International bestselling author Cassandra Clare is committed to creating a distinct fantasy world. In her new "Castellane Chronicles" trilogy, she wants to break away from the "fake medieval" European versions common in popular culture, where "everyone is white" and "the only food is stew."
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03-14, 2025The Massachusetts-based author said in an interview with ABC Arts: "I am Ashkenazi Jewish. My ancestors lived in Europe for generations and participated in European culture. It feels very strange to me to exclude people of color and Jewish people, who are an integral part of European history."
In her latest work, she was also drawn to her "guilty pleasure reality show," "Locked Up Abroad," particularly the story of Latif Yahia, who was allegedly forced to act as a body double for Saddam Hussein's son after undergoing plastic surgery to increase their resemblance.
Clare said: "I immediately thought: 'What if this was a fantasy version? What if someone's identity was severely compromised and closely linked to another person?'" Her answer to this question is a series of distinctive stories.
Clare has consistently created diverse characters. Her most popular series, "The Mortal Instruments," includes 17 novels and has sold millions of copies since the first young adult fantasy novel in the series was published in 2007. It has since been adapted into a film starring Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower, as well as a television series. The books prominently feature queer, Jewish, and neurodiverse characters, as well as people of color.
Clare reaches new levels of representation in "The Castellane Chronicles," her first foray into high fantasy and adult fiction. This story of magic, politics, power, and romance is intricately designed, vividly described, yet easy to understand (thanks to Clare's foundation in writing for young adults), and the veteran fantasy author draws on her own cultural history in unprecedented ways. Jewish mythology and folklore are rare in the fantasy genre but are an intrinsic part of the series.
The story is set between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and tells the story of Kel Sallen, the body double for Prince Conor Aurelian of Castellane, a multicultural trading city-state (the title of the first book is "Sword Catcher"). Kel lives to die for the man who has become his brother, if necessary. Both are young, brown-skinned, queer men. This is a fact, not a big deal.
There is also Lyn Kastell, one of the few female doctors and a member of the Ashkar, a diaspora group similar to the Jewish people, whose lost homeland of Aram was destroyed long ago. The Ashkar are hated and envied by the Mabuhim (non-Ashkar) partly because they still have access to small forms of ancestral magic, even though all other magic has been wiped from the world. As a result, they are subject to discriminatory laws and forced to live in walled communities, forbidden from leaving after sunset.
The Ashkar hope for the rebirth of a goddess, prophesied to return in the form of an Ashkari girl and lead them to glory. The series continues with themes of vast conspiracy and the threat of exile, which are reflected in the newly published second book, "The Ragpicker King." However, the story elements that set "The Castellane Chronicles" apart have also become a point of contention.
Some readers found that "Sword Catcher," released three days after the events of October 7, 2023, felt more poignant given the Israel-Gaza conflict, and they saw similarities between the discrimination faced by the Ashkar and the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia in real life in recent years. Others drew analogies between Aram and Israel.
One BookTokker argued: "I don't think this is a book that should be read right now, because of the way the book talks about the Ashkar, and the way it hints at the end of the book that they will rediscover their lost homeland (which is destined to be theirs)... If you support Palestine, I don't think this is a book that is recommendable, it's a book that is worth discussing."
Clare said she did not write Aram to be compared to Israel, and real-world politics did not influence the story. She does not believe that "The Castellane Chronicles" can "directly talk about current events." Nor does she want it to. She explained: "The story draws on my own family experiences, knowledge of Jewish history and Jewish culture... and I don't want to make one-to-one comparisons either."
Clare created a different religion and language for the Ashkar and made Aram "not Israel, because it has been destroyed... there is nothing there, no one lives there, it's basically a pile of sand and slag." She said: "I wanted to retain the idea of a wandering people looking for a home, but I wanted to make it very clear that that home is not specifically Israel."
Clare has dealt with and overcome controversy before. Some readers have accused the author online of plagiarism because she was a fan fiction writer in the early 2000s. Clare brushed this aside in an interview with The Guardian in 2014. Then, in 2016, another fantasy author, Sherrilyn Kenyon, sued Clare, claiming that Clare used elements from her 1998 "Dark-Hunter" series in "The Mortal Instruments." Clare later wrote on her Tumblr that the copyright infringement lawsuit had been dropped and the trademark portion of the complaint had been resolved.
Then there was the incest controversy. At the end of the first book in "The Mortal Instruments" series, the protagonist, Clary Fray, is told that her love interest, Jace Wayland, is her brother. Both struggle with this revelation, but their romantic feelings do not disappear, and there are kisses. It wasn't until two more books that it was revealed that they weren't actually siblings. Some readers were not put off by this storyline, while others were horrified.
When ABC asked her how she deals with controversy in her career, Clare did not respond to the plagiarism allegations. But regarding incest, Clare said that "no one seemed bothered" until the film adaptation came out about six years after the book was published. She said: "Suddenly, there were a lot of people reading it and being very upset about the Jace and Clary thing, especially because the movie didn't really clarify anything for you."
Clare did not anticipate this backlash. She said: "I was kind of like, 'This is like a standard trope in movies and soap operas.' If you can accept the massive amount of sibling stuff in 'Star Wars' (which nine-year-olds are watching), you can accept the fact that Jace and Clary think they're siblings and then find out they're not."
Clare believes she is capable of handling the complex themes her writing touches on, even if some people don't. She said: "It reminds me of this idea that women 'can't be trusted' to tell stories... like, 'she shouldn't write about this, and if she writes about this, it reflects something personal about her.'"
She refuses to accept the argument that "by writing Clary and Jace, I am saying, 'You should go out and marry your brother,' or that by writing the Ashkar, I am in any way trying to comment on the current state of the Middle East... I absolutely did not do that in any way." She said: "I really want to know, if I was a man, would they trust me to handle these topics?"
"The Ragpicker King" is now available. The third book in "The Castellane Chronicles" trilogy, "The Bone Scavenger," is forthcoming.
