Sabriel-Garth Nix

	Title: Sabriel Author: Garth Nix Genre: Fantasy Pages: 491 Publication: Harpertrophy, 1995 Source: Own Rating:

“Worse, it had been so easy. She had caught the spirit right at the wellspring of the river, and had returned it with barely a gesture of power, patching the body with simple charter spells as they stepped from death to life. She hadn’t even needed bells, or other apparatus of a necromancer. Only a whistle and her will.

Death and what came after death was no great mystery to Sabriel. She just wished it was.”

Sabriel is the daughter of Abhorsen, a necromancer of sorts that does not raise the dead, but binds them with an infusion of Charter magic and necromancers skills. When he fails to meet Sabriel for an annual get-together and a dead construct brings her his sword and bells, she fears the worse. Thus, she sets off for the Old Kingdom, where Charter Magic and the Dead roam free and the reign of Kings and Regents had ended long ago.

Chased by Dead being orchestrated by a force more powerful than herself, she flees to her father’s home, where she finds Mogget, the talking cat who is so much more than he appears. Now she is the acting Abhorsen, and it is her duty to rid the kingdom of the Dead threatening it.

Sabriel is my favorite book. Hands down, no questions asked. It is also the book that got me into reading fantasy. I had always been attracted to the genre, but never really sat down and read a lengthy book with vivid world creation. I felt like I was there, being chased alongside Sabriel. The characterization is whole and complete, as well as the world that Nix created. The history of the Old Kingdom and the threat against it unfolds over time, instead of being exposed at the beginning of her journey. I really like that as it kept me wanting to know more and combined with the action that flows throughout the story, I keep turning pages until my eyes can take it no longer. This is one of the few books that I can re-read multiple times without getting bored with it.