Sabriel (Old Kingdom, #1)

by Garth Nix

Breathtaking novel, the first of a trilogy, from a brilliant newcomer to the Collins fiction list.

Sabriel is sent as a child across the Wall to the safety of a school in Ancelstierre. Away from magic; away from the Dead. After receiving a cryptic message from her father, 18-year-old Sabriel leaves her ordinary school and returns across the Wall into the Old Kingdom. Fraught with peril and deadly trickery, her journey takes her to a world filled with parasitical spirits, Mordicants, and Shadow Hands - for her father is none other than The Abhorson. His task is to lay the disturbed dead back to rest. This obliges him - and now Sabriel, who has taken on her father's title and duties - to slip over the border into the icy river of Death, sometimes battling the evil forces that lurk there, waiting for an opportunity to escape into the realm of the living. Desperate to find her father, and grimly determined to help save the Old Kingdom from destruction by the horrible forces of the evil undead, Sabriel endures almost impossible challenges whilst discovering her own supernatural abilities - and her destiny.

• ISBN10: 0064471837
• ISBN13: 9780064471831
• Publish Date: 11 August 1997 (first published 1 January 1950)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 496
• Language: English

Reviews

[bookperson]

Dnf

I really don't care about the characters or the plot. I wanted to love this because it has all my favorite elements:boarding school, woman protagonist, necromancy. It's plot driven and I'm thinking that I'm more of a character driven book connoisseur.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Sabriel was at school when a messenger brings her father's sword and the Abhorsen bells to her. It can mean only one thing - her father, the Abhorsen, is in grave danger. Sabriel does what she knows she must - she sets off to her father's estate to learn what she can about putting the dead to rest, and sets about saving her father, and saving the kingdom.

I still think that the world of Sabriel is fascinating. It's a dark fantasy, with the edge of A Game of Thrones to it. It feels like the North to me. I love this world and the ideas, but the first three quarters of Sabriel were slow for me. I think that challenge lay in the narrator - I really like Tim Curry, but sometimes it feels like he drags on. I *love* him as part of a cast, like in Dracula, but I found my mind wandering in this one.

Nix takes it slow, getting his readers accustomed to the Old and New Kingdoms. The pacing can be trying, but the story is worthwhile. There's something dark and wicked beneath the surface of this book, and in the last quarter, the story promptly ramps up and the story devours you. It's SO GOOD but the execution can be trying. But, trust me, it's worth it. This is a reread for me, and I know so much more is on its way.

"Death and what came after death was no great mystery to Sabriel. She just wished it was." (Sabriel)

WHAT I LOVE...
★ Fantasy. I don't know when last I read an intense fantasy, like Sabriel. The nostalgia is real!
★ Sabriel, because she is so damn awesome!
★ Mogget. His cynical nature and sarcasm made my life.
★ Touchstone.
★ That the romance is subtle and just happens. It doesn't feel forced.
★ The world building. Seriously amazing!
★ The magic system.
★ The uniqueness of the Abhorsen

WHAT I DISLIKE...
★ Garth Nix's writing style. It makes things difficult to visualise.
★ Sabriel is easy to put down.
★ The pacing. The book starts off being intriguing, drags towards the middle and has an action-packed ending!

Sabriel is an awesome and unique fantasy with a strong main female character that's easy to root for, just beware of the writing style and pacing.

"Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?" (Sabriel)

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

I went into this book knowing pretty much nothing at all about it. It was recommended by a good friend who generally has good (i.e., similar to mine :D) tastes, so I felt good about picking it up! Funny enough, outside of Lord of the Rings, it's the oldest fantasy I've read. Which, I know I know, is hilarious, because it's only 20 years old. Haha. Fantasy isn't typically my gig, okay? Though lately I'm enjoying it more and more. Anyway!

My favorite part of this novel was the collision of old world and new - the archaic, medieval world "across the Wall," and the more modern, WWII type world on the other side. The world (or worlds, I guess, even though they are definitely interconnected) is very layered and complex. Color me intrigued. Intrigued enough to keep reading, even when I felt the characters were kind of flat. Sabriel, god love her, was just...eh. Touchstone was slightly more interesting but also...eh. Mogget was definitely the most interesting character of the entire book. I...well, I'm not sure what I feel about Mogget! I want to love Mogget, but I'm kind of afraid to because...what is Mogget? As it is, the chain of events, piling sinister and weird on top of each other, was enough to keep me reading. Characters are, honestly, the biggest draw of a book for me. To not be totally in love with these was kind of a downer. They're sympathetic, don't get me wrong! Just kind of two-dimensional. Also, the romance? Better left out entirely than the way it was just thrown on top like too-stiff frosting. It could have been written so much better. That's really the only complaint I had about the writing though. The world descriptions were fabulous. I could see the gown Sabriel wore, could hear the winds behind the Paperwing and see its yellow eyes. I'll definitely be continuing with the series.

[nitzan_schwarz]

Originally posted on my blog.

3.5 stars
I've read Sabriel for the first time somewhere at the first years of high-school, and it left such a big impression on me that the name stuck - among all the other books I've read at the time, Sabriel is the only one (that didn't have Harry Potter in the title) that I could easily name.

I realize now with this re-read that I remembered very few things of the book. I remembered Mogget (though not his name) and the final, final battle. I remembered a stone penis (which, turns out was actually a wooden penis, lol), probably because I felt so very "adult" at the time to read a book that actually had one. I remembered a guy coming to life from a statue, and a blooming love between the MC and him. I also remembered (show spoiler)[he was a prince ] (hide spoiler) , and that Abhosren was her father.

But I didn't remember this book was about the Dead and and keeping the dead... dead. I didn't remember Abhorsen is a title, not just Sabriel's father. I didn't remember the many layers of the plot, or the evil dude, or anything of that sort.

And honestly, I still love this book. It's action filled, very interesting and I love this world - though I think I'd be far too scared to ever live in it. I loved Sabriel, and Mogget and Touchstone. (But, for god's name, what's his real name?!).

Sabriel is a strong heroine, even though she is very unprepared for being one. Moggat was both adorable and absolutely hilarious. Touchstone was serious and aloof but in the kind of way you could swoon after and make you wish you were the one to make him crack a smile.

But I've also noticed some of the weaker aspects of it now, under more cynical and mature eyes.

The romance... I love Touchstone and Sabriel together. Always have, always will. But I realized while reading this book again that I don't know why they love each other. They barely talked. So, yes. He was heroic, and she was heroic, and it definitely started to make them look at each other differently... but I felt like the book was missing the step between that attraction - to actual love.

Also, I hated where this book ended. I wanted to see the consequences of that aftermath, I wanted to see more about Sabriel and Touchstone and where both of them go from here - (show spoiler)[how can he reclaim the throne that he never thought of as actually his? ] (hide spoiler)

And, My god - how didn't I realize this was a part of a series when I read this the first time? But then, the next books are not about Sabriel so I think my curiosity will go unanswered. Damn.

On a side note, how cool is that that we're getting a forth book?

Originally posted on my blog.

Original Comments
I've read Sabriel a LONG time ago. I still remember some of the details - and the fact I LOVED it. I had absolutely NO idea this was a series, though, and now I really want to re-read this book (preferably in English) and read it all!

[Angie]

I can definitely see why Sabriel is so well loved, but for me, it was just a pretty good read. I liked it, but it was nothing special. Eighteen year old Sabriel is away at school when she learns that her rather is dead or trapped in Death. Yes, there is a difference. Now, it's up to her to rescue him, but that means crossing the Wall into the Old Kingdom. This may not seem like a huge, daring adventure, but since her father is a necromancer, he's able to bind the dead so that they actually stay dead. With him gone, by the next full moon, the dead will rise since the barrier between Life and Death is slowly crumbling. It's a race against the lunar calender for Sabriel!

My main issue with Sabriel was the world. I was expecting an interesting Fantasy realm with magic, but what I got was basically our modern world mixed with our medieval world and some times in between...with magic. The technology is very much the same as ours. There's electricity, telephones, cars, buses, even motorcycles and tanks. They have the same weaponry and military. Even the school system is the same as modern day Australia. The calendar is also ours, with November mentioned specifically. I have a feeling this was done for the benefit of a younger audience, but since nothing about the book felt young to me, I found myself irritated by this simple world building.

However, the magic portion of Sabriel was fantastic. There's Free Magic and Charter Magic and necromancy! Free Magic seemed more wild, while Charter Magic makes use of special symbols and incantations. The necromancy side also seemed really well developed. It's not just about resurrecting dead things. Sabriel (and her father) can cross over into Death in order to retrieve spirits or banish them. There's also magical servants known as sendings that roam around in Life, some of them better at their job than others. Of course, there also scary, evil things that should probably stay in Death, and they're after Sabriel.

The plot was fast paced and action packed. It seemed like dear Sabriel couldn't catch a break! She's at a slight disadvantage since she didn't grow up in the Old Kingdom and in fact doesn't know much about it all. Something bad is happening, but she doesn't find out until close to the end, since her companion (a snarky, talking cat) is under a spell and can't talk specifics. But she's a smart girl and very determined, and makes use of all of her resources. There is a small romance, which I was very unimpressed by, so I have nothing to say about it.

So...I liked Sabriel. It was fun, but I was quite distracted by the world building. I don't like modern technology in Fantasy unless it's done in an interesting way, and it wasn't. A car was a car, and skis were skis. I just couldn't accept this and it negatively impacted the experience for me.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[ladygrey]

[b:Sabriel|518848|Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1)|Garth Nix|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1293655399s/518848.jpg|3312237] is mostly very well told fantasy. I really enjoy the world that [a:Garth Nix|8347|Garth Nix|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207583754p2/8347.jpg] created, his sense of magic with Charter marks and death. I like that it's dark and dangerous because he makes it real without making it overtly ugly. I like the complexity of the interplay between the five Charters and actually wish there was more of it.

Compared to [b:Lirael|47624|Lirael Daughter of the Clayr (Abhorsen, #2)|Garth Nix|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266458951s/47624.jpg|2067752] and [b:Abhorsen|334643|Abhorsen (Abhorsen, #3)|Garth Nix|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266527332s/334643.jpg|2339177] the pacing and unfolding the story is much better in [b:Sabriel|518848|Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1)|Garth Nix|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1293655399s/518848.jpg|3312237]. Most of all, I liked that this story is contained within one volume, though I didn't like the ending much at all. There was resolution for everything he introduced, but no aftermath. I need a some settling of all the pieces. Especially since I knew some of them from having read [b:Lirael|47624|Lirael Daughter of the Clayr (Abhorsen, #2)|Garth Nix|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266458951s/47624.jpg|2067752], but I wanted to see them from this side of time, the beginning of things unfolding and corruptions in the Charter mending. I liked all of the characters and the way they were introduced and developed, except for the one character that didn't have sufficient resolution doesn't show up in [b:Lirael|47624|Lirael Daughter of the Clayr (Abhorsen, #2)|Garth Nix|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266458951s/47624.jpg|2067752] - I needed just a little bit more.

Overall, that's the best compliment that I can give this story, I want more. I want more books in this world; more development of the characters and new characters. I want more adventures and new stories.