Sabriel
EOS, 1995
Fantasy Fiction
ISBN-10: 0064471837
491 pages
Synopsis
Sabriel is a 17-year-old girl who is finishing her last year at Wyverly College, a private school in a place known as Ancelstierre, a world based on science. However, she is the daughter of the Abhorsen, a powerful man in the magical world of the Old Kingdom who works as a necromancer to fight the dead who seek to return to Life. Finding that her father is trapped, she must now take on her father’s mantle and bravely journey through the Old Kingdom in order to save him and her world from a magician who seeks to bring chaos and plunge the Old Kingdom into a world of darkness with his evil power. Along the way, she is joined and helped by Mogget, a free-magic creature who takes the shape of a cat, and Touchstone, a young man with a riddled past that is somehow intertwined with the evil she currently faces.
Critique
This is a great read involving a truly original fantasy. The ‘magic’ used here is not the overused theme involving witches and wizards, elves, dwarves and dragons, but is instead a world completely of Nix’s invention. Although Nix’s excavation of the world within the story is only at the tip of expansion even after the third book of the trilogy, he does an excellent job of developing the fantasy and creating characters that involve several layers within their motivations and personalities. Sabriel is an above average teenager, but she’s still riddled with many of the average teen issues: love for her father, blossoming love for Touchstone, the fear of death and isolation.
The story itself is not anything new, a girl of promise with special abilities is chosen to rescue an entire kingdom with just her wits and knowledge of necromancy. However, Nix delivers it well, and he does an excellent job of painting the world for the imagination of the readers and creating empathy for the characters by giving them depth and relatable human qualities. At no point does it seem that she only overcomes her difficult circumstances by blind luck or chance, or deus ex machina (a god from a machine) where it utilizes all of the reader’s willing suspension of disbelief to be convinced that the ‘good guys’ were able to win in the end. I recommend this book to anyone ages 12 and up.
The other two editions in this trilogy are Lirael (book 1) and Abhorsen (book 3) with Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories as a companion book.
Rating Rubric
Enjoyable Read: Original Fantasy: Original Plot: Language: Asthetics: Depth In Characters: Depth In Story: Social Commentary: Layers/Complexity: Classroom Text: Overall Rating:
For the Classroom
Since this text operates in a parallel world with separate cultures, societal issues, natural laws and histories than our own, there’s not much to use as a classroom companion.
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