Sword Catcher is the first book in the Chronicles of Castellane by Cassandra Clare. Kel is a young man who serves Prince Conor of Castellane as his swordcatcher. This means that he is part companion, part bodyguard and body double in order to protect Conor to the best of his ability. Lin is a young Ashkari woman and physician who is trying to learn everything she can about healing in order to try and save her close friend Miriam. The two end up meeting when things in Castellane start getting perilous for everyone as Conor gets involved in marriage negotiations. On top of that the local thief lord, the Ragpicker King, wishes to work with both of them as he has competition that is being funded by the nobility. His competition, Prosper Beck, is trying to get Conor in trouble and interferes with the marriage negotiations. Each of them must work on protecting those they care about while trying to figure out exactly what is going on and who is involved. Ultimately they are each faced with some rather difficult and dangerous decisions.
Having long been a fan of Cassandra Clare I was thrilled to try this series out. It was every bit as good as I was expecting. The plot was great and really drew me in, so much so that I had a hard time putting the book down at times and I seemed to just fly right through it. It built up gradually with just the right pacing and every time something seemed resolved something else was revealed to keep building the overall tension. The detail of the court intrigue was great as well as it seemed to be a pretty accurate depiction of what life might be like in that kind of situation. The setting of Castellane was fairly well fleshed out as well and seemed to have a lot of thought put into it which really helped to draw me into the story. The politics of both the court and the overall city were well depicted. Having one of the characters be part of the racial caste that is confined within their own sector really helped highlight that aspect of the political situation. It added a lot of really interesting layers and nuance to the story, especially as everything unfolded over time. The two main protagonists also added a lot to the story. While the plot was mostly focused on what was happening in Castellane the story itself was almost entirely character driven in many ways. It was fascinating to see how they interacted and affected each other considering their respective positions in the city and in the political atmosphere depicted. I greatly enjoyed reading it and found the world and the characters and the story absolutely enthralling. This book gets 4.5 out of 5 stars from me and I am totally looking forward to the next book in the series.
So this book is a great example of a fantasy novel and if you happen to enjoy fantasy novels with a medieval feel to them then this book might just be for you. However, if that isn’t your preferred genre than it might not be which is also fine. I don’t really think this particular book would hold a lot of appeal for fans of other genres even if it is really good. In terms of age range this book is primarily aimed at adult readers which is a bit of a new thing for Clare as her previous books were for younger readers. That being said I actually agree with that age range for this book as it does contain large amounts of violence and even some racism at times aimed at the Ashkari people as well as some adult references and content though it is not explicit for that last one. I would hesitate to recommend this book to readers younger than about sixteen. As I said before it is a good book though and if it sounds interesting consider trying it out. If you do consider sharing your thoughts in the comments.