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Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr

Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.19
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolutely Brilliant!
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read! I cannot wait till the next one comes out! :]

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: There are so many summaries...
Review: Lireal is one of the very books I've ever read, and I've read two that are very, very hard to beat to make it into the top (of my list, anyway). And this one followed directly in Sabriel's footsteps and into the top three. Outstanding discription, along with a very ensnaring plot are sure to make countless numbers of people read it over and over again. Add the many twists and turns, and it leaves even the most proud reader begging for more.

The only thing that truly irked me was that it's a 'to be continued.' Now I have to wait for Abhorsen to come out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Garth Nix Does it Again
Review: I said it once and I'll say it again, Garth Nix is a brilliant writer, and just like Sabriel, this book is worth every cent.
Once again we return to the Old Kingdom, fourteen years after Sabriel binded the Greater Dead Adept Kerrigor. While she is now Queen of the Old Kingdom as well as the Abhorsen, we also become acquainted with a new heroine.
Lirael is one of the all-seeing family of Clayr who live in their glacier in the north of the Old Kingdom. However Lirael, an orphan amongst her people, hasn't acquired the Clayr trdemark, the Sight and is beginning to feel inadequate.
Sameth, son of Sabriel and Touchstone, and recently returned from school in neighbouring Ancelstierre, is also feeling inadequate as he is being expected to train as the Abhorsen in Waiting. The problem? He can't stomach Death or anything connected with it after a recent encounter with an evil necromancer.
With trouble mounting in the west of the country and both Clayr and Royalty puzzled as to what it is, Lirael and Sameth both find themselves on roads leading that way, for very different reasons, and discovering much about themselves along the way.
In this book, Nix gives much more background on his characters before the main plot takes hold. The Great Library of the Clayr is a feat of imagination and the reader finds it full of danger and mystery. Charter magic is portrayed more here too, as both main characters are quite adept at it. Small snatches of how the Charter was created also appear along with hints as to the nature of Mogget. Though the sequel spills over into another, as-yet unpublished volume, Lirael could almost stand alone. If you too are fascinated by the Old Kingdom, you will surely read this book, even if just out of curiosty's sake and you won't be disappointed.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: disreputable
Review: Nearly every work of Nix's I've laid eyes upon have never ceased to amaze; from Shades Children, to Sabriel. Expectant, I read Lireal for the 'stunning' sequel to Sabirel...as I began reading, I was dissapointed with the unconventional and reluctant characters. Of course, this is purely stylistic, and possibly the wiser decision. Sam really bothered me, though...he never stood up to do what he had to do! Lirael is 'disturbed' by the Paper Wings, and always skipped the Fighting Arts classes.

Despite that, I forced myself to enjoy the book and fresh characters, even as I wished they would be as daring-do as the bold Sabriel. Eventually I acknowledged that this was the author's way of mixing things up a bit, and Lireal could even be considered more realistic. But then there is the case of the Direputable Dog - I didn't think she was nearly as interesting as the evil-yet-not-evil Moggett and his duel personalities. The Disreputable Dog was a wonderfully drawn character, but didn't have the same sort of mysterious danger looming about Moggett that I enjoyed so much.

At last, there is the ending. Ah, the ending. I understand there is to be a sequel, which I will undoubtably read. The cliffhanger ending was terribly distasteful, and I believe all books should stand on their own, regardless of what's to come next. At least if the author wanted to tie everything together, rather than a 'monster-of-the-week' feel as many series tend to accomplish, than Nix might have at least answered the majority of questions. After nearly 500 pages, I was dissapointed at how little was accomplished.

Don't get me wrong, it was alright and very well written. But it just wasn't what I expected, and cliffhanger endings get on my nerves. There were a few other snags and annoyances, and I think you should wait until Abhorsen is released. Then you can read both in succession, and each, I trust, will flow nicely into the next. I think you'll get a lot more out of it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very interesting
Review: Well, Nix did it again although he didn't quite match Sabriel. I have to admit that the book was very good but i can't but help feel a little let down by Prince Sameth. And Lirael, and i know this sounds shallow but, she gets all the good stuff. I mean come on. Nix sets you all up to see Sameth triumph and fulfill his destiny as the Abhorsen. And throughout the novel he frustrates you by having Sameth act too feeble and wimpy when faced by things of the dead and the tools of the Abhorsen. Nix creates Lirael to be this great person, who has no true fear and whom just sweeps in and is able to do things on a whim. Its kind of the same old, "the looser triumphs in the end" and i couldn't help but feel that Sameth was swindled and that the book is too one sided. Will there ever be another male Abhorsen? Or at least another one like Sabriel who wasn't so touchy and who didn't rely on a creature for emotional support. Nix needs to get back to the subject of death and fine tune the Abhorsen's skills and how they came to be. Lirael was still good but Sabriel, I feel, puts it to shame. Maybe its just the lack of action in this second book. Sabriel was action packed and so intrigueing. I think i read it in a couple of days. But anyways, Lirael is still definately worth reading, even though the whole Clayr subject gets a little old. If you like Nix as i do, definately get yourself a copy of Shade's Children, what a book, you won't be able to put it down. So to close things up, Lirael was good, Sabriel was amazing, and definately read Shade's Children.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Lirael was a fabulous sequel to Sabriel. Gripping, with realistic imagery mixed into Nix's fanciful tale of two very different lands, one of which is complete with the walking dead and magic, while the other the total opposite reality, with electricity and normality. The focus of the story is around the Old Kingdom (The magical reality) and it's difficulties in maintaining a stable country, while evil (free magic spirits, and the dead) does everything within it's power to distroy it all.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Searching For Who We Are
Review: This book tells of the life that a young girl has growing up in an orphanage not knowing who her father was and being abandoned by her mother when she was still very young. As she gets older, Lirael hopes that she will get the Sight that all of the daughters of the Clayr recieve when the are becoming young women. She notices that all around her, she is the oldest Clayr without the Sight. With a turn of fate, she finds herself working in the library at the glacier where the Clayr live. When she is not working she is looking behind locked and hidden doors that hide secrets of the Clayr, and more things than Lirael could have ever dreamed. Even though she keeps her time occupied by work, she still has the emptiness inside of her, that only the Sight that she yerns for can fill. After venturing through other hidden parts of the library, she finds herself being told to leave the glacier in search of answers and her future to be.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A sequel to Sabriel :)
Review: I loved this book, and now can;t decide which I liked best, Lireal or Sabriel. Lireal, as said in the title, is a Daughter of the Clayr, but is the only one without the magical gift of the Sight. The other main character in this book is Prince Sameth, son of Sabriel and Touchstone.

This book picks up roughly fourteen or fifteen years after Sabriel ended. (BTW, you should definitely read Sabriel first. Without it, the surprises revealed in this book aren't half so..surprising!) I found Part One to be the most intresting, Lireal's adventures in the Clayr's Glacier kept me reading non-stop! The books action slowed down a bit, however, when it came to the parts dealing with Prince Sameth. Sam's story was intresting, but compared to the brilliance of Lireal's story, I was left reading quickly through Sam's chapters to find out what happened next to Lireal.

This book leaves many loose ends, which I don't mind-at least it means there's a 3rd book coming! I guessed the surprise about Lireal's birth( I won't write what it is so as not to spoil it) as soon as she found the pipes and it was revealed Sam didn't want to be the Abhorsen-it was obvious! I was then waiting through the rest of the book for Lireal to find out and was satisfied when she finally did at the end.

I recommend this book to anyone who even enjoys fantasy sometimes. Along with Sabriel, it is one of the best fantasy books I've read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This great! (well, except for Sam)
Review: This was a great book, even better then Sabriel! Only a few minor errors, Sam IS a spoiled kid that dosen't know whats good for him, and I can't see how the time zones match up. If an abhorsen was her father how come she is not as old as Sabriel, and why in Sabriel did those ghosts pull her back saying she had to live because she was the last abhorsen if she really wasn't? Or is Sabreil really young or something? But over all the rest was great.

It mostly is about Lirael, a girl that is growing up and living with the Clayr. The Clayr can see things in the future, and everyone related to the Clayr gets this power. But somehow Lirael doesn't get the power that is her birth right. Year after year she watches and sees other Clayr become higher then her, and it's quiet depressing. Then she gets a job at the libary, where she spends hours looking at books, and this changes her whole life. Soon the excitement begins. Though this book ends on a terrible cliff hanger it is still wonderful.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Intriguing!
Review: A wonderful new story that is told in the Old Kingdom. This story revolves around Lirael, a daughter of Clayr. There is only one problem; she doesn't have the Sight. At 14 it's unheard of for a daughter of the Clayr to not have the Sight. Well, that's not the only problem... her mother has left her and she doesn't know who her father is, and she doesn't look like ANY of the Clayr. Though this story centers around Lirael, it is also has a sub-plot about Sabriel's son (if you don't know who Sabriel is, you should read "Sabriel" first.) Sabriel's son, Sam, is not the perfect Abhorsen that he thinks he should be, but the last thing he wants to do is disappoint his parents, and going into Death. This is an intriguing story filled with twists, but it alsot deals a lot with destiny, and what you are made to do. Although I dislike the thought of destiney, I still liked this book. I'm waiting not so patiently for the next book in the series, Abhorsen.


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