Goldenhand

I'm giving “Goldenhand” 4 stars instead of 3 because “The Old Kingdom” and the characters from the original trilogy have a special place in my heart. It was wonderful returning to the world of Free and Charter Magic, the seven bells of necromancers and the Abhorsen, and the weird colliding of worlds of Ancelstierre and the Old Kingdom. In “Goldenhand,” we get to venture into the northern parts of the world, which we learn to be largely outside of the influence of the Charter but where Free Magic can still be practiced by chained shamans of nomadic clans. Garth Nix also introduces a wonderful new character Ferrin, a young woman from one of those nomadic clans. Like all of Nix's female characters, Ferrin is wonderful to get to know.

Beyond world building, I think “Goldenhand” is mostly a continuation of Lirael's story. In the original trilogy, we got to see Lirael grow as a character: from a shy, isolated girl, whose only friend was a magical dog, to a heroine willing to sacrifice her life for her newfound friends and the world. “Goldenhand” shows Lirael in her element as a confident Abhorsen-in-Waiting, and sort of serves as an epilogue to the trilogy.Now for the cons. Apart from the awkwardly written romance with Nicholas Sayre (and the weird nascent romance between Sameth--who we hardly get to see--and Ferrin), there's not much character development at all. The novel was extremely quick to read, which I think was a blessing because the stakes never seemed particularly high and the character development in the form of Lirael's romance with Nick was cringey and not quite believable.

In the end, however, I had a good time reading “Goldenhand,” which took only about a day to read–a testament to how immersive Nix's world is. “Goldenhand” is a bit like a Christmas special of a beloved show, and it was wonderful seeing characters I grew up with in a setting that had such a powerful effect on my childhood imagination.