Kel is Conor’s great humanising quality’, which I think encapsulates Conor’s characterisation well, in that his affection for Kel is what tethers him to the reality of what is expected of him as the Crown Prince. Lin Caster is a fierce character, shunned for what she believes in, a blueprint for many female protagonists in fantasy. This does not make her boring or repetitive; although I do feel as if we have only seen a fraction of her personality in this book. I would have loved to have learned more of her and her Ashkari magic, as the tidbits we are privy to in this book are super fascinating. Wanted to stand between him and a forest of bristling fléchettes. Wanted to stare down and demolish any enemy that wished Conor Aurelian harm. Like many high fantasy series, Sword Catcher may feel like it’s set in medieval Europe, but it’s not that easy to pinpoint. On one hand you have the systemic misogyny and the historically realistic segregation of a religious minority, on the other you have the utopian widespread acceptance of sexual freedom, with queerness being normalized without question even in the royal family. Diversity may seem welcome but Clare did not set out to create a perfect fairy tale world; she built one that is different from ours and yet similar at the core. Like us, Castellani hate what they don’t understand. Sword Catcherrepresents a new horizon for Cassandra Clare

Our other pov character is Lin, shunned in the city and kept behind walls for being an Ashkar and looked down upon in her society for wanting to become a physician as a girl. Overall, I am intrigued to see where Cassandra Clare will take us on this new journey. I think it was time we left the Shadowhunter world (I write as my heart breaks), as Clare needs to expand herself as an author and explore other stories and worlds. To sum up, Clare successfully transitions to adult fantasy, but her need to separate herself from YA caused her to overdo some things and as a result, the story suffered. I’m sure I will continue the series, but this first installment isn’t as strong as I had hoped it would be. I considered doing that too, (esp. because the writing wasn't much fun) but after 27% or so into the book, things changed, became interesting and stopped irritating me. Together, they’ll discover an extraordinary conspiracy. But can forbidden love bring down a kingdom? And will their discoveries plunge their nation into war and the world into chaos?

Then there is a character named Lin who is given a strange, magical stone by someone in a manner of passing just as Kell was given one, being known for his travels between the worlds. I can’t say the pacing of this book was off because there wasn’t much to pace. There wasn’t much going on to really move the plot forward. Halfway through the book, I started feeling like I wanted things to wrap up so I could finish reading, which isn’t a fun way to feel while reading a book, especially one I was so excited about! Now, as someone who has finished the whole book, I'd say give it a go if the similarities aren't too bothersome for you. As for my thoughts, I guess, review to come. Or, perhaps more accurately, the theft of a boy’s life and future. Young orphan Kellian could never have expected a grand life in the vibrant port city of Castellane if fate had not intervened, but fate did. At the tender age of 8, he is removed from his orphanage and offered a unique position: to become Sword Catcher to Conor Aurelian, Prince of Castellane and heir to its throne. Kel will be raised in luxury in the palace alongside Conor, trained and educated as befits a royal, and given every advantage in life–with one notable exception: His life will never be his own again. Bespelled to resemble Conor, Kel essentially becomes Conor for any occasions where the prince might be in danger, or at which he would rather not put in an appearance. He is Conor’s double, his shadow self, tied forever to a person he both loves and resents–and from whom he might never be free. Cassie's strength is usually her characters. In the Shadowhunter books, she almost always made me care about all the characters and it was less the situation here. Kel and Conor are good characters. Lin is even better, and it was nice to see a female doctor in a fantasy setting which was refreshing. However, the rest of the characters were not as exciting.Cordelia Carstairs has lost everything that matters to her. In only a few short weeks, she has seen her father murdered, her plans to become parabatai with her best friend, Lucie, destroyed, and her marriage to James Herondale crumble before her eyes. Even worse, she is now bound to an ancient demon, Lilith, stripping her of her power as a Shadowhunter. Sword Catcher was by far one of my most anticipated reads of 2023, so it is much to my disappointment that I did not love this. It was hard to rate, too, but I ended up giving it a 2.5 stars. Cassandra Clare stated that Chain of Thorns is the first book to really be affected by the pandemic, since she was already in the editing stage of Chain of Iron when the pandemic hit. She wasn't able to do the on-location research she usually does due to travel restrictions and she wasn't able to have her assistant or companion writers around like she's used to. On top of all that, she had to help take care of some elderly relatives who couldn't safely leave the house. And like so many, the pandemic has taken its toll on Clare, as it has on so many of us. Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called “The Beautiful Cassandra” based on a Jane Austen short story of the same name (and which later inspired her current pen name).