Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Sabriel

Synopsis: Sabriel grew up away from the Old Kingdom, unaware of most of its dangers or how she even fits into her family heritage. At the advent of her father's disappearance, she is pulled into a journey which puts her in and out of Death. From the writer's site: "Sabriel is the daughter of the Mage Abhorsen. Ever since she was a tiny child, she has lived outside the Wall of the Old Kingdom - far away from the uncontrolled power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father is missing and Sabriel is called upon to cross back into that world to find him. Leaving the safety of the school she has known as home, Sabriel embarks upon a quest fraught with supernatural dangers, with companions she is unsure of - for nothing is as it seems within the boundary of the Old Kingdom. There she confronts an evil that threatens much more than her life, and comes face to face with her hidden destiny."

Review:

My friend Dave will rarely give me book suggestions and every one he has given me has been golden. This is no exception, even if it took me almost a year to read it -- ultimately waiting until Rebecca devoured the book. Sabriel is one of the more enjoyable characters in fantasy literature and Garth Nix's writing style for this novel is fluid and captivating. By page 10 or 11, I was already hooked, barely able to put down the story. Unlike many action packed adventures, this one actually shows contemplative thought for the plot and guides the reader through visions of Death and fantastic magic -- without the trademark "unexplainable" magic that will save-the-day which annoys me so much about fantasty authors (I'm looking in your direction J.K Rowling!).

Nix has created a wonderful character who I genuinely cared for, and feared when she was in danger and rejoiced when she had successes. Granted, this isn't a tale dealing with necromancy that could scare me, so I felt the book was a little lackluster in the authors ability to translate the darkness of the Dead. And while the ending -- no spoilers here -- had the possibility of annoying me, I believe the author gave a valid and pertinent reasoning.

Submitted by wayne on Wed, 01/30/2008 - 12:16.

Add new comment

Reply

Subject:

Comment: *

Input format

Filtered HTML

Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Highlight terms in this textarea.

Full HTML

Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
Every instance of "" in the input text will be replaced with a table of contents.
Syntax: [amazon title|cover|info asin] Example: [amazon cover B0007M123K]
You may link to Gallery2 items on this site using a special syntax.
Every instance of second and third level headings (<h2> and <h3>) will be modified to include an id attribute for anchor linking.
Highlight terms in this textarea.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. (Please login if you don't want to have to answer it).