Yahoo Lifestyle Cassandra Clare shares the cover and first details of “The Ragpicker King”
The book is the sequel to Clare's first adult fantasy, "Sword Catcher."
It's time for the Ragpicker King to step out of the shadows.
Entertainment Weekly can exclusively debut the cover for The Ragpicker King: The Castellane Chronicles, Cassandra Clare's follow-up to 2023's Sword Catcher, her adult fantasy debut. Author of the bestselling Shadowhunter Chronicles, Clare is one of the biggest names in fantasy of the 21st century — and as her audience has grown up, so too has she, welcoming readers into the dangerous, glittering world of The Castellane Chronicles.
The Ragpicker King, which hits shelves March 4, 2025, picks up where Sword Catcher left off, plunging readers back into the lives of Kel Saren, body double to Conor, the crown prince of Castellane, and Lin Caster, a girl from the slums of the city who's claims to possess magic abilities have her dancing with danger.
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Kel is intent on catching the culprits responsible for a massacre at the royal palace, but the Ragpicker King, the notorious criminal who rules over Castellane's underworld, is the only one who holds any clues. Kel follows a trail back to the glittering Hill, only to discover a dark conspiracy to destroy the royal family — one that is being led by Artal Gremont, the monstrous man engaged to the woman Kel loves.
Meanwhile, Lin Caster must face the aftermath of claiming to be the Goddess Reborn, a legendary heroine destined to save her people. But now the leader of the Ashkar people wants to put her powers to the test, and if she fails, the price is exile. Lin must forge an alliance with the Ragpicker King to maintain access to the magic that could save her. But to make things even more complicated, Prince Conor reappears in her life, demanding she use her powers to cure the madness of his father, the King. But Lin soon realizes that the King is gripped by an ancient, terrible magic that both attracts and repels her.
Both Clare and the cover offer some clues as to where the action is heading. Check out the cover below and read on for more from Clare.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The Ragpicker King was already part of the events of Sword Catcher, but why did it make sense to put him front and center and grant him the title here?
CASSANDRA CLARE: Lin and Kel are still the protagonists of the story, but the Ragpicker King is the mysterious center around which the action of this book turns. He is someone whose allegiance is never certain. Is he telling you truth, is he lying? Is he helping for his own reasons or because he actually wants to help? Does he care about Castellane, which is under threat, or does he only care about his own interests? We know so little about him — but here we will see more of Andreyen’s human side, and learn how decisions he made in his past affect everyone now.
Does that title automatically imply we'll learn more about the king, or that he'll play an even more central role?
As the master of Castellane’s criminal underworld, the fate of many people including our heroes — Kel and Lin — depend on how and whether the Ragpicker King asserts his power. But he is by no means invincible, and the fragile balance he maintains is under serious threat. Also, we only know him as “The Ragpicker King” — a title that is passed down from criminal to criminal — but that’s not his real name or his past. In this book, we find out his real name and where he comes from and how he ended up the lord of criminals.
Lin is pretending to be the Goddess Reborn, but is there any chance that her pretending could become more real than she anticipates?
In the eternal words of Ghostbuster Winston Zedmore, “When someone asks you if you’re a god, you say YES!” The interesting thing about writing a religion in a fantasy world is that we don’t know how much literal truth there is in the stories of the Ashkar. Lin’s grandfather, Mayesh, specifically says he doesn’t believe in the Goddess. Lin isn’t so sure. Her best friend Maryam is a true believer.
Now that Lin is specifically messing around with the idea that Goddess is real and embodied in our world, she has to face things like tests — administered by the Exilarch, the mysterious leader of the Ashkar people, who is angered by and fascinated by Lin — designed to find out if she’s really the Goddess or not. She tries to prepare for them, but in the end, can you prepare for something like that? How can you prove you’re really a prophesied hero? Or does standing up and saying you are make you that hero?
Tell us more about the cover. It's blue whereas Sword Catcher was red. Does that hold particular significance?
The colors that the Ashkar, who are a religious minority, are allowed to wear by law are blue and gray. So the blue and silver of the cover echoes the blue and gray of the Ashkar, where the colors of Sword Catcher were the official colors of Castellane: red and gold.
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Sword Catcher's cover showed us the two halves of Castellane. What are the top and bottom represented here?
On the cover of Sword Catcher, the Black Mansion, the Ragpicker King’s home and center of power, was the reverse/bottom image. Now it’s on top, and there’s a carriage out front, which I think means Kel is visiting him! On the bottom is the place known as “drowned Tyndaris” — a city off the coast of Castellane that was covered by a tidal wave hundreds of years ago. Now at low tide you can still see the ruins above the water. We do visit Tyndaris in this book and it’s really fun.
Lin, Conor, and Kel are all in danger, but is there one of the three whose future we should be most fearful for?
Heavy is the head that wears the crown, as they say! Part of what the Castellane Chronicles are about is power: how much people want it, how they can gain it, what they will do to get, how they will misuse it when they have it. Conor, as Crown Prince, is both hemmed in by duty and the exigencies of power, has been forced by the illness of his father to take more responsibility for his kingdom. This places him in the direct line of danger from scheming nobles and foreign kingdoms. Lin and Kel are both sucked into this overall threat, and they are both in danger on their own, but part of what’s going on with these books is that there isn’t one personified threat like Voldemort or Sauron. The danger is human corruption and the lust for power.
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