Sabriel

Author: Garth Nix

Series: The Old Kingdom (Book 1)
Paperback: 491 pages
Publisher: Harper Collins; I edition (September 30, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0064471837
ISBN-13: 978006447183

Sent to a boarding school in Ancelstierre as a young child, Sabriel has had little experience with the random power of Free Magic or the Dead who refuse to stay dead in the Old Kingdom. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him.

With Sabriel, the first installment in the Abhorsen series, Garth Nix exploded onto the fantasy scene as a rising star, in a novel that takes readers to a world where the line between the living and the dead isn’t always clear—and sometimes disappears altogether.

What I thought: I first read this series in high school and his vision of this world of Necromancy is so beautifully done. I always read stories to escape – as though I was having the adventure myself.  Sabriel was the first heroine that even looked like me so of course I took to her story like a hobo on a ham sandwich. While there is a romantic subplot, the story would have been fine without it. Sabriel is such an amazing, strong, and courageous character – as soon as I finished it, I went straight back to the beginning to relive the adventure!

The Quote: Does the walker choose the path or the path choose the walker?

Why I chose it: This quote touches on a theme of the book: destiny. Do we choose what happens or is it already written?

About the Author:

Garth Nix was born in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia, to the sound of the Salvation Army band outside playing ‘Hail the Conquering Hero Comes’ or possibly ‘Roll Out the Barrel’. Garth left Melbourne at an early age for Canberra (the federal capital) and stayed there till he was nineteen, when he left to drive around the UK in a beat-up Austin with a boot full of books and a Silver-Reed typewriter.

Despite a wheel literally falling off the Austin, Garth survived to return to Australia and study at the University of Canberra. After finishing his degree in 1986 he worked in a bookshop, then as a book publicist, a publisher’s sales representative, and editor. Along the way he was also a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve, serving in an Assault Pioneer platoon for four years. Garth left publishing to work as a public relations and marketing consultant from 1994-1997, till he became a full-time writer in 1998. He did that for a year before joining Curtis Brown Australia as a part-time literary agent in 1999. In January 2002 Garth went back to dedicated writer again, despite his belief that full-time writing explains the strange behaviour of many authors.

He now lives in Sydney with his wife, two sons and lots of books.