"Touchstone had never seen or heard a shipwreck--now he knew the sound of a thousand sailors drowning, all at once, in a quiet sea."
-Sabriel, Garth Nix
If you're hungry and looking for a new book series to devour, look no further than the Abhorsen Trilogy (also known as The Old Kingdom Trilogy) by Garth Nix, consisting of the books Sabriel (1995), Lirael (2001), and Abhorsen (2003). There's also a collection called Across the Wall, which consists of thirteen short stories that take place in the same universe as the three main novels (but which I, admittedly, haven't read).
I'm not sure why this series isn't more popular in the U.S. than it is. It has everything I like in a good fantasy series: Kick-ass female protagonists (well done, despite the author being a man), unflinchingly nasty gore, a killer story-line, a fantastically original setting, and an initial concept that would knock your socks off. As if that's not enough, the audiobook is narrated by Tim Curry.
Twist my arm, Mr. Nix.
For the most part, the trilogy is set in a place called The Old Kingdom, where magic lives strong and human machinery dies a miserable, useless death. On the other side of The Old Kingdom, south of the wall, is Ancelstierre, a country reminiscent of a 1940s-ish England, where the heroine of the first novel in the trilogy, Sabriel, has been attending boarding school for most of her childhood. She's not a normal child, though--she was raised by the Abhorsen, a man charged with the thankless, crucial task of making sure the dead stay dead. The Abhorsen uses a set of seven bells (each with their own particular power and purpose) to control the dead that he encounters along his journey, battling evil necromancers along the way. The first book begins with Sabriel venturing back into The Old Kingdom on a quest to rescue her father from the clutches of this evil. The second book focuses instead on a young woman named Lirael, who has been raised amongst the psychic Clayr despite an apparent lack of psychic tendencies. The third book picks up Lirael's story again with occasional appearances by Sabriel.
This series is rated as young-adult fantasy (classified as "Seventh Grade and up" and published by Harper Teen) but I can honestly say that it holds its appeal no matter how old you are. I think the main reason why this series is directed towards young adults is that the main characters are all going through that "Oh, crap, I'm done with school and now i have to have an actual life? " thing that many young readers can relate to. Sabriel's encounter with Touchstone midway through the first book is her first real brush with the possibility of sex, and most of the adult fantasy I've read features a lot more than the possibility. Other than that, though, I rate this series as being perfectly acceptable fantasy to all age groups above, let's say, thirteen. They're quick reads, despite being quite lengthy (my Lirael paperback is 705 pages!) but it never feels like Nix is toning down his diction to be appropriate to a younger audience and the gore is certainly uncensored.
Twist my arm, Mr. Nix.
For the most part, the trilogy is set in a place called The Old Kingdom, where magic lives strong and human machinery dies a miserable, useless death. On the other side of The Old Kingdom, south of the wall, is Ancelstierre, a country reminiscent of a 1940s-ish England, where the heroine of the first novel in the trilogy, Sabriel, has been attending boarding school for most of her childhood. She's not a normal child, though--she was raised by the Abhorsen, a man charged with the thankless, crucial task of making sure the dead stay dead. The Abhorsen uses a set of seven bells (each with their own particular power and purpose) to control the dead that he encounters along his journey, battling evil necromancers along the way. The first book begins with Sabriel venturing back into The Old Kingdom on a quest to rescue her father from the clutches of this evil. The second book focuses instead on a young woman named Lirael, who has been raised amongst the psychic Clayr despite an apparent lack of psychic tendencies. The third book picks up Lirael's story again with occasional appearances by Sabriel.
This series is rated as young-adult fantasy (classified as "Seventh Grade and up" and published by Harper Teen) but I can honestly say that it holds its appeal no matter how old you are. I think the main reason why this series is directed towards young adults is that the main characters are all going through that "Oh, crap, I'm done with school and now i have to have an actual life? " thing that many young readers can relate to. Sabriel's encounter with Touchstone midway through the first book is her first real brush with the possibility of sex, and most of the adult fantasy I've read features a lot more than the possibility. Other than that, though, I rate this series as being perfectly acceptable fantasy to all age groups above, let's say, thirteen. They're quick reads, despite being quite lengthy (my Lirael paperback is 705 pages!) but it never feels like Nix is toning down his diction to be appropriate to a younger audience and the gore is certainly uncensored.
"It was human, or had once been human, but now its arms were hanging threads of flesh, and its head was mostly bare skull, all deep eye hollows and shining teeth. It was unquestionably dead, and the reek of decomposition rolled off it, over the soft smell of the rain."
-Lirael, Garth Nix
Something that I really appreciate in a good fantasy series (indeed, in a good series in general) is an author's willingness to kill off characters who his audience might like--and to keep them dead. This is why I have a million times more respect for Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist than I do for Kishimoto Masashi's Naruto. We can always assume--unless we're reading A Song of Fire and Ice, in which case all bets are off--that main characters will probably make it through to the end of the story, but to me the mark of a quality author is someone who can actually pull the trigger when it comes to killing off non-essential characters. Maes Hughes, for example, in Fullmetal Alchemist, was undoubtedly a fan-favorite, but his death was a necessary evil and so Arakawa didn't hesitate. Neither does Garth Nix.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like he's dropping people left and right, but there are a certain number of deaths that can be expected when one is battling great evil, and he seems to be fully aware of this. He's not cruel about it, but the Abhorsen series is one in which you can't assume that a character will make it to the end just because he or she is sympathetic.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like he's dropping people left and right, but there are a certain number of deaths that can be expected when one is battling great evil, and he seems to be fully aware of this. He's not cruel about it, but the Abhorsen series is one in which you can't assume that a character will make it to the end just because he or she is sympathetic.
The Bottom Line:
If you've already read this series: Congratulations. You have fantastic taste in literature.
If you haven't read this series: What the heck are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?!
If you haven't read this series: What the heck are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?!