Fiction Reviews
Sword Catcher
(2023) Cassandra Clare, Tor, £9.99, pbk, ii + 623pp, ISBN 978-1-529-00140-2
Here’s something you don’t see every day: an established YA ('young adult') author trying their hands at adult fantasy, rather than a writer following the market in the opposite direction.
Cassandra Clare has literally earned the right to do what she likes: the Shadowhunter Chronicles have become a lucrative multi-media phenomenon these days, while the books themselves remain smart Buffy-adjacent page-turners. But it turns out that what she really wanted to do is try her hand at adult fantasy in a more traditional vein. This has given us Sword Catcher, the first in a new series, the Chronicles of Castellane.
The cosmopolitan city-state of Castellane has grown rich from being the terminus of overland and naval trade routes. It’s a well-done homage to Mediterranean merchant cities during the Renaissance. Venice without the lagoon, if you like.
Magic is seen as belonging to an earlier, less civilised era when sorcerer-kings ruled the Earth (which we hear about at the start of every chapter, as is customary with the classier end of trad fantasy) and most would as soon as forget it ever existed.
But all is not well in this great and storied city – with an eccentric king barely paying attention to government, bickering noble houses, envious foreign nations and power struggles in the criminal underworld, the realm is unknowingly drifting into crisis.
While seemingly not the most important pieces on the board, dual protagonists Kel and Lin each have a larger role to play in this cauldron of intrigue than their position suggests. Kel has risen from humble beginnings to be the ‘sword catcher’ of the title – magically assisted stand-in, bodyguard and trusted companion to Prince Conor, the heir to the throne. And Conor needs all the help he can get when a crime-lord buys up all of his many debts and begins to blackmail him.
Meanwhile, Lin is the Ashkar community’s first, and so far only, female doctor. The Ashkar, whose situation and culture is based broadly on the Jewish diaspora of early modern Europe. live in their own walled quarter within Castellane. They are both respected for their wisdom, particularly their unique access to magic talismans in a low-magic world, and heartily disliked for the same reason. Lin finds herself called on by the royal court for her expertise, but chafes at the restrictions of her community and has secrets of her own.
We spend a lot of time with both our heroes and a vivid supporting cast across the city, from the richest to the poorest classes. Sword Catcher is not a linear plot sort of novel – what we get is more of a composite structure in which different elements of the threats to Castellane’s stability come into sharper focus, and in which Kel and Lin grow into their roles in the drama to come.
This is both a strength and weakness. Clare clearly relishes the chance to show off her world-building chops and gives the reader a chance to explore her city in considerable detail. Similarly, she takes a character-driven approach to her ensemble and – no surprise to anyone familiar with her other output – makes it work.
But Sword Catcher is also a rather hefty, 600-page brick of a book that feels like the first instalment of a much longer novel rather than the complete package. It’s gently paced; no, more than that, it is slow. Perhaps as a reaction to her work on Shadowhunters, the story takes itself rather seriously too; the odd zinger in the dialogue aside, it feels like Clare has perhaps dialled herself down too much.
So fans looking for more of the same from her may be disappointed. If you are willing to put the time in though, Sword Catcher is a rewarding experience. It might be just an opening act for a new series, but it’s still a good curtain-raiser and an admirable new line of approach for this skilled storyteller.
Tim Atkinson
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