Sabriel doesn’t know it, but her father is more than just a powerful necromancer; he is a key in the political intrigue of the Old Kingdom–the land beyond the wall. When he interrupts her class at Wyverly college by sending a hand–an enslaved spirit–from beyond the fourth gate of Death to drop off his sword and magic bells, Sabriel knows that something is wrong.
Something is holding her father hostage in Death, and Sabriel is determined to find him and rescue him. When she crosses over the wall, however, into the world of magic, both free and charter, she discovers just how little she knows about the history of the world, and the conflict in which her father was intimately involved. On this side of the wall, the world nearly ended two hundred years ago, and something that should have passed beyond the ninth gate of Death has come back to finish what it started and claim the world as its own…
I read this book for English 318 this year; we discussed it in class a couple of weeks ago. I ended up reading the book in about 48 hours, and as far as required reading goes, it wasn’t bad. Not bad at all. In fact, I really enjoyed it.
Garth Nix creates a fascinating world in this book, with magic that feels wondrous and otherworldly and places that feel fantastic. His conception of Death as a river with nine gates–nine waterfalls–is extremely fascinating, and the use of the bells to cast spells is really well done. The first hundred pages of this book felt a little bit like the beginning of The Dark Is Rising: it felt really dark and spooky, like being lost in the woods and knowing that something ancient and dangerous was out there with you.
The characters were also interesting and likeable. Sabriel is a necromancer who, in some ways, is afraid of facing death–the fact that everyone has to go at sometime. This is a YA book, so she was basically a young adult thrown in way over her head, tossed back and forth from crisis to crisis. At the same time, she takes charge often enough that she is definitely not just a weak character, driven passively from place to place. When the love interest enters the story, she’s basically the “prince” that rescues him from the “dragon,” repeatedly.
The biggest issue I had with this book was its predictability. It seemed that I could see every plot development and big reveal at least fifty pages before it happened. That said, the main thing driving me through the book wasn’t the plot–it was the setting and the characters. Sabriel has to learn some difficult lessons in order to succeed, and the magic she uses is just really freaking cool. Charter symbols, free magic, the five great seals of the charter, the nine gates of Death and the voices of the bells–cool stuff. That was enough to keep me interested, despite the relatively straightforward and unsurprising plot.
Overall, this was definitely a good fantasy. Garth Nix does a great job creating a sense of wonder, and his characters were interesting too. If you like fantasy and haven’t yet heard of this one, I’d definitely recommend it.
I read Sabriel as part of the book club a few months back. Very cool book. The idea of a friendly neuromancer seems pretty silly at first, but I thought it was handled in very clever ways. Not so much raising the dead, but mostly binding the reanimated dead. The bells and charter symbols were all pretty spiffy, as were the paperwings. My favorite part of the book was when Sabriel meets with her father, and then has to leave him again.
Sabriel is written in a very strange way, I noticed. It seems to break some of the “rules” if you could call them that (things I’ve been told in our writing meetings, mostly). For example, Garth Nix will go into one person’s head, and then into another person’s head half a sentence later at the drop of a hat. Basically, Nix often lets us know how multiple characters feel about a situation in a single paragraph. Interestingly, I had no problem with any of this. I’m a bit of an anarchist though, at heart, so I liked seeing it.
He also used “suddenly” every chance he could, which also didn’t bother me, really. I don’t think I would have even noticed, had I not been told so often to never use the word. The coolness of the book overrides these sorts of things I guess?
I read the other two books in the ceiries, and I think they are so awsome. So I am now waighting for Sabriel to get to our school library. Usual it takes me a month to read a good book, but I read each in about two weeks at most. I think they are awsome, when I grow up, I hope to make the ceiries into a moovie for every one to enjoy. If possible please wright more books to add on to the ceries. I also am trying to wright a book my self, and you gave me the insparation I needed to know what to put in. Hope you dont mind me using some of your ideas.
I think the idea of the seventh gate is awsome, the stars calling to you and being able to float up to them. The part that made me sad was when the dog died, she was my favorite character. Thank you for wrighting these books, they kept my mind ocupied and active.
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