Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #358673 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
This may be the first book of yet another "cross-over" fantasy trilogy--theoretically equally appealing to both children and adult readers--but thankfully Sabriel has enough verve and panache about it to reach just such a wide readership and to ensure that author Garth Nix has created a bandwagon all of his own. Constantly rich and meaty, the story is intriguing from the off. Page by page the tension builds and draws you into a highly imaginative landscape that has familiarity and originality in equal measures.

Sabriel attends Wyverley Girls College in Ancelstierre (Nix's version of normal) and has recently graduated with runaway firsts in every subject. But her particular school has certain extra-curricular activities, like the learning of Magic, because of its proximity to the Wall which marks Ancelstierre's border with the Old Kingdom. Over the wall, life is very different and the use of magic is commonplace. Then, on the edge of death, Sabriel's father, Abhorson, sends her a cryptic message that means she must venture into the Old Kingdom and calm the storm that is brewing there, and which will surely multiply at her father's passing. Refusing to accept his fate, Sabriel inherits the tools of her father's trade and his name. Her new duty is to lay the disturbed dead back to rest with the help of seven powerful bells worn across the chest. Sabriel seeks her father's slayer in a mammoth journey that is hindered by dark magic, monsters-a-plenty and shadowy unsubstantial evils.

The narrative builds into a luxurious tale of good versus evil, with a re-assuringly likeable central character to take us through it all. Nix's writing is solid and well-planned, his prose convincing and rounded. Make a note to look up the sequels Lirael and Abhorsen in due course--they're unlikely to disappoint. (Ages 10 and over)--John McLay

Publishers Weekly
"Rich, complex, involving, hard to put down, this first novel is excellent high fantasy."

Philip Pullman
"Here is a world with the same solidity and four-dimensional authority as our own, created with invention, clarity and intellience."

Customer Reviews

Glad I took this one home!
I work in a book shop and Sabriel grabbed my attention the second I saw it. However, I was a bit apprehensive as it was in the young adult section which also contains all the 'girly' books which, being 18 and hating them, aren't really my type. But I thought I'd give it a chance as there was quite a fuss about it.
I'm so glad I did! I just couldn't put this book down! Nix' book is definately in the fantasy genre (which i was delighted about) but it is also unique from any fantasy fiction I've read. Sometimes it's easy to get lost in a book like this but Nix has amazing talent at making you understand and vividly imagine all the ideas he presents. Much easier read than lord of the rings and much more compelling too.
But don't let me tell you how wonderful it is, go and read it!

Rich and multi layerd epic fiction
All those cliches that are trotted out for so many books atcually apply to this one - original - yes! exciting - yes! unputdownable - yes! I wasnt quite sure where Mr Nix intended his audience to be when he wrote this book. Its difficult to classify a specific audience for it. In manys ways it is young adult but several of the themes definetly stray into more adult areas. Then again, the themes of loss and love are universal to so much fiction, that classifying any book would be useless. I first read Sabriel several years ago when it first came out in the UK and I have returned to it several times since, always finding something new and interesting. Its a book I would love to pass on to my children when they are old enough. Its slightly more grown up that the Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl books, less cartoonish. The characters seem more real. The dialogue is fantastic. Not once did I feel that a plot device came along to get Sabriel out of danger in the nick of time. Any help that came seems a logical progression of the story. Sabriel is a great book for all ages and all lovers of adventure fiction. Read it. You wont regret it!

A brilliant new voice in Fantasy
Garth Nix’s “Sabriel” is striking in many ways. Initially, it’s just the cover – ooh, isn’t it nice? And the book inside? Well, perhaps for once judging a book by its cover is not such a bad idea.

That Philip Pullman graces the cover of “Sabriel”, proclaiming it to be a fantasy that reads like realism, is telling. Reading “Sabriel” I was reminded time and again of Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy, which is widely acknowledged as a modern classic. Both take place in a fantasy world only slightly removed from our own, both centre around a young girl as she grows into a woman and discovers love, and both are absolutely, breathtakingly excellent.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this a children’s book. Again, like Pullman’s works, that may be what it says on the tin, but Nix doesn’t pull any punches in his presentation. There’s no patronising and talking down to children in his prose – several times I actually wondered if he’d even attempted to use simple word-choice. Because Nix refuses to sacrifice anything which will take away from his story – he tells it the way he wants to tell it, which is unquestionably a good thing for readers everywhere, even if they occasionally need to fumble for the dictionary.

“Sabriel” followes the eponymous heroine into the Old Kingdom, which is gradually falling apart after the breaking of many Charter Stones (magic that holds the Kingdom together), using the blood of the royal family. Blood is very important in this book, as Sabriel is to discover – she goes in search of her father, the Abhorsen (a necromancer whose task it is to make sure the dead stay dead and don’t come back to claim the living world as their own), and on the way has to come to terms with who and what she is, now that her father may be lost to her forever. On her journey she gains both friends and enemies, and although very occasionally Nix strays into the fantasy cliché area (returning Kings and talking animals), his powerful storytelling just keeps the reader from losing belief in his world.

Magic plays a big part in “Sabriel”, but Nix doesn’t just use it for the sake of it. The magic comes from within the characters, and symbolically it is often only strength of character and the support of others which enables even the simplest spell to be cast. This book is very much about growing up, banishing inner demons and having to make your own way through the often cruel world. Like all the best “children’s” literature, there’s an awful lot more going on under the surface than hocus-pocus and big men with swords.

The only real criticism I can make of “Sabriel” is that sometimes the pacing seems a little uneven. It starts out with a measured pace, drawing you into the mystery of the Old Kingdom and Sabriel’s journey through it. These early chapters are intoxicatingly good, reeling you in as Nix describes his fantasy world. But seemingly within hours of Sabriel entering the Old Kingdom, it’s gung-ho all the way. Incident follows adventure follows incident for the rest of the book, which although engaging offers no moments of pause for any real character analysis or assessment of where the story is and where it’s going. It reads very much like an adventure film with one big explosion after another with very little in between. However, I’m probably making this out to be more of a fault than it is – I know I thoroughly enjoyed the book. In the great panorama of “Sabriel”, this is only a minor quibble. I can only say that Philip Pullman should watch his back in the coming years, as Garth Nix gains further, much deserved, recognition.