Cassandra Clare and Random House to publish adult fantasy series ‘Sword Catcher’

For more than a decade, the Shadowhunters and Downworlders have been a very big part of Cassandra Clare’s and our lives and now her beloved characters from The Shadowhunter Chronicles are getting some “mundie” company (in addition to the characters from Cassie and Holly Black’s Magisterium series, of course). Cassie just announced that she and Random House are going to publish an adult high fantasy series called Sword Catcher.
Here is the official announcement from her tumblr:

I’m very excited to announce that I have a brand new high fantasy series in the works.

Sword Catcher will be the first book in my new series written for adults, my first ever high fantasy project. Many of my readers have been with me for years, and have grown along with my characters. And over those years, readers of all ages have come to me both to say that they would like to read books about older characters, and also to say that they’d love to see me build my own new world from the ground up.

So I’m happy to say these books are coming from Del Rey books! I am very excited to be working with Anne Groell, who has edited Naomi Novik and George R. R. Martin among others, and has a sure hand with fantasy worlds. I’m thrilled to be published by Random House, who are excited as I am to bring you the tale of a young man raised to be the body double for an unworthy prince, a young woman destined to change the world, and a host of other characters I cannot wait for you to meet.

These characters — criminals, princes, magicians, and warriors — have been in my head for a while, and I am eager to let them out. I can’t tell you the publication date yet, since the book is a work in progress. But I can’t wait to share more information with you when I have it.

When we interviewed Cassie back in October we also asked about Sword Catcher:

You once mentioned that you’re writing a high fantasy series or novel or trilogy, can you tell us anything about it? Maybe a title, when is it going to be released, which year? Anything that you can share?

My new fantasy series is called Sword Catcher. It is going to be published in 2021…

Wow!

Yeah, so don’t worry that it is going to interfere with The Last Hours or the Magnus books, it’s not going to. It comes out after all of them! That was a deal I made with my publisher because I wanted to sell the project, but I didn’t want to interfere with the books that I already had under contract. It may come before The Wicked Powers, but not before anything else.
It’s something that I’ve been working on for a really long time, building this story that takes place in another world. It basically centers on a boy named Kellian, who is kidnapped from his family when he is about five years old. He’s brought to the castle in his city, where the king and queen of his country live. And they have a son and Kel looks a lot like him. They are like, ‘You are going to be the Sword Catcher’, which is a traditional thing, meaning you stand in for the prince at public events so if someone tries to kill him, the prince is safe and the Sword Catcher dies instead.

Poor boy!

I know! It’s a very bad life. (Cassie laughs.)
So that’s the beginning of the story and it becomes a larger story, but the initial part is a story about identity and who are you if you really are just standing in for someone else and you’re supposed to take the slings and arrows that come for him. And it doesn’t help at all that as he [Kellian] grows up with the Crown Prince, he discovers that the prince is a terrible person. He has to deal with being in this terrible position—‘My job is to sacrifice my life for this person I don’t like or respect.’ So that’s the beginning of the story. (Smiles and seems very excited.)

Is it for teenagers or young adults?

It’s adult. I think it’s totally fair for young adults to read it. There’s nothing in it you can’t read and I think it’s adult mainly because it covers Kellian’s life up until he is twenty-three, twenty-four and that’s when the story really starts.

Okay. Is he crush-worthy?

I think he’s pretty crush-worthy.

Good!

He’s hot.

*UPDATE*
The Bookseller also shared the news (parts of this announcement are mainly for readers in the UK):

Pan Macmillan has acquired two books from fantasy author Cassandra Clare in a seven-figure deal. The books will be the first adult titles from Clare, who up until now has written young adult (YA) fiction.

Publisher Jeremy Trevathan and editorial director Bella Pagan bought UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada in a deal brokered with Danny Baror of Baror International.

Part of a new Sword Catcher series of books, which Clare said had been “a long time coming”, both will be works of adult fantasy fiction and promise “a dramatic epic of power, intrigue and magic”.

“Here, a boy is born to rule a divided city. A girl is destined to return lost magic to the world. And a prince will betray his people to win a crown. They’ll discover the dark side of themselves and those they love, as their kingdom faces war, plague and the end of hope. But the blackest night comes before the dawn,” reads the publisher’s marketing material for the new series.

Clare commented: “This series is something that has been a long time coming for me. For so many years I’ve been dreaming of these characters and their adventures. To finally get to share these characters and this world with my readers in my first adult fantasy series is a joy, and in Pan Macmillan I’ve found the perfect UK partner to bring this dream to fruition.”

Trevathan said Clare was a perfect fit for Pan Macmillan’s fantasy list that had been looking for “the ideal major brand author”. “The story is everything you’d expect from an author who breathes excitement and magic into everything she writes,” he enthused.

Pagan said likewise: “Cassandra Clare has that rare talent which draws you, heart and soul, into her stories. I just can’t wait to work with her on these books – and bring this new world to an even bigger audience.”

Clare, who is now based in the US, worked for several years as an entertainment journalist for the Hollywood Reporter, before turning her attention to fiction. Her bestselling YA novels include the Mortal Instruments series, the Infernal Devices trilogy and the Dark Artifices series which she is currently writing for Simon & Schuster UK. She has also co-written books with other authors, including Sarah Rees Brennan and Holly Black.

Pan Macmillan plans to publish the first in the new series, Sword Catcher, in spring 2021, following the author’s current commitments.

We are very excited for Cassie and for this new series.  😀 Cassie appeared to be so enthusiastic when she talked about Sword Catcher and we hope she is going to be able to share more information with her fans soon. We cannot wait to dive into this whole new world to meet Kellian and all the other characters in a couple of years! Our hearts always have space for more characters created by Cassie ❤

What do you think of this announcement? Are you going to read Sword Catcher? Sound off in the comments below!

Please give TMI Source credit and link back to this article if you use Cassie’s quotes from our interview – thank you.