Sabriel and Lirael, by Garth Nix

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

Has anyone read the "young adult fantasy" books by Garth Nix? I'm in the middle of Sabriel right now and have already picked up Lirael (the sequel) for when I'm done. I haven't done any web searches or any research on the author at all yet, but apparently Sabriel won a number of awards.

I'm not surprised at all. It's an excellent book so far, and it's solid gold for Sorcerer. Tons of necromancy, neat magic, mundane vs. magic world stuff that's not stupid, scheming Bound demons, wonderful examples of all the Rituals, and a surprisingly adult, levelheaded approach to sexuality (especially since the protagonist is a teenage girl).

I decided to post about the books upon reading this passage, following the exit of a Parasite demon from its host's body, and its capture:
"... it lay like a lump of charred liver, quivering on the floor, still impaled."

Best,
Ron

[lumpley]

One of mine and Meguey's faves.  Sabriel inspired much thinking about magic systems for me, but nothing productive, since my tools at the time were pretty limited (curse you, 3rd edition Ars Magica).

And you're right, it'd be hot source material for Sorcerer.

Good stuff.  I can't wait until my kids are a bit older and I get to read it to them.  So many books they've got in store...

-Vincent

[Ron Edwards]

Hey,

Huh - it turns out to be a trilogy. The third book will be Abhorsen, and that's good, because the second book ends on a cliffhanger.

I confess that Lirael was not as enjoyable as Sabriel, both in terms of the stories and the title characters. In fact, I wanted to drown Lirael (the character) about four times. Then again, it may be because I'm not a member of the target audience of vaguely-alienated, mock-suicidal fourteen-year-old girls. More structurally, I found the story, in comparison to Sabriel, to be far more padded and based more on chance-but-significant encounters, as well as on several obvious "shoves" on the characters. In RPG terms, it seemed railroaded.

I did like all the demon interactions, and yet again, classic Sorcerer showed up all over the place. He doesn't pull any punches with the necromancy.

Best,
Ron