In the city-state of Castellane, everyone from the wealthiest of nobles to the most debauched of criminals has one common thread running through their lives: the neverending search for more wealth, more power, the next hedonistic thrill to drive off boredom.
Kel is an orphan, in the Palace for one reason-to be the Sword Catcher, the body double of the royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but his ultimate destiny is to die for Conor; that is the only way his story is to end.
Lin Caster is a physician from a small community whose presence is merely tolerated in Castellane, and whose members still possess magical abilities. But despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to knowledge forbidden from her due to her sex.
After a failed assassination attempt on Connor brings Lin and Kel into each other’s orbits, they are soon drawn into the web of the Ragpicker King, the Castellane criminal underworld’s charismatic and mysterious leader. As they fulfill their obligations to him and the people in their lives they must ask themselves: Is knowledge worth the price of betrayal? And will their discoveries plunge their nation into war—and the world into chaos?
I am somewhat embarrassed to admit I’ve read everything Cassandra Clare has written, and that I did it all after the age of 30. I think I’ve read everything; her writing kind of all bleeds together into some mass of repetitious schlock. There’s some sassy heroine, one or two broody men who have angst and Deep Secrets, some long-suffering friend who gets dragged into the heroine’s world even though it causes them to suffer. There’s a fabulously dressed character who you will prefer to the main character, except when they act like a moron. There’s going to be Judaism having a large amount to do with the plot, only this time it’s Queen Esther (or her Cassie counterpart) instead of the Angel Raziel (seeing as the paternal side of my family is chock a block with Rabbis, I can spot a reference a mile away). There’s going to be misunderstandings, and double crosses, and people raging and throwing things instead of actually having conversations. There’s going to be shadowy organizations, and how you can’t trust the adults because what do they know? You have to be in your early 20’s or younger to actually be able to do anything in a Cassandra Clare book. You may not like any of the main characters at the beginning of the book; hell, you may not like them at the end of the book, nor in any of the pages in between.
And this book is no different, it’s just written for adults instead of for young adults (or is it tweens? I actually have no idea what the age recommendation for the Shadowhunter books is). I also don’t know what exactly makes this book for a more mature audience; the “spiciness”? It’s there in her Shadowhunter series. The themes? Not really, there’s nothing that is that more serious than in her other series. The writing is also on par for her; as much as they may be friends, Cassandra Clare is no Holly Black.
Will I read the sequel? Maybe; as I said, I’ve read every book in the Shadowhunter series, and I wanted to yeet the books or slap the characters sometime during book two. I stuck with them because I had bought the boxsets, and I had seen the television series first, and I was a sucker for Malec. Which don’t get me started on; let me just say, “wow, and I thought the tv series had them being occasionally problematic.” I will say though that Shadowhunters did have some memorable lines; this book, not so much. And that brings me back to this book; as I said, will I read the sequel? Maybe. Will I continue past that (she’s talking minimum of four books)? I’ll take it book by book, based solely on how much of a completionist I want to be.
