Garth Nix

Garth Nix has done something I haven't seen in a long time: He created characters who were outside of social norms with their style, but without the stereotypical personalities that screenwriters and authors would usually assign to them.

A badass female protagonist who, with her looks and fashion style, would be considered a "tomboy". The beauty of her? She's not portrayed as the typical "tomboy". She's not gruff, buff, rude, or offended by anything "feminine". She's still perfectly feminine, show more smart, and can admit she needs help. Oh, and she's neither a lesbian nor an innocent who is magically attracted to the first boy she meets.

A male protagonist who crossdresses, changes outfits every 5 minutes, and has more clothes than any other character who is confident in his masculinity and sexuality while being a badass magician, hunter, and killer? *Chefs' kiss*

Add in all the other amazing characters, unique magic system, politics between factions, and great action and world-building and you have a freaking amazing book. show less

There's hot debate out there about whether [Clariel], a pre-quel set 600 years earlier than the Old Kingdom trilogy is on a par. It gets off to a slow start, then there is a jolt when you realize who the main character is. I will say no more about that directly for fear of spoilers. What I will say is that thematically Clariel is a much more serious book than the other three and I could feel Nix's own need as a writer to explore the corrupting influences of great power. Everyone around show more Clariel wants to use her in some way, good people and bad ones and careless ones, and none of them listen to her when she begs them to let her be and let her go and live in the forest as a Borderer. (Sort of a forester soldier). Around half-way the story takes off and while there are times when you want to scream in frustration at the choices Clariel makes, I commend Nix for having the courage to write a book that he must have known would be less popular. I can't say I 'loved' it the way I enjoyed the three others, there was almost no comic relief--even Mogget behaves extremely badly, but he's been ignored by the three previous Abhorsens and has gotten a bit out of hand-- and definitely no real love interest; this is a book about a true born loner. What I can say is that Nix has made the Old Kingdom a richer and wilder place. **** show less

Lirael is a bit odd when it comes to a sequel. While it's set in the same world as Sabriel (and Sabriel even has a part to play), Lirael takes place a fair few years later, following two new characters: Lirael--daughter of the glacier bound seers only mentioned in Sabriel--and Prince Sameth--Sabriel and Touchstone's son and Abhorsen in Waiting.

Once you get beyond the initial surprise at the change in topic, it's another wonderful book. I'm honestly not sure which I prefer. Lirael is a show more wonderful character. She's an outsider among an entire people who have an ability she does not, which is a recognizable situation to be in who turns into what's effectively a battle librarian--who doesn't love a battle librarian?

Sameth on the other hand? He's mostly annoying. It's understandable to some extent since he's young and has quite a pair of shoes to fill in either parent, let alone both. Doesn't mean his sections are a lot harder to read than Lireal's...

Perhaps my favorite part of the book is how much deeper the world building feels than in Sabriel. Sabriel did an excellent job of building a fantastic world and introducing us to the Death magic an Abhorsen wields. Lireal takes that and expands us, exploring the Clayr and the builders, along with looking more into the Charter / Charter Stones / Free Magic. As a world building junkie... I love it.

The only other negative I have is that Lirael really doesn't stand alone. You don't absolutely have to have read Sabriel (although you should), but Lirael by itself doesn't really have an ending. It's more the first part of a story.

Well well worth the read though. Or, if you get the chance, the listen. show less

It's pretty rare that a young adult novel can actually scare me, but the beginning of this book deals with possession and Nix really weaves a scary description of what's going on and how. It's very sinister and I loved feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up a little bit and that little twinge of paranoia that made me want to look behind me, even though I've already read this book at least a couple of times now. Never fails!

The characters in this book are all rich and interesting show more and feel as though they come to life, as though you might know people like some of them, and you're glad that most of them exist within the story for our young heroes. But, I think my favorite characters, at least as far as portrayal goes, are the ones that you'd expect to be the most fleshed out anyway. Julia and Paul. They're younger than most kids in young adult novels are, not even quite 12 yet it seems. I don't remember if it was actually mentioned anywhere in the book how old they are, but one character was forced to guesstimate Paul's age and he put Paul at 11 at the oldest.

I like that Nix portrays both kids as just that. Kids. They're young and naive and used to the comforts of home, taken out of their elements and dropped into new and impossible situations in a strange world without any of the conveniences they're used to. They handle it probably better than a lot of us would've handled something like that, certainly better than I think I would have, but it isn't without complaint. I think a lot of people would ordinarily be frustrated with Paul, most of all, because he whines and he more than once wishes that he could just give up his quest and go home even if that means leaving his sister, but ultimately he knows he can't bring himself to do such a thing because the entire reason he's here is to save her.

Paul being the one we follow throughout most of the beginning of the book (and the one who gets the majority of the romping-around adventure) is interesting and I enjoyed it quite a bit because it was made very apparently just how far out of his element and depth he was, and just how scared he was. He's not used to being the hero, Julia is the adventurous and brave one, she's the leader, he's the one who follows and often has to come to his defense when her friends tease him. She's the one with the big ideas and the follow-through. But here, Paul has to be the leader. He has to be the one to make the decisions and be adventurous and many times he asks himself what Julia would do if she were here instead of him. Many times, he wishes that their roles were reversed and she were the one on this quest to save him from the Ragwitch instead, because at least then he would know that someone who knows what they're doing and who he can depend on to get it done would be in charge.

But, Paul does rise to the challenge, despite his own misgivings and issues of self-confidence, and somewhere along the line his goal changes. He's not just here to save Julia, anymore, although that's still a main goal, but he knows that he can't leave all of the new friends he's made who help him in the lurch either. Even if he could just go home, even if he could snap his fingers and both he and Julia would be at home, safe and sound, he can't leave his friends to deal with the Ragwitch alone.

It was good to see Paul's character development throughout the entire book, and it was good to see the moment when he realized himself that his goals had shifted a bit. To see how brave he was when even he didn't think he could be and had no idea what he was doing.

With Julia, I liked that we got to see that even though she was the one that Paul thought was the fearless adventurer who always knew what to do...she really wasn't. She was adventurous, yes, and stubborn and ready to resist the Ragwitch, but she was also just a kid herself and she was scared too, and uncertain, and we got to see that and feel that right along with her.

Most of the supporting characters were adults, and I liked that each of them realized that Paul and Julia were just children and thrust into situations that were really not meant for kids. I don't feel as though they were babied, because the situation called for Julia and Paul to have to do things and make decisions that no kids should have to and they were allowed to, but Nix never really lets you forget just how young Paul and Julia really were. And as such, I didn't feel any of the same annoyance that I might have felt with someone in the middle or late teens or early adulthood with the same attitudes as these kids had.

I find this to be fresh and interesting, and to really put the danger that the characters are into stark relief. It makes things feel more dangerous and you can really feel the stakes. And it makes the villains and the dangers and the pitfalls, which might otherwise have seemed silly if given to characters who are older, feel a lot scarier and bigger. I think it puts things into a perspective that you wouldn't get if the main characters were older.

I also really liked that Julia had two women helping her after awhile. I liked the character of Mirran, and I'm glad that we got to know him, but I don't think anything would've felt the same if we hadn't had Lyssa and Anhyvar.

The character of Tanboule was perhaps a particular favorite, and I have to wonder how and Julia might've interacted had they had the chance to meet. But, I loved his interactions with Paul, and later also with Quigin, and I loved his outlook. I wish we'd gotten more about his backstory, though, just because I'm so interested in his character and the hints and tidbits we did get to find out about him left me wondering what the whole story behind that was. Then again, maybe Nix gave us all we need to know to figure that out on our own in full and I just am not smart enough to do it while everyone else who read the book did. That's possible! But, I'd sure be down to read an entire book about him.

I absolutely would reread this book, yet again, and probably will at some point. I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think just about anybody who reads it will, too. Anyone who likes young adult fiction should enjoy this book, I think. Even if whiny characters are the bane of your existence, I think that in this case you will find yourself making a happy exception for Paul. show less