{"id":6,"date":"2004-01-23T12:15:59","date_gmt":"2004-01-23T19:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=6"},"modified":"2025-08-12T20:28:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:28:20","slug":"sabriel-lirael-abhorsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6","title":{"rendered":"Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sabriel<\/i>, Lirael<\/i>, Abhorsen<\/i> by Garth Nix<\/a><\/p>\n

I’d been looking Sabriel<\/i> for awhile but hadn’t picked it up to read, mostly because I already have too many books I’ll read when I have time to get around to it, but I read some positive comments about the books, and decided to read them over the break.<\/p>\n

The books were very<\/i> good. The stories are set in two connected worlds. There is the world that feels to me a bit like England before WWII, and the magical world, whose entrance is guarded by a military conversant in weaponry both modern and medieval. In the first book, Sabriel was sent to school in the mundane world, with a magical education, but must then go live in a magical world of which she has few memories and a more theoretical than actual education.<\/p>\n

Her primary companion turns out to be Mogget, a creature forced by magic into cat form. I really like Mogget, but then I’m particularly fond of characters whose allegiances are not always clear. But I really liked Mogget after this: <\/p>\n

Mogget didn’t answer, but sat at her feet, and made a movement that looked very much like he was going to be sick. Sabriel recoiled, disgusted, then halted, as a small metalic object fell from Mogget’s mouth and bounced on the floor.<\/p>\n

“Almost forgot,” said Mogget. “You’ll need this if I’m to come with you.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The characters are excellent, and the story is fantastic. Despite being a fast read for me, the characters were well developed, as was the plot. The story and the settings are unique, as are the characters, which is always a good thing.<\/p>\n

The second book was my least favorite of the trilogy. Set several years after Sabriel, the main characters are Lirael and Sameth, with appearances by Mogget and the Disreputable Dog, a character Lirael conjures to combat her loneliness, but who is much more than expected. Lirael I like quite well, Sameth, however, I found irritating for most of the book, and read through his sections very quickly. Nevertheless it is still a good book, and well worth reading as it provides all the backdrop for Abhorsen, the third book.<\/p>\n

Abhorsen keeps Lirael as the main character, although other characters from the first and second books do play important roles. The story moved along at a much more rapid pace than Lirael, which didn’t make Lirael a bad book, just a slower moving one.<\/p>\n

If it is important to you (it is to me) each book is resolved. No cliffhanger endings where you must immediately run out and find the next book. Mind you, you’ll want to do so, because the books are very good, but you’re not left wondering whether the characters will survive. (I hate it when books do that.)<\/p>\n

Excellent books. I highly recommend them. Go buy them and start reading them right this instant, you’ll like them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen by Garth Nix I’d been looking Sabriel for awhile but hadn’t picked it up to read, mostly because I already have too many books I’ll read when I have time to get around to it, but I read some positive comments about the books, and decided to read them over the break. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,3,291],"tags":[345],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-kids","category-paper","tag-garth-nix"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5940,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5940","url_meta":{"origin":6,"position":0},"title":"Sabriel","author":"Michelle","date":"June 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Sabriel (1995) Garth Nix Sabriel is the daughter of Abhorsen--the Charter necromancer who puts the restless dead beyond the ninth gate. She has been sent outside of the walls of the Old Kingdom for her education, seeing her father in person only a few times a year, but seeing him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sabriel.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3818,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3818","url_meta":{"origin":6,"position":1},"title":"Sabriel","author":"Michelle","date":"May 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Sabriel (1995) Garth Nix I was feeling depressed and sad, so I took advantage of the fact I'd picked up Sabriel as a deal at one point, and decided it was just what I needed to re-read. Sabriel has spent most of her youth in Ancelstierre, and is now preparing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sabriel-e1511019506918.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":156,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/156","url_meta":{"origin":6,"position":2},"title":"Across the Wall","author":"Michelle","date":"November 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Across the Wall (2005) Garth Nix I absolutely loved Sabriel. The rest of the Abhorsen trilogy was good, but Sabriel was fantastic. So I am prepared to give anything written by Garth Nix a chance. I picked up Across the Wall for two reasons. First, because I like his writing,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/11\/Across-the-Wall.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":366,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/366","url_meta":{"origin":6,"position":3},"title":"Mister Monday","author":"Michelle","date":"April 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Mister Monday (2003) Garth Nix I absolutely loved Sabriel. The following two books were also excellent, but I just adored Sabriel. I also liked his collection of short stories, Across the Wall. So when I saw he had another series, The Keys to the Kingdom, I... hesitated. Sometimes when an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mister Monday","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/mister_monday.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14","url_meta":{"origin":6,"position":4},"title":"Artemis Fowl","author":"Michelle","date":"February 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer Another children's\/young adult book, and a pretty good one at that, although I didn't find it quite as interesting as either Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials or Garth Nix's Sabriel. It was still good, and I liked the fact that the protagonist is an antihero.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4419,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4419","url_meta":{"origin":6,"position":5},"title":"Magic Bleeds","author":"Michelle","date":"February 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Magic Bleeds (2010) Ilona Andrews This one is more romance than mystery, but still all fantasy and action. First, I really appreciate how Kate actually thinks and considers before taking action. She doesn't always so manages when it's important. If Curran and I got into it, our fight wouldn\u2019t be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bad Cover"","block_context":{"text":"Bad Cover","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/bad"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Magic-Bleeds.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}