Twenty years ago today, Sabriel was published. Given that I have yet to read the rest of the books in the series I imagine that would make me view this book differently but in the meantime I am very impressed.Happy May 11! Today has been “officially” dubbed as Sabriel Day by Garth Nix, author of the wonderful young adult fantasy series. There isn’t really one area other than diversity that I can critique it on. That’s probably the highest compliment I can give a book. My love of Nevernight is not unknown on this blog so of course I appreciated Mogget the ‘cat’ as a companion. I loved the idea of the bells to control the dead. The world building is of course exceptional. That isn’t to say that there aren’t amazing unique elements to this book. I think back in 1996 there were so fewer books on the market there was less impetus to add ‘fun’ elements to your plotline tomake it stand out. It was just good writing with no gimmicks. Nothing felt like a ‘strong female character’ by which I mean that nothing was a cliché and nothing was trying too hard. What I loved about this book was how old school it felt. There’s quite a lot of travelling in the book and the audiobook format doesn’t let you skim read those bits (if you’re that way inclined) so it does start to drag on a little.
I’m not sure this is the best book to listen to however, as I think it slows down the pacing a little too much. I’ve listened to both good and bad audiobooks in the past and this definitely falls into the former category. It’s narrated by Tim Curry for a start but it’s also just well produced in general. I’ll confess, I didn’t actually read this ( what do you mean Judith, how dare you try and review something you didn’t read what does that even mean?!) by which I mean I listened to it as an audiobook ( oh I suppose that’s ok then). I’ll start, therefore, by saying that this is a good audiobook. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him. 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.
Always fulfilling to tick something off that list! But how did Sabriel stack up to the hype? Today I have the exciting pleasure of reviewing something which I said I was going to read in a want to read Wednesday. Morning mortals! How’s it going? (No seriously, let me know in the comments, especially if you’re in the mood for a good old fashioned moan!).
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