Sabriel

This is a book I previously read when I was much younger (can't recall exactly how young). I picked it up again because I remembered that I had enjoyed the series immensely, but that was literally all I could remember about it. That, and that it had ‘something to do with death'.

My younger self would probably have rated this 5/5. I have rated it only 4. The quality of the book has obviously not changed, but it was originally intended for those in their very early teens. Which I no longer am, by at least a decade.

This story is based around Sabriel, whose father is (the) Abhorsen. He is essentially a necromancer, except he puts dead things back ‘into death' rather than raising them from the dead. (No wonder I remembered this book had something to do with death, it's all based on death!)

When Sabriel was very young her father sent her to live at a boarding school in Ancelstierre, outside the Old Kingdom. Ancelstierre remained relatively unaffected by what was happening in the Old Kingdom while she was growing up, namely that the dead weren't staying dead. However in her last year of school Abhorsen goes missing, and she has to venture back into the Old Kingdom to locate him, and as she undergoes her journey she discovers more about herself, her heritage, and just how bad things are in the Old Kingdom.

Overall it is a wonderful, and highly imaginative story. The world that Garth Nix wrote about is intriguing and I loved reading about it. The creatures and the characters he created are unique, particularly Mogget and Touchstone.

However, there are certain points that I didn't enjoy as much.

1. Sabriel has very little knowledge of how to deal with the dead or about the roles of the Abhorsen and yet she defeats everything she comes up against, including essentially the ultimate bad dead guy of the bad dead guys in the Old Kingdom. But this is something you see often in YA/Fantasy novels so I'm not that bothered.

2. A lot of how the magic works in the world of the Old Kingdom is a little vague in my opinion, particularly the ‘free magic'.

3. At times the plot felt like it just draaaaaaaagged along.

In conclusion: I enjoyed it (mostly), I'll probably at least consider re-reading the rest of the series, but it's just not quite as great as I remembered it being.

I would recommend it for fans of young adult and fantasy novels. If you like things like His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman you'll probably like this (he was even a reviewer for it – look at the bottom of the cover).