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A review by thekarpuk
Lirael by Garth Nix
4.0
The Abhorsen books scratch a very particular itch for me. They're creative, often take somewhat unpredictable directions, and always manage to keep their characters from falling into complete cliches or tropes.
If there's a flaw in the second book, it's that I liked Lirael's separate, strange arc more than I liked its involvement in the overall world of the Abhorsen. The first few chunks of Lirael stand alone as a great little work of fantasy, with this outcast in a world of nuns with the ability to see the future, trying to find her place, learning magic and exploring a bizarre, ancient library. I could read an entire book just about Lirael and her sidekick, the disreputable dog, unraveling the mysteries of the Clayr's strange glacier home.
So when part two kicked in, revealing the second, much more conventional protagonist, Sabrael's son Sameth, I kind of sighed. Inevitably, with this being a fantasy novel, I knew the two characters would intersect, and Lirael's path would be stuffed into the ongoing continuity started with Sabrael. But after a few chapters Sameth ended up growing on me, mostly because he's not exactly the standard male protagonist either.
He hates being the heir to power, ends up with PTSD fairly early on, and struggles with the fact that the world of high fantasy keeps imposing itself on him when he'd rather just tinker and play around with magic.
The other issue, and it's so common in fantasy that it almost seems weird to complain about it here, is that this doesn't feel like a complete book. I listened to this on audiobook, and I had a sinking feeling that as the book approached the point where Lirael understood her true destiny, only about an hour remained. My main consolation is that book 3, Abhorsen, is already available, so I haven't been left hanging for an indefinite period of time. It only pops out because Sabrael was such a complete, self-contained world, and I had hoped that trend will continue, but nope, book two suggests it opening up into a much wider world.
And as with the first book, Tim Curry narrates, and it is absolutely the ideal way to experience this series. Curry narrates like a pleased cat, and you haven't lived until you've heard the man say, "I'm the Disreputable Dog."
I almost feel like I could change my star rating based on the next book, since it seems to be the other half of this work. And since it's so damn readable, I've already gone through half the next book already.
If there's a flaw in the second book, it's that I liked Lirael's separate, strange arc more than I liked its involvement in the overall world of the Abhorsen. The first few chunks of Lirael stand alone as a great little work of fantasy, with this outcast in a world of nuns with the ability to see the future, trying to find her place, learning magic and exploring a bizarre, ancient library. I could read an entire book just about Lirael and her sidekick, the disreputable dog, unraveling the mysteries of the Clayr's strange glacier home.
So when part two kicked in, revealing the second, much more conventional protagonist, Sabrael's son Sameth, I kind of sighed. Inevitably, with this being a fantasy novel, I knew the two characters would intersect, and Lirael's path would be stuffed into the ongoing continuity started with Sabrael. But after a few chapters Sameth ended up growing on me, mostly because he's not exactly the standard male protagonist either.
He hates being the heir to power, ends up with PTSD fairly early on, and struggles with the fact that the world of high fantasy keeps imposing itself on him when he'd rather just tinker and play around with magic.
The other issue, and it's so common in fantasy that it almost seems weird to complain about it here, is that this doesn't feel like a complete book. I listened to this on audiobook, and I had a sinking feeling that as the book approached the point where Lirael understood her true destiny, only about an hour remained. My main consolation is that book 3, Abhorsen, is already available, so I haven't been left hanging for an indefinite period of time. It only pops out because Sabrael was such a complete, self-contained world, and I had hoped that trend will continue, but nope, book two suggests it opening up into a much wider world.
And as with the first book, Tim Curry narrates, and it is absolutely the ideal way to experience this series. Curry narrates like a pleased cat, and you haven't lived until you've heard the man say, "I'm the Disreputable Dog."
I almost feel like I could change my star rating based on the next book, since it seems to be the other half of this work. And since it's so damn readable, I've already gone through half the next book already.