Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #206170 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback

Synopsis
Venture into the magical landscape of the Old Kingdom for three spellbinding tales of discovery, destiny and danger. This stunning boxed set contains Garth Nix's bestselling Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen. SABRIEL A young girl discovers her destiny is to take on the duties of the Abhorsen and protect the living from Free Magic and the clutches of the Dead. LIRAEL As an ancient evil casts its shadow and threatens to break the very boundary between Life and Death, Lirael is forced from her position as Second Assistant Librarian to confront the power that is rising. ABHORSEN The Destroyer is awake and summoning forces more powerful than any before. Can Lirael - newly appointed Abhorsen-in-Waiting - and her small team hope to find the clue that will lead to the downfall of this mighty force? And if so, can they defeat it and save the Old Kingdom from this ultimate evil?

From the Publisher
Question and Answer with Garth Nix:

What is your favourite piece of clothing?
My R. M. Williams elastic-sided boots
If you were stranded on a deserted island, what 3 things would you want to have with you?
I presume a satellite phone is out of the question, so:
1. "The How to Survive on a Deserted Island Manual"
2. A knife or machete
3. A very large clear plastic tarpaulin
Describe yourself in 3 words.
Absent-minded writer guy
What time do you get up in the morning?
Usually between 4:45am and 7:00am depending upon my young son. Preferably closer to 7:00am!
Do you have any pets? What are their names?
No pets, unless you count the two swallows that are building a nest under the canopy above my office door. Maybe I should give them names.
What are 3 things you love about where you live?
The sea, the trees, the birds
What makes you most happy?
A cup of tea, a good book and my family around me
Did you like school? What was your favourite subject?
I sometimes liked school. My favourite subject was History. Or maybe English. Or Drama.
When did you start writing and what gave you the inspiration to start?
I started writing stories when I was six or seven, but didn't seriously try to write and get published till I was nineteen.
What do you like to read? And what book are you reading now?
I like to read all sorts of books. I'm currently reading a history of Venice by John Julius Norwich.
What was the first book you can remember reading?
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
What is your favourite TV programme and pop band?
My favourite TV program is an old one, Dr Who. My favourite pop band changes, but I guess my all-time favourite would be The Beatles.
What is your perfect holiday?
Taking it easy at a beach house on the NSW South Coast in late Spring, before lots of people go there
If you could travel back in time, who would you be and why?
I would like to be all sorts of people, but I wouldn't mind being a long-lived, healthy medieval king who died in bed at an advanced age, mourned by all.
What is your favourite food?
Sausages and mash
What would you do if you won the lottery?
Give some of it away, invest the rest in interesting projects like making films, or producing a play, or re-publishing some old books that have disappeared
What is your favourite sport?
Fishing
If you could be invisible for the day, where would you go?
The Invisible Club, though it's a pain to find and you keep bumping into people
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Where I live now, near the beach in Sydney
What is your ideal Saturday/weekend?
To be at home with my family, with no obligation to do anything or be anywhere
If you had 3 wishes from a genie what would it be?
That would depend upon the nature of the wishes. If I could make really big wishes for other people I would wish:
* For everyone in the world to be healthy and vigorous (and if that was too hard for the genie, then I'd try for all children to be healthy and vigorous)
* For all the weapons in the world to turn into flowers
* For everyone to be able to experience compassion and understand kindness
If the wishes had to be for myself, I would wish for:
* A really good singing voice
* Extremely good health for my whole family
* A small very comfortable castle on a large private island in Sydney Harbour

About the Author
Garth Nix was born in 1963 and grew up in Canberra, Australia. After taking his degree in professional writing from the University of Canberra, he worked in a bookshop and then moved to Sydney. There he sank lower into the morass of the publishing industry, steadily devolving from sales rep through publicist until in 1991 he became a senior editor with a major multinational publisher. After a period travelling in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia in 1993, he left publishing to work as a marketing communications consultant . In 1999 he was lured back to the publishing world to become a part-time literary agent. He now lives in Sydney, a five-minute walk from Coogee Beach, with his wife, Anna, and lots of books.

Customer Reviews

The books are great but look somewhere else to buy them.
I've read all of the books along with my sister. We first ordered these books back in October for my sister's christmas present on a different site but in Janurary i was told that they are unavailable so i looked on here and saw that they would be delivered within the next 4-6 weeks. So i ordered them on here thinking that i could give them to my sister for her birthday (that was in April), i checked this page every week and it still said 'will be delivered within the next 4-6 weeks'. Today is the 11th May and i still haven't recieved the books...Don't get me wrong, Amazon is an amazing site but if i had notice that they where due for 'pre-release' when they first where, then i would have been able to get the books from a different site because my sister is will waiting for her christmas/birthday present.

So if your prepared to wait for the books and they are not a present for something then bio means, but them on here, but if you buying them for a present for something then my advice is to look somewhere else.

But please, don't get me wrong, Amazon is an amazing site.

The best children's fantasy in recent years
The Old Kingdom trilogy is a smashing read. Darker than most fantasy this is a trilogy to really immerse oneself in. Sabriel is at boarding school until her father goes missing and she is forced to return to the land of her birth and assume the role of Abhorsen, guardian of the nine levels of death and warrior against the evil forces that lurk there. With free-magic an untameable peril that daily confronts the stability of the Old Kingdom Sabriel has her work cut out to develop the necessary skills to survive the onrushing cataclysm. Imagine Harry Potter cast into the wilderness and made to fight Voldemort without the safety and education of Hogwarts and his friends. This is stripped down magical fantasy, spectacularly characterised and awesomely exciting. Garth Nix is what children's fiction has being crying out for.

One of the best set of books I've ever read
The Abhorsen trilogy are a fantastic set of books from Garth Nix, set in a world like and unlike ours. It is made up of two parts: Ancelstierre, a world a bit like ours in the mid twentieth century, and the Old Kingdom, another realk entirely, situated north of Ancelstierre.
The Kingdom is where the books are mainly set, Ancelstierre being a sideline to the story as the Abhorsen is brought up there, along with her children. Sabriel, the first book follows Sabriel trying to find her father after he sends her the 'bells of the necromancer'. In it you get introduced to the Kingdom, learning about the river of death, Charter Magic and Free Magic.
Lirael, set around 2 decades after the first novel, follows one of the Clayr, a people mentioned in the first book, but little is explained about them. They are the official Seers of the Old Kingdom, the ones who see the futures in walls of ice. Lirael, a Sightless Clayr has always felt like an outcast, and this leads her to adventures that entwines with the 9th Bright Shiner, the Destroyer

My description may sound bad to you, and it probably is, but the books are amazing, full of original ideas and new interpretations of old ones. The river of death: the path that the spirit must walk after they have left the body, crossing gates until they reach the 9th and final Precinct; The bells of the Necromancer and Abhorsen, used to bind the dead to the ringer's will so that the dead can be sent to a final death or brought into Life to wreak havoc; the Great Charter, the seemingly everlasting list of Marks that entertwined create spells and magicks. The trilogy is a fantastic blend of new and redrawn ideas that create a stunning set of stories that make them my favourite books.

After buying and reading these books I'd recommend buying Across the Wall by Garth Nix, containing a short story about Nick (you'll find out who he is in the trilogy) including loads of his mini stories and introductions to them that really gives an insight into how the stories were written, and how everything works.

hope this helps

Alex