flail, flail, Sabriel, flail

[silverflight8]

I read Sabriel at the collective urging of kmo_lj and thorarosebird (Thora, you still there?) and I'm still kind of reeling.

OK #1, I totally called Touchstone's royal blood when he said he was a guard. I mean, c'mon, he was basted onto the ship where royalty are laid to rest. Also, I read too much fantasy.

You know what, it's too hard to do this with half spoilers out everywhere, let me cut the whole thing.


SOOOOOO I came out of it shipping Touchstone/Sabriel (what is his real name, anyway?) Kind of telegraphed by his introduction, but I'm not into romance for the subtlety, so we're all good. And I love that they're both mages--together they fight evil! Or things risen back from the dead, as it were...

I'm utterly charmed by the Paperwings, and I don't even know why. I think of them as a little like white paper planes, and those are charming in a way that our real airplanes aren't.

I almost cried when Sabriel's father died. Noooooooooo how could you do this? ;_; On the other hand, the Abhorsens of the past come to push Sabriel back to the living (JESUS H CHRIST was that a gory death, did she just get impaled on a sword?!?) and they are all experienced in dipping between death and life, so maybe...he's not totally lost? Oh god, I don't deal well with these twists, I hate characters dying.

I'm not sure how to think about Mogget. It's like there's two of him, the cat-being (which is an albino child/dwarf thing to Sabriel's father) and the other being which is indescribable, and I think of them as two separate characters. I was so pleased he came back. I feel that cat characters always improve a book, even if I'm not much of a cat person myself. They have interesting personalities!

The part about Mogget telling Sabriel to re-bind him is weird. It's not precisely Stockholm Syndrome, but maybe like Mogget prefers being not-vengeful (a better person?) which is easier in his cat form. And I am so very glad that he reappeared.

The Charter, Great Stones, the whole magic system is still kind of a mystery to me. Partly a result of the gag that's on Mogget and Touchstone I think, who would otherwise be guides in the Old Kingdom, since Sabriel doesn't know. I did like the idea of bells--or rather, the sound of bells, since Sabriel's trained to sing/whistle the sounds in case the bells aren't there--controlling death. Well, not controlling death, but exerting control on living/unliving with regards to the realm of death. There, that's more accurate, but weird.

I also really liked the Clayr twins. They're probably terrible stereotypes of twins (dreamy, not-really-there twins) but I loved them anyway--I hope we get to see more of them.

Oh and Ancelstierre! In my mind it's like northern England or Scotland in the early 19th century. Thus the tanks, but cars which go 30mph are impressive. And the whole boarding school thing, but Nix is Australian, isn't he? On the other hand, I don't think it's an actual England/Scotland/other analogue; for one, Wyverly College (a girls' school built originally for "Young Ladies of Quality") teaches swordsmanship, amongst other things like etiquette.

Trying to get my hands on the sequel right now.

Comments

[lilithnaamah.livejournal.com]

I love Sabriel! One of my favorite book series when I was a teen!

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

I'm really enjoying it, and the characters especially! I'm so glad I finally read them :P

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

HI! I haven't seen you for a couple months so I figured you were busy or something :) I'm glad you're still here! *hugs*

YES OMG YES I will read the next books (they're on hooooooold.) Though I'm kind of sad they're not about Sabriel D: Is she in Lirael?

Prequel sounds so cool :) I love the characters and hope to see them back again.

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

Aww, well, people drift away so I'm always adding people to my flist to keep some people round. I'm glad you're still here! I've missed seeing your cheerful cupcake icon around <3

I'm glad Sabriel shows up! And kmo said that it follows the Clayr, which I am pretty excited to see more of :)

Yeaaaaah, in a lot of parts I definitely felt there were some more amateurish writing than I'd usually read from Nix--it was still really good, but I didn't feel it was like the Seventh Tower's elegance, I guess.

Aww, I'm kinda fixated on Sabriel right now but I'm sure I'll want to know more about the antagonist soon! As soon as the library coughs up a copy of Lirael.

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

I'm so excited to read it. AHHH I'm so glad I didn't read it when Nix was still writing them--those waits are the worst! Especially if they get delayed D:

Oooh, more Mogget! I love how he's at once all prickly and also secretly really does want to help Sabriel. Hm.

[kmo-lj.livejournal.com]

glad you enjoyed it! honestly i read it so long ago that i forgot a lot of the details, but i remember really liking the magic system and the world-building- especially the bells controlling death. it is a kind of dark fantasy, since it deals with death, but i thought the twist of the necromancer being one of the "good guys" was cool. Lirael, the next book, is set a generation into the future and i think is even better. it deals with the Clayr and features a kickass librarian. how awesome is that?

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

Re: necromancer laying the dead back--I hadn't thought of that before, but you're totally right. It's an interesting twist.

It is kind of dark. But death is treated as a secondary world (or a tertiary one?) and it loses some of its darkness for me because of how Sabriel and her father could step in and out at will generally. Except beyond the ninth gate, it's not terra incognita, which is some of the fear about death I think.

Aww, I hope Sabriel & Touchstone appear, but I am pretty excited for the Clayr! Their abilities (plus the ability to learn more about the world) are really appealing.

[kmo-lj.livejournal.com]

Sabriel and Touchstone are in the next two books, even if they aren't sort of POV characters. I remember being disappointed that Sabriel wasn't going to be the protagonist beyond the first book, but I came to really love Lirael, too. there's also a series of short stories about the Old Kingdom, Beyond the Wall, i believe its called, but i haven't read them. Looking forward to the prequel, though, which features the backstory of an antagonist in the 2nd and 3rd books.

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

I want all the epic stories of their looooove, heh. But as I recall in 2009, ff.n had a pretty big category for The Old Kingdom so I'm guessing there's probably fic there :D

Good to hear re: Lirael! It's on hold and I'm kind of metaphorically champing at the bit to get a hold of it, haha.

Oh, cool! I wonder when his short stories are set, chronologically/with regards to characters?

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

Sabriel is a really good book. Iirc, it's one of the first books I read in English first so that may colour my thinking a bit, but I love it to bits. I own Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen/Across the wall so I'll very probably buy Clariel. Regarding Across the Wall, it's a short story anthology but not all of them are in the Sabriel universe. There's one that is a parody of Choose your Own Adventure books that isn't but is still pretty cool, because you can play it and it is hilarious. The longest story by far is Nicolas Sayre and the Creature in the Case and is set about six months after Abhorsen. It's a novella and was also released indenpendantly (I think I own this one too). I can check to see if there are any other stories in the Sabriel-verse, if you want.

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I reaaaaally want to know more about the Abhorsen-verse right now.

I'd love to hear about new stories in the Abhorsen universe! Hit me :)

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

Having check, Nicolas Sayre and the Creature in the Case is the only story in Across the Wall set in the Abhorsen-verse. If you can find the book, I would still reccomend reading all of it, as it is quite good. (Plus, the nice thing about short stories is that even if you don't like it, another will be along shortly.)

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

That's definitely a huge advantage of short stories. I read fast, but a quick one--if it was awful, well, it was just a couple minutes down the drain. :)

Thanks!