Book review: Sabriel
18 May 2012 07:54![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nwhikerSabriel by Garth Nix.
Oh my.
Sabriel was a bizarre re-read (or listen) for me. I read it a long LONG time ago, a few years after it came out, during some of my insomnia and post partum depression after AC was born. So I remembered parts of the story, the ending, some important details, some ridiculously irrelevant ones, but I couldn't seem to remember what made the whole thing click together, though I'd remembered liking the book. This is not, btw, the only book like that for me. So foggy recollections of the actual story, with some details being clear as day. It was strange to re-read in that respect, the opposite of a usual re-read that fills in the details, but not the story. For example, I remembered who Touchstone was, and all that, but could not remember how she'd picked him on up on journey, or any of his background, which is very important.
I do remember liking it back then, and I think I loved it even more now. What a wonderful story coming of age, and coming into one's adult responsibilities and burdens. The magic was just as wonderful as I remembered, the bells and the sword, and the Charter marks. Necromancy, and how it was different from what Sabriel and her father and their line did. The bells. I loved the bells. Astarael is one of the names I remembered from back when, and now it fits into an actual story.
The emotions were real, the world building spectacular, and the tale riveting. So strange, those two countries next to each other one with what is about early 20th century technology and no magic, and the other with magic. That added such an interesting twist on everything, and always gave Sabriel an 'out'. I mean, really, she could have just gone back to Ancelstierre, headed south, and never thought about the Old Kingdom again. And she didn't, and you knew she never would. It was that acceptance of adulthood that was so finely portrayed.
I did cry a few times, and --gah! looks like livejournal has majorly crashed and I'm stuck with a half written post. Saving this locally for now!-- and Mogget was wonderfully sarcastic.
I loved so many things about this book, and yet it's hard to talk about without the all nasty spoilers. A definite recommend.
Note about the book on CD:
The reader, Tim Curry, who also read the Keys to the Kingdom books (loved those... I think I did a review, I don't remember.), was very good as well.
Oh my.
Sabriel was a bizarre re-read (or listen) for me. I read it a long LONG time ago, a few years after it came out, during some of my insomnia and post partum depression after AC was born. So I remembered parts of the story, the ending, some important details, some ridiculously irrelevant ones, but I couldn't seem to remember what made the whole thing click together, though I'd remembered liking the book. This is not, btw, the only book like that for me. So foggy recollections of the actual story, with some details being clear as day. It was strange to re-read in that respect, the opposite of a usual re-read that fills in the details, but not the story. For example, I remembered who Touchstone was, and all that, but could not remember how she'd picked him on up on journey, or any of his background, which is very important.
I do remember liking it back then, and I think I loved it even more now. What a wonderful story coming of age, and coming into one's adult responsibilities and burdens. The magic was just as wonderful as I remembered, the bells and the sword, and the Charter marks. Necromancy, and how it was different from what Sabriel and her father and their line did. The bells. I loved the bells. Astarael is one of the names I remembered from back when, and now it fits into an actual story.
The emotions were real, the world building spectacular, and the tale riveting. So strange, those two countries next to each other one with what is about early 20th century technology and no magic, and the other with magic. That added such an interesting twist on everything, and always gave Sabriel an 'out'. I mean, really, she could have just gone back to Ancelstierre, headed south, and never thought about the Old Kingdom again. And she didn't, and you knew she never would. It was that acceptance of adulthood that was so finely portrayed.
I did cry a few times, and --gah! looks like livejournal has majorly crashed and I'm stuck with a half written post. Saving this locally for now!-- and Mogget was wonderfully sarcastic.
I loved so many things about this book, and yet it's hard to talk about without the all nasty spoilers. A definite recommend.
Note about the book on CD:
The reader, Tim Curry, who also read the Keys to the Kingdom books (loved those... I think I did a review, I don't remember.), was very good as well.
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