Audiobook Review:

Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare

Read by: Christian Coulson and Fiona Hardingham

Publication Date: October 10, 2023

Summary from Goodreads:

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?

Confession:

I am not sure I can put into words how much I loved this audiobook! The two narrators, Christian Coulson and Fiona Hardingham were fantastic and really brought all of the characters to life for me. I’m not certain that I would have loved this book as much if I had read it, because the pacing is a bit slow, but I just couldn’t wait to pick up this audiobook everyday.

The story is split between Kel and Lin as the narrators. They live two totally different kinds of lives, within the same city, and don’t even meet until about half way through the book. I really liked both of these characters, they are both strong and are determined to protect the ones they love. They are also both hiding secrets that could destroy not only all they hold dear, but also the very societies that they live in. When they are both drawn into the Ragpickers world, their lives become even more complex, as they work to undermine all of the political intrigue and the possible uprising that is brewing. Both of their characters grew so much in this first book, it will be interesting to see where they go from here.

There are a lot of secondary characters in this story, and some were a bit hard to keep straight. There are three that were very prominent and important to the story that I will give a brief mention to. Prince Conor was your typical spoiled man-child who makes a lot of poor choices that have tremendous consequences. He annoyed me quite a bit, but strangely I also kind of liked him. Mariam, Lin’s best friend, was also very likable. She was sometimes a breath of fresh air in a very dark story. Finally the Ragpicker King was a very interesting character. He works very much behind the scenes to help keep the city functioning. He holds a lot of secrets which may be a good or a really bad thing.

The world building was spectacular, as I expected from Ms. Clare. This is a totally new world with a rich history and society that is revealed slowly over the course of the story. The writing is also lush and descriptive and the dialog crisp and believable. My only complaint would be the pacing, which seemed awfully slow throughout the book. Partly I think because the chapters were extremely long. I might have struggled with this more if I had chosen to read the book, but the audiobook was so well done, that it did seem to fly by quicker.

Both narrators do an outstanding job with bringing the characters to life, and not just Kel and Lin’s characters but every single one. They each were able to give different voices to all of the characters and I could always tell who was speaking just by the voices. I will be on the lookout for other audiobooks by these two. Christian Coulson is fairly new to me, but Fiona Hardingham has always been a solid choice whenever I see her name on an audiobook.

This book has been getting some mixed reviews for various reasons. But if you like audiobooks and you are considering picking this book up, I hope you consider listening to it. You won’t be disappointed.