Review War: Sabriel

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Review War: Sabriel

I’m about to come clean.

I don’t normally review books unless asked, because when honest I can be sarcastic. I have a journal of things that come to my mind as I read a book, things I couldn’t say in a professional review but have to get out of my system.

Never, ever trust a writer.

But all of that is going to change, because I am doing review wars with Brett–a new segment in which we choose a book to read together and, well, review it. If we both like the book, it probably isn’t going to be a war, but a long post of fangirling I guess.

We are starting with Garth Nix’s Sabriel, and with this book it’s pretty clear we perceived things differently.

For those of you wondering, Brett is an Aussie blogger whose beta group I hijacked. We stayed good friends despite my party crashing, but I really enjoy the title of Group Antihero. He likes reading and Coldplay and one day he’s going to be published.

Go follow his blog because after this post you’ll find him a lot more fair at reviewing than me.

Hello, Brett.

Brett: Hi! Thanks for having me!

Brett: I’ll start us off!

Sabriel is the first book in Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series, and it follows a young necromancer called – you guessed it, Sabriel – as she ventures ‘over the Wall’ into the decaying Old Kingdom to rescue her father: a land where the Dead are coming back to life under the control of a malign influence.

It’s completely iconic for Nix – every second word is capitalized (Charter, Wall, Clayr, Abhorsen, Mordicant; even Life and Death get the capital treatment), and Nix has crafted a well-thought-out magic system that still hints at much greater powers nobody knows about.

The detail that Nix put into the ‘Gates’ of death, and how the seven Bells worked to control various aspects of Life and Death was all quite good. It’s rare that you see fantasy authors pay that much attention to magic, rather than just using it as a get-out-jail-free card.

Mariella, what did you think about Sabriel?

Mariella: What kind of a name is Sabriel? [/sarcasm]

The necromancy thing was cool, and the different kinds of zombie, for example that Mordicant who really needs some relaxing tea, and the nearly headless thing who was probably Nick’s great-grandfather–but more like the Baron in terms of personality.

However, something about the magic system seemed a little dull overall. Maybe it’s because I binge read Harry Potter in March and am biased.

I thought it excessive to capitalize All The Words (I know what life and death mean, do we need to capitalize them) but it is an old book. You can see how writing styles change over time.

Still, it got slow for me–really often. To be honest, the main reason I kept reading past chapter 13 was Mogget. He reminds me of Grimalkin from The Iron Fey, but if we’re being fair time-wise, Grim is a Mogget rip-off.

Mogget is this sarcastic cat spirit (or spirit trapped as a cat?) who put spice into the narrative with his indifferent, witty comments. If you ask me, the best thing about Sabriel (besides watching the Mordicant have a heart attack, if he has a heart even) was Mogget.

Brett: Mogget was certainly entertaining, but the plot was never too boring for me.

What’s wrong with Capitalizing Magical Words, though? Harry Potter – which you binge-read a few months back – took the opportunity to capitalize everything, including the flying balls in Quidditch (Quaffle, Bludger, Snitch), and every single spell (Accio, Counter-Argument!).

But Nix’s grammatical quirks aside, I will admit that the plot was simple and to-the-point. Sabriel is going to rescue her father from Death, but she has to find his physical body first. Along the way, she realizes that she knows very little about her true fate – to become an Abhorsen, a legendary necromancer who can defeat the Dead.

If I’m being critical, it can feel a little shallow at times – there’s not much in the way of plot twists or depth, beyond simply chasing down a ‘big bad’. But thankfully the world is so rich and detailed, that you just become wrapped up in the journey.

Mariella: WHICH ALSO BUGGED ME. Abhorsen has her in a fancy school and he’s paying her tuition every single year with these awesome teachers but he never thought to tell her basic things about her fate. I mean she learned the magic but clearly not enough. She had to chase him into the realm of the dead for instruction which I thought silly.

*clucks tongue* Abhorsen, you could have afforded to homeschool your daughter a little bit. Ah well.

Aside from Mogget, I found a great deal of the book to be dry until Touchstone turns up. (Another really weird name, ah well.) We finally get a real person with human emotions and struggles. Put him and Mogget in the same scene and I can forget how Sabriel has the emotional range of a mannequin. Maybe she’s around too many dead people. That’s gotta be it.

Brett: You want to talk about emotional range? Touchstone was a wooden statue for two-hundred-years, and all he does is mope about what happened before he was turned into a statue! And Abhorsen had a reason for sending Sabriel away – the Old Kingdom was falling apart, and he wanted to protect her. Can you blame a father for keeping his daughter safe?

Mogget was quite entertaining, though I couldn’t help but draw parallels with Nix’s much later series, Keys to the Kingdom, and the character of Dame Primus. It soured my memory of Keys a little bit, seeing how the same character type was recycled.

But putting those few complaints I have aside, I think this is a pretty amazing book. It might not have the depth of other epic fantasies, but it certainly has that wonderful Garth Nix charm, drawing you into a dark, slightly disturbing world of magic and the ever-present rumors and insinuations about much more powerful magic. As a starting point for the Old Kingdom series, I think it’s quite excellent – I score it 4/5 stars.

Mariella: I have to agree that overall it was a good book, but only because of Mogget and Touchstone. Sabriel and her dad weren’t my favorite characters.

I really like the happy ending Touchstone got. He deserves it. And he has a chance now to find someone more interesting than Sabriel.

I give this book 4/5 stars. Because I did enjoy it. I just show it in strange ways. Brett has reviewed the book as a whole, while I kept getting distracted by Mogget and how useless most of Sabriel’s education was.

See? Follow his blog for fair, honest reviews :) *hides her reading journal*

Brett: Thanks for having me over for the first-ever Review War! I’m looking forward to us arguing over books again in the future.

If you liked this, stay tuned to both of our social accounts – @brettmichaelorr and @mariellahunt – so you don’t miss out on the next Review War!

If you’ve read Sabriel or any other Old Kingdom books, let us know what you thought in the comments below! Do you agree with me, or Mariella? Or do you have your own thoughts somewhere inbetween?

For all our visitors – thank you for reading!