Sabriel

Rating:
Summary: Dark fantasy for all ages
Review: Sabriel is the latest in a long line of powerful necromancers who can not only raise the dead but whose task it is to set the undead to rest. Residing at a private school away from home, she receives a message that her father is trapped somewhere beyond the realm of the dead. She must travel back to the Old Kingdom where she was born to free him, but finds herself pursued by dead forces which she may very well lack the training and experience to combat.

Sabriel's world is an unusual one in that there is magic as well as technology, but this book focuses more on the characters and leaves much of the world around them only hinted at. In addition, the author drops us right into the action with little preamble. This is disorienting at first, but it enables the reader to feel firmly entrenched in the world of the novel, and less like an outsider who is only reading about it.

While the story has a slow beginning, once Sabriel begins her journey it is gripping and suspenseful. It is not exactly horror, but its imagery does set it firmly in the realm of dark fantasy. And although it is written for and marketed to younger readers, adults should not find it beneath them. The story is complete but one gets the feeling that there is still much to explore, and I am very much looking forward to doing so in the books that follow.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've read in a while...
Review: Sabriel, by Garth Nix is an amazing fantasy book with plenty of detail and action. The book is about a young girl named Sabriel who sets out into a world of dead and undead creatures hoping to find her father. It is a book where death and life are one in the same, where the dead come out at night and feast on people and steal thier goods. A world that shuns magic, but it is the only thing to protect them from the dead. A world of modern technology, which is useless, using swords and spells to defeat the some of the most feared creatures in existence. Sabriel, a young school girl, must travel into this world of the dead unknown and try and save her dying father. This is a compelling and very well written book with suspense, action, and a little romance, a pageturner for sure.

Rating:
Summary: The Outstanding World of Nix's Old Kingdom
Review: Even as an adult reader, it was impossible not to be struck by the talent of Garth Nix who has created a tremendous trilogy of books, beginning with "Sabriel". Authors who write fantasy novels are often carried away by the worlds they create and shamefully neglect their characters. However, Nix manages a deft mix of a facinating world and magical system while simultaneously turning out extrodinarily well rounded characters. Well done, Mr. Nix!

Rating:
Summary: A definite must-read
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read. It combines magic and technology to create a new world that is in some ways completely alien and in some ways frighteningly like our own. The book is centered around a girl named Sabriel, who is the heir to the post Abhorsen-a post whose job is, in essence, to keep dead folks dead and not let them kill living folks. With a set of 7 mystical bells and the help of the sarcastic, mysterious Mogget, Sabriel sets out to rescue her father and defeat the evil Kerrigor. A novel that will literally keep you spellbound through the last page and leave you hungering for more. I recommend this to anyone who has ever picked up a book. A word to the wise: Read Lirael after you finish this, and don't be put off by the length (700 pages)-it goes by very fast.

Rating:
Summary: The Magic Begins
Review: In an eloquent story, Garth begins what will be a beautiful yet unnamed trilogy. Sabriel has been living at Wyverly College, a boarding school for "girls of quality" since she was five, as her father's duties do not allow for her care. When her father, the Abhorsen, doesn't show up for his bi-annual visit shortly after graduation, Sabriel becomes worried.

The result leads her out of Ancelstierre and across the wall to the Old Kingdom, where there has not been a King or Queen for 200 years and a Regent for 20. With a little journeying, Sabriel discovers that her father may be in a danger so terrible that only she, the Abhorsen in waiting, can get him out. Follow Sabriel on the adventure of a lifetime and then read the rest of the story in "Lirael".

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: In this epic story told not unlike tales in the golden age of fantasy, Garth Nix has successfully joined great names, such as those synonomous with fantasy (J.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis).
This book is not at all related to any other tale, it is an original, pure and simple, using no familiar concepts or ideas to convey the main point of the story.
In the story, a adolescent girl named Sabriel realizes that her father, Abhorsen, has been detained or trapped somewhere in the endless river of death, and as the story progresses, it becomes obvious that the culprit is the Great Dead creature Kerrigor, who had once, over two hundred years in the past, had tried to destroy the Charter, the magical force that binds the world together.
Along the way on the quest for an understanding of her heritage and her father, Sabriel meets the Free Magic being Mogget, chained to the power of the Abhorsens unwillingly, beneath the quiet exterior of his cat-like bady lies a murderous being of tremendous power which Sabriel will have to confront. She also meets the imprisioned prince of the Old Kingdom, who calls himself Touchstone, and is also unwilling to share with Sabriel his tarnished past which Mogget seems to know about.
The story includes magic, love, adventure, and brilliant new ideas by a writer rising in promenince among the literary society. All the components are there for an epic, and Nix brings them all together brilliantly. A classic.

Rating:
Summary: great...
Review: I first read this book about 7 years ago, when I was quite young. I loved it then and I have continued to love it the other four or five times I read it. This is a great book! If you have time, this is a good way to use it! I still can't put it down, and I know what happens in the end!

Rating:
Summary: Great Fantasy Book
Review: Garth builds an interesting world filled with the dead come back to haunt and eat the living. Sabriel must deal with these things and restore order to the Kingdom. It's a great read, no hooky tricks with last minute savings from things not mentioned prior. It's both a coming of age book, and an journey book. Recomended for young teens and adults. May be too scary for pre-teens.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVE IT!
Review: I'm an advid fantasy reader and this is my second favorite book ever. (The first being its sequel Lirael)

Sabriel is a story about a girl (Sabriel if you haven't guessed) who is looking for her father, Abhorsen. Abhorsen has the power to use bells to put dead things back in Death (Death is a place) Lirael also has this skill. While she is looking for her father Lirael finds there is something very wrong in the Old Kingdom. Dead are everywhere running rampant with no one to stop them.

Sabriel is awesome. With a strong feminine lead and plenty of magic and action there is no way someone can hate this book. My summary can't even begin to describe it.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: If you're like me and searching for something to fill the void the end of the 7th Tower series left, this is definatly the right book. ^_^ It is a truly magnificant book.