Old Kingdom
6 primary works • 10 total works
Also known as Abhorsen in North America.
Prequel
A quarter of a century after the series began, bestselling novelist Garth Nix returns to the Old Kingdom for the never-before-told love story of Sabriel’s parents, Terciel and Elinor, and the Charter and Free Magic that define their world. A long-awaited prequel to a classic fantasy series.
Nineteen-year-old Terciel is conflicted about his position in life. As Abhorsen-in-Waiting it is his duty to marry, have children, and guard the boundary between Life and Death. He is marked by the Charter magic and is desperate to escape it all. At the same time, eighteen-year-old Elinor is also marked by the Charter but is outcast by society because of it.
Terciel and Elinor is an adventure story, a love story, and an epic fantasy. It tells the story of Sabriel’s parents when they were young, and how they fell in love and hoped for a future together. It is also a return to the unending struggle between the Charter and Free Magic in the Old Kingdom and in Death, featuring terrible foes and uncertain friends on both sides of the Wall.
Book 1
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.
Book 2
Sequel to the spellbinding, award-winning fantasy adventure, SABRIEL.
Lirael has never felt like a true daughter of the Clayr. Abandoned by her mother and ignorant of her father's identity, Lirael resembles no one else in her large, extended family living in the Clayr's Glacier. She doesn't even have the Sight - the ability to See into the present and possible futures - that is the very birthright of the Clayr.
Nonetheless, it is Lirael in whose hands the fate of the Old Kingdom lies. she must undertake a desperate mission under the growing shadow of an ancient evil - one that opposes the Royal Family, blocks the Sight of the Clayr, and threatens to break the very boundary between Life and Death itself. With only her faithful companion, the Disreputable Dog, to help her, Lirael must find the courage to seek her own hidden destiny.
Garth Nix draws readers deeper into the magical landscape of the Old Kingdom and weaves a spellbinding tale of discovery, destiny and danger.
Book 3
The third book and apocalyptic conclusion to the original bestselling Old Kingdom trilogy, perfect for fans of Game of Thrones.
The Abhorsen Sabriel and King Touchstone are missing, leaving only Lirael—newly come into her inheritance as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting—to stop the Destroyer. If Orannis's unspeakable powers are unleashed, it will mean the end of all Life. With only a vision from the Clayr to guide her, and the help of her companions, Sam, the Disreputable Dog, and Mogget, Lirael must search in both Life and Death for some means to defeat the evil destructor—before it is too late.
Don’t miss Garth Nix’s prequel to the Old Kingdom series, Clariel, and Goldenhand, the fifth book in the Old Kingdom series.
Book 3.5
Book 4
In this prequel to the Old Kingdom series, set 600 years before the birth of Sabriel, Clariel becomes a Free Magic Sorcerer. The plot contains sexual references and graphic violence.
Book 4.5
Garth Nix proves he is a master of the short story with this intriguing collection of tales. Leading with the novella TO HOLD THE BRIDGE, fans of Garth Nix will be more than satisfied with the richly detailed and thrilling tale of Charter Magic and a deathly duel. Fans new and old will delight in the subsequent tales, including fantasy and science fiction, with witches, vampires, strange worlds and stranger creatures making their appearance.
Book 5
The long-awaited fifth installment in Garth Nix’s New York Times bestselling Old Kingdom series, for readers who enjoy series by Rae Carson, Kristin Cashore, Scott Westerfeld, and Cassandra Clare.
Goldenhand takes place six months after the events of Abhorsen and follows the novella Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case, which is featured in Across the Wall.
Lirael lost one of her hands in the binding of Orannis, but now she has a new hand, one of gilded steel and Charter Magic.
On a dangerous journey, Lirael returns to her childhood home, the Clayr’s Glacier, where she was once a Second Assistant Librarian. There, a young woman from the distant North brings her a message from her long-dead mother, Arielle.
It is a warning about the Witch with No Face. But who is the Witch, and what is she planning? Lirael must use her new powers to save the Old Kingdom from this great danger—and it must be forestalled not only in the living world but also in the cold, remorseless river of Death.
Books 1-3
Books 1-4
