I picked it up at a library sale and enjoyed it very much – at various points I’ve read a fair amount of fantasy/sf and Sabriel is pretty innovative in the context of its storyline – it’s framed as a girl coming of age/into her inheritance story (her father vanishes and everyone expects her to take over the family business, so to speak). I think it was aimed at the YA market so don’t expect China Mieville or Charles de Lint but if necromancy with a little chaste romance on the side sounds intriguing then I think you’ll like it.
5.
BJ Chavez
Yes–highly recommended for the highly original plot(especially the second book, which boils down to Adventures in Librarianing)and world–so rare in fantasy these days. The world is just fantastic, and the descriptions of necromancy and the very idea of a reverse-necromancer(which is a full time job) is stellar.
The only complaint I have about the books is that when all is said and done, Garth Nix is not as good a writer as his ideas are. His style is overwrought and occasionally awkward, with small forays into redundancy. Personally, I can forgive writing problems, because I’m not much of a writer myself, and also, because his ideas more than make up for the writing.
Don’t get me wrong–I’m not saying he’s a bad writer. I’m just saying he’s not a particularly good writer.
Still, I put the Abhorsen series right up there on the list of fantasy that I recommend to my friends.
And while it’s nominally for the YA age group, I think if you’re an adult who can stand Harry Potter…well, this is far more adult than that series.
6.
Randolph Fritz
Those are my favorites of the “goth” books; there’s a real magic to them–something where the work appears to be more than it is.
7.
Randolph Fritz
It seems worth adding a bit to that. Sabriel is a metaphysical fantasy, the story of a young necromancer, whose very serious business is laying the dead. The story proceeds on two levels, with the reader learning about Sabriel’s world, and Sabriel learning her situation, and yet I never felt at a loss for information; Nix, like Rowling, has a real gift for providing exposition just when it is needed. The country between life and death, where much of the action of the book takes place, is a great imaginative achievement, eerie and well-realized, and the magic of the story is original and equally well-realized.
Worth the trouble, says I.
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Gatchaman
Yes! Well, the first two, I’ve yet to read the third as I tend to have more books going than I can possibly keep up with.
Its a great story — and I tend not to like the fantasy genre.
Randolph Fritz
Yes. Why do you ask?
John Cole
It was recommend to me…
Edith
I picked it up at a library sale and enjoyed it very much – at various points I’ve read a fair amount of fantasy/sf and Sabriel is pretty innovative in the context of its storyline – it’s framed as a girl coming of age/into her inheritance story (her father vanishes and everyone expects her to take over the family business, so to speak). I think it was aimed at the YA market so don’t expect China Mieville or Charles de Lint but if necromancy with a little chaste romance on the side sounds intriguing then I think you’ll like it.
BJ Chavez
Yes–highly recommended for the highly original plot(especially the second book, which boils down to Adventures in Librarianing)and world–so rare in fantasy these days. The world is just fantastic, and the descriptions of necromancy and the very idea of a reverse-necromancer(which is a full time job) is stellar.
The only complaint I have about the books is that when all is said and done, Garth Nix is not as good a writer as his ideas are. His style is overwrought and occasionally awkward, with small forays into redundancy. Personally, I can forgive writing problems, because I’m not much of a writer myself, and also, because his ideas more than make up for the writing.
Don’t get me wrong–I’m not saying he’s a bad writer. I’m just saying he’s not a particularly good writer.
Still, I put the Abhorsen series right up there on the list of fantasy that I recommend to my friends.
And while it’s nominally for the YA age group, I think if you’re an adult who can stand Harry Potter…well, this is far more adult than that series.
Randolph Fritz
Those are my favorites of the “goth” books; there’s a real magic to them–something where the work appears to be more than it is.
Randolph Fritz
It seems worth adding a bit to that. Sabriel is a metaphysical fantasy, the story of a young necromancer, whose very serious business is laying the dead. The story proceeds on two levels, with the reader learning about Sabriel’s world, and Sabriel learning her situation, and yet I never felt at a loss for information; Nix, like Rowling, has a real gift for providing exposition just when it is needed. The country between life and death, where much of the action of the book takes place, is a great imaginative achievement, eerie and well-realized, and the magic of the story is original and equally well-realized.
Worth the trouble, says I.