Sword Catcher

Product Information

all things similar between ADSOM and SC that i couldn't stop thinking about, and that annoyed me [ spoilers for both the books ]❗️

Character wise, I really liked Lin. I wanted to like Kel more, but he ended up being a bit bland. And maybe that’s due to the nature of his position at court where he’s meant to mirror Conor, but I was expecting an overly charming, charismatic person. He was capable and smart, but not particularly special. I look forward to seeing how he grows in the next book and if he will start to become more of his own person. Conor was fine. He was there to do just enough stupid things to cause some problems. But overall, the characters were fine, but they weren’t particularly compelling. There is a tiny bit of romance in this book, and I do mean tiny. Even with that, I didn’t really feel the connection between the characters, so if you’re reading this book for romance, you need to look elsewhere. The book even states “Forbidden Romance” as something you’ll find in this book, and I think that’s a stretch. DISCOVER THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES FROM THE GLOBAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SHADOWHUNTER CHRONICLES! The characters in Sword Catcher are vibrant. Their relationships are well-crafted to a degree rarely seen in YA/NA books nowadays. The book is narrated through the points of view of two characters: the eponymous sword catcher Kel Saren and Lin Caster, an Ashkari physician. The other main characters, including Prince Conor Aurelian, are seen through Kel and Lin’s eyes, so we get their biased perspectives. It’s clear to see there is more than meets the eyes to most of them, but only time will reveal their true colors.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! So.. That didn't work in my favour at all. This was my first book by Cassandra Clare and it was a HUGEEE disappointment. The characters were all one dimensional. I could not understand them at all. Their motives were pretty clear in the beginning but it soon tried to develop into something more and eventually got all messed up. As a scholar once said, the only difference between a poison and a remedy is the dose. The deadliest poison is not fatal in a single grain, and milk or water can be lethal if you consume too much of it.”

I was so excited when Cassie announced a new series that she is working on that is actually not in the Shadowverse and is adult fantasy. My pre-reading review said that I am so ready to read 20 novels in this world. The book came out and then there were accusations that she ripped of Schwab this time -who is also one of my favorite authors- and after getting my hardcover copy, I was having second thoughts, and my excitement was waning.

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 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. I can definitely see influences from Martin’s own A Song of Ice and Fire series (whose editor Anne Groell also worked on Sword Catcher) in the politics of Castellane. You see it in the scheming of nobles and the indifference of the common folk. In the underworld of Castellane I found hints of Ketterdam from Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, and even a glimpse of Rifthold from the early Throne of Glass books by Sarah J. Maas. Yet Sword Catcher feels wholly original, and while I could recognize the things I love about Clare’s writing in it, it’s completely new. For the first time in years with her novels, I truly wasn’t sure where the book would take me or how it would end. I long for its sequel, and I hope Clare continues on this road.

Kel is taken from the orphanage to be brought up alongside Prince Conner, there to stand in, in case there is danger or risk - a Sword Catcher, so to say.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.