Sabriel

#1
Title: Sabriel
Author: Garth Nix
Publisher: Eos (HarperCollins)
Year: 1995
Genre: Young Adult fantasy
491 pages
+  Strong female protagonist; incorporation of mythic and modern elements; frank and contextually appropriate references to sexuality; appealing cover art
-   Some deus ex machina elements; some dangling plot elements (perhaps to be resolved later in the series)

The first of the Abhorsen trilogy. Somewhat evocative of Pullman's His Dark Materials, this volume is a coming-of-age narrative centered on Sabriel. Until she is about to graduate, Sabriel knows fairly little about her father, though he has taught her some magic. Upon receiving clear indications that her father has died, Sabriel undertakes a dangerous journey to find his body across the Wall in the Old Kingdom. As she journeys, she learns more about her father and the powerful role she must now assume.

Nix does a good job creating the world in which the narrative takes place and constructs a convincing heterotopia. Some plot points are more ex machina than I'd like. Better written than Harry Potter, though slightly more picaresque, perhaps to allow more natural opportunities for exposition. Less well-written than The Amulet of Samarkand and the other two volumes in Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy. Like Stroud and Pullman, rather dark. Some imagery related to magic and death is similar to Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy and other Earthsea books. Considerably less light-hearted than Duane's Young Wizards series. Like all of the authors mentioned, with the exception of Rowling, magic is portrayed as both seductive and somewhat dangerous. There is a strong moral conviction related to using magic primarily in service to others rather than for the magician's own purposes.

Given its incidental cast of thousands of the dead and almost-dead, Sabriel seems to be a good companion to McCarthy's The Road,which I'm already into, and World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which is in the mail.

Next in this trilogy: Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr.