Game of Thrones fans will love the New York Times bestselling Abhorsen series. Sabriel, the first installment in the trilogy, launched critically acclaimed author Garth Nix onto the fantasy scene as a rising star.
Since childhood, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who refuse to stay dead. But now her father, the Abhorson, is missing, and Sabriel must cross into that world to find him. With Mogget, whose feline form hides a powerful, perhaps malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage, Sabriel travels deep into the Old Kingdom. There she confronts an evil that threatens much more than her life and comes face-to-face with her own hidden destiny. . . .
San Francisco Chronicle
By turns rousing, charming and slyly funny, Sabriel is an engaging tale that slays sexual sterotypes along with its monsters.
Lloyd Alexanderm
... Nix has created a ... remarkable and persuasive world; and done it in the grand style of heroic romance.
The ALAN Review - M. Jean Greenlaw
The juxtaposition of a prologue that sets the scene in a fantasy world where Sabriel is born dead and brought back to life by her necromancer father and the first chapter, set in an obviously modern world, gains the reader's immediate attention. Sabriel comes from the Old Kingdom and is drawn back into it when her father dies. Her quest is to rescue him from the river of death, as he is a special necromancer, the Abhorsen, whose task is to lay the undead back to rest. Sabriel and two companions struggle with the legions of evil until it becomes obvious what her fate is: She is the new Abhorsen and her companion Touchstone is the last of the royal line. The story is rife with the trappings of fantasy, including magical bells and swords, and cats and other creatures that are more than they seem. Nix is a new and welcome voice in the fold of those who write high fantasy. He creates a believable setting and peoples it with characters who are fascinating and about whom one cares. The adventure is dramatic enough to make a reader lose a night's sleep, because the book cannot be put down.
VOYA - Joyce Davidson
The Wall divides the Old Kingdom from the rest of the world, but more than the Wall makes the Old Kingdom different. Behind that Wall magic still works, Dead come back, and even the moon and seasons are different. In Ancelstierre no one believes in magic unless they live on the border beside the Wall. Sabriel was born in the Old Kingdom, but from the age of four she has lived in the border town of Wyverley. She is now eighteen and about to graduate from school when she receives a message brought by the Dead from her father, Abhorsen, one of the most powerful necromancers in the Old Kingdom. Abhorsen is not the usual necromancer; he doesn't raise the Dead, but lays them back to rest with the magic of his bells, making him the enemy of both the Dead and many living mages. Sabriel must return to the Old Kingdom and attempt to rescue her father. Along the way she discovers her heritage, the lost heir to the Kingdom, and the greatest enemy her family and her land have ever faced. Only the courage of the soldiers at the border and her friends at school will prevent the Dead Mage Kerrigor from returning to Life. This wonderful new fantasy is filled with rich and complex imagery. Determined to rescue her father, Sabriel is alone in a world she does not remember, surrounded by unknown enemies. She does not hesitate, but continues onward no matter the odds. However, while Sabriel might love her father, she shows little concern for the rest of the human race. To prevent the Dead from reaching her at one point, she floods a cavern, destroying the Dead and their human slaves. She shows no regret for the many humans she killed, nor does she consider any rescue. Even her romance with Touchstone is very superficial. Despite these flaws, this fantasy is recommended for most libraries, especially those with large fantasy collections or fantasy readers. VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, Broad general YA appeal, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).
Children's Literature - Alexandria LaFaye
This Australian fantasy takes a unique approach to the hero quest; Nix's hero is a young woman. Sabriel is an apprentice necromancer who must enter the realm of dead to save her trapped father and defeat the evil spirit who entrapped him. To accomplish this task, Sabriel must leave the modern world of Ancelstierre to journey into the Old Kingdom that is being overtaken by the walking dead. This split between the modern and the magically medieval worlds is another unusual aspect of the novel. These worlds clash when the evil spirit Kerrigor returns to the modern world to claim his mortal body. The Ancelstierre army tries to stop him with modern weapons, but it is Sabriel who defeats him with magic. Another curious aspect of the story is that Sabriel's main helper is not a benevolent creature. He is an enslaved evil spirit who turns against her and must be recaptured. Still, this book has many of the traditional fantasy qualities-swords, royalty, magical creatures, mythical and ancient lands, and magic spells. Nix adds his own flavor to the fantasy novel and tells a unique tale of the female hero quest.
School Library Journal
Gr 6 UpThis vividly imagined fantasy pits a young necromancer against a shambling horde of deliciously gruesome minions of an unspeakably evil sorcerer. Raised in peaceful Ancelstierre, where magic is weak and technology has reached the level of automobiles and flying machines, teenaged Sabriel suddenly receives evidence that her wandering father is no longer in the Land of the Living. She sets out to find him, though it means crossing over into the Old Kingdom, where time and the very stars are different, and then past the Gates of Death. Sabriel is no stranger to these dangerous domains, but she quickly learns that the physical and magical walls erected to keep the living and dead separate are nearly broken down. With the help of a depressed, half-blood prince who has spent the last two centuries as a wooden statue and a seeming cat who is actually a powerful magical creature, the young woman evades a thicket of traps and hazards to rescue her fatheronly to lose him permanently in the opening rounds of a vicious, wild climax. Nix fills in the background with inventively developed details. Though he doesn't handle every element with equal skill, his monsters are scary and repulsive, his sense of humor is downright sneaky, and he puts his competent but not superhuman heroine through engrossing physical and emotional wringers. This book is guaranteed to keep readers up way past their bedtimes.John Peters, New York Public Library
Guardian Unlimited
Sabriel has a fast pace, drama, vivid descriptions, excitement and humour. Packs of putrefying zombies, too. What more could you want?
Philip Pullman
Sabriel is a winner, a fantasy that reads like realism. Here is a world with the same solidity and four dimensional authority as our own, created with invention, clarity, and intelligence. I congratulate Garth Nix. And I look forward to reading his next piece of work.
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