Cassandra Clare - Sword Catcher (The Chronicles of Castellane #1)

 

Cassandra Clare - Sword Catcher (The Chronicles of Castellane #1)

3⭐

Pages: 604

Format: Hardback

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Fiction

Publisher:  Tor Books 

Date Published: 10th October 2023

 

Book Blurb: 

In the vibrant city-state of Castellane, the richest of nobles and the most debauched of criminals have one thing in common: the constant search for wealth, power, and the next hedonistic thrill.

Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher—the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince, trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but Kel knows that his destiny is to die for Conor. No other future is possible.

Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls within the city, but Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge.

After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane’s underworld. He offers them each what they want most; but as they descend into his world of intrigue and shadow, they discover a conspiracy of corruption that reaches from the darkest gutters of Castellane to the highest tower of its palaces.

As long-kept secrets begin to unravel, they must ask themselves: Is knowledge worth the price of betrayal? Can forbidden love bring down a kingdom? And will their discoveries plunge their nation into war—and the world into chaos?

My Review: 

So Cassandra Clare wrote a book that is not a part of the Shadowhunters universe and the book is also for adults and not YA? I was really excited about this book as I love Shadowhunters universe and those books basically defined my teen years. However, I was quite disappointed by this book, mainly because it just felt so long (600+ pages), it dragged and there was so much information, that by the end I didn’t care. Also, there wasn’t much action happening, and even those little bits of action were for more information dumping. Honestly, more than half of the characters were mentioned once and then never seen again.

The story is set in Castellane, a city that is always in search of wealth and power and where nobles are rich and crime is heaving…We meet Kel who is an orphan but is taken by the royal family to become a Sword Catcher for their son Prince Conor. Over the years they become best friends and brothers, yet Kel knows that his only future is to serve and die for Conor. We also meet Lin, a young Ashkar girl who lives in a community of oppressed people and who still possesses some leftover magic healing powers. She is a healer who wants to help her friend to survive, and who by accident, together with Kel gets immersed in the criminal Castellane’s underworld, whilst also learning that Castellane is not as politically stable as it once was and now is filled with corruption and betrayal.

Characters: well apart from the three main characters, everyone else felt very one-dimensional. The only character that I really cared about was Lin, as her story was somewhat interesting. I didn’t really like Kel, yet was intrigued by Conor and wished there were chapters from his POV.

Romance: I expected some more romance but there was barely any romance in this, just felt like I was reading about the politics of the land and people trying to outsmart each other. Honestly, felt like I was reading the Wish.com version of The Folk of the Air trilogy.

Plotline: Nothing happens throughout the book. Yes, we get a lot of information on different characters and we see the whole worldbuilding, yet nothing big happens. Not even a cliffhanger at the end. Just felt really underwhelming, especially when you invest time to read a book that is over 600+ pages.

Positives: Cassandra Clare definitely knows how to write and writes very well, and that’s really the only reason I persevered with this book. Secondly, it is the first book in the series so I kind of understand the too much information and nothing much happening, but it could’ve been done in less than 600 pages surely. Lin’s storyline is very intriguing and interesting, and I enjoyed her as a character. I felt the emotional connection to her character, yet none of the others sadly.

Overall: The book series has a lot of potential, so I hope that the next book is filled with action and less information. However, Sword Catcher for me was a bit underwhelming, as it lacked action, something that I expect from an adult fantasy book, especially from an author like Cassandra Clare. 

About the Author:

Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Tehran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old.

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).

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.

Cassie’s first professional writing sale was a short story called “The Girl’s Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord” in a Baen anthology of humor fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.

City of Bones was her first novel. Sword Catcher is her most recent novel.

http://www.cassandraclare.com/