Nonetheless, it is Lirael in whose hands the fate of the Old Kingdom lies. She must undertake a desperate mission under the growing shadow of an ancient evil - one that opposes the Royal Family, blocks the Sight of the Clayr, and threatens to break the very boundary between Life and Death itself. With only her faithful companion, the Disreputable Dog, to help her, Lirael must find the courage to seek her own hidden destiny."
If this book had been only about Lirael, it might have been good. But after I had managed to read through two-thirds of the book only on the hope it might reveal itself to have some of the magic of it's predecessor, Sabriel, I finally started giving up hope. Where Sabriel succeeds, this book falls short.
Lireal is a charming girl. The first 180 pages made me sympathize with her troubles as being more real than even Sabriel's troubles. Sabriel was a mythical character, Lirael was human and flawed. Then, we are torn from her story and put into Sameth's experiences. Unlike A Canticle for Leibowitz -- which is flawed in its own right -- this story doesn't transition between characters well. Not only is the transition jarring, unexpected, and until the end of the novel completely unexplained, I don't even like Sameth. Not one bit. He's annoying, contradictory and stupid. But by the time we get back to Lirael, I've forgotten what it is I liked about her.
On top of these poor story-telling choices, Nix suffers from J.K.-Rowling-itis. He explains the world and gets so wrapped up in it that nothing remotely has to do with the plot of the tale. And there are few things which irk me more than a book which you could tear out chunks of it and have the same plot. Imagine any narrative where you take long detours which dead end: it shouldn't be tolerated.
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