Product Description

Who will guard the living when the dead arise? Sabriel is sent as a child across the Wall to the safety of a school in Ancelstierre. Away from magic; away from the Dead. After receiving a cryptic message from her father, 18-year-old Sabriel leaves her ordinary school and returns across the Wall into the Old Kingdom. Fraught with peril and deadly trickery, her journey takes her to a world filled with parasitical spirits, Mordicants, and Shadow Hands -- for her father is none other than The Abhorson. His task is to lay the disturbed dead back to rest. This obliges him -- and now Sabriel, who has taken on her father's title and duties -- to slip over the border into the icy river of Death, sometimes battling the evil forces that lurk there, waiting for an opportunity to escape into the realm of the living. Desperate to find her father, and grimly determined to help save the Old Kingdom from destruction by the horrible forces of the evil undead, Sabriel endures almost impossible challenges whilst discovering her own supernatural abilities -- and her destiny.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5684 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 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

Review
"Sabriel is a winner, a fantasy that reads like realism. I congratulate Garth Nix." Philip Pullman "Fast pace, drama, vivid descriptions, excitement and humour! What more could you want?" The Guardian "Every publisher thinks they have the next great children's fantasy writer. Harper Collins know they have." Nick Holt, AML "Pacy, gripping and totally absorbing!I loved it." Wayne Winstone, Children's and Non-book Director, Ottakars "An unputdownable book, completely fabulous." Claire Nuttall, Children's Fiction Buyer, W H Smith "This 'good versus evil' tale is raised above the rest of the fantasy genre by the quality of Garth Nix's imagination and the beauty of his writing!destined to become a classic." Helen Davies, Books Etc "Captured the mood of fantasy with such realism that I was enthralled from beginning to end, a really cracking story!" Diane Sinclair, Sales Promotions Manager, Askew's Library Services

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!

Enthralling.
This book was wonderful. Garth Nix manages to create a world so magical that by the end of the book you're left wanting more.
We follow a young girl on the quest to find her Father who is missing. Not so bad you think until you realsie that he's stuck in the world of the dead and that to rescue him she will have to face difficulties not just in the dangerously magical place around her but within herself aswell.
It's a fast paced book from beginning to end and with such original ideas within it (bells to raise the dead!!) I can imagine children and adults of all ages being enchanted by it. It's definitely for fans of Phillip Pullman and JRR Tolkien.
Roll on part two, we're waiting with bated breath.

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!