An excellent fanfic in which Sam and Dean sprout wings and Gabriel & Castiel help out.

This seriously was and still is my favorite young adult fantasy trilogy! I have read it several times. I loved everything about this series, however, I wish each book was a trilogy that focused on the main character, like I would have loved more stories from Sabriel and Lirael. Companion novels are hit and miss, because you really get attached to characters and the next book is new characters!

 

 

So it should have been Sabriel 1-3 and then Lirael 1-3 (Abhorsen would have been part of the Lirael trilogy.) Heck Garth could have gave us a series based on each character. Let's say 7 books each? Is that good for everybody? Needless to say, I am a huge Garth Nix fan and love all the books I've read from him so far. It goes without saying that this trilogy gets a huge 5 star rating.

 

 

Sorry this isn't much of a review, more of a fangirl over a trilogy I like!

 

Other Garth Nix Books:

The 7th Tower Series (All 5/5 stars)

The Keys to the Kingdom Series (All 5/5 stars)

 

I might be biased as I love Garth Nix!

I went into this book knowing pretty much nothing at all about it. It was recommended by a good friend who generally has good (i.e., similar to mine :D) tastes, so I felt good about picking it up! Funny enough, outside of Lord of the Rings, it's the oldest fantasy I've read. Which, I know I know, is hilarious, because it's only 20 years old. Haha. Fantasy isn't typically my gig, okay? Though lately I'm enjoying it more and more. Anyway!

My favorite part of this novel was the collision of old world and new - the archaic, medieval world "across the Wall," and the more modern, WWII type world on the other side. The world (or worlds, I guess, even though they are definitely interconnected) is very layered and complex. Color me intrigued. Intrigued enough to keep reading, even when I felt the characters were kind of flat. Sabriel, god love her, was just...eh. Touchstone was slightly more interesting but also...eh. Mogget was definitely the most interesting character of the entire book. I...well, I'm not sure what I feel about Mogget! I want to love Mogget, but I'm kind of afraid to because...what is Mogget? As it is, the chain of events, piling sinister and weird on top of each other, was enough to keep me reading. Characters are, honestly, the biggest draw of a book for me. To not be totally in love with these was kind of a downer. They're sympathetic, don't get me wrong! Just kind of two-dimensional. Also, the romance? Better left out entirely than the way it was just thrown on top like too-stiff frosting. It could have been written so much better. That's really the only complaint I had about the writing though. The world descriptions were fabulous. I could see the gown Sabriel wore, could hear the winds behind the Paperwing and see its yellow eyes. I'll definitely be continuing with the series.

Surprisingly, excellent... like, actually feminist. Sabriel is a recent graduate that gradually comes into her own, growing into power, confidence and authority over the course of this first book. The romantic element is handled pretty gracefully, too, and the world and magical underpinnings are complex and revealed naturally and convincingly. Didn't expect to, but I loved it. Excited to continue on in the trilogy, and a little sad that there's a big time skip to the next book... Stellar fantasy all 'round.

This had all the right elements.  I mostly liked the main character, the story, the pacing, what I found of the worldbuilding ... should have been an unmitigated hit.

 

It it always started to get interesting then just missed.  I have no idea if will be going on with these.

 

I think I missed something because it almost but never quite connected or became page-turning-ly interesting.  There's still some bits and pieces that make me think the series could be an interesting one, including the Clarys that showed at end--partly to see if I'd see this one differently after reading more.

 

I triple checked this was one to read first of the multiple series/books.  

 

I know that some of the puzzling worldbuilding was because of author's device of a geas near the charter stones prohibiting anyone from discussing the background of charter and free magic.  I know I'm supposed to accept that the "rules," the good/evil or logic when set aside for M.C. were supposed to be accepted because she was the Abhorsen (rather than hypocritical or illogical withn the framework already established) -- but I struggled with it. 

 

I still don't swallow how it was acceptable or evil when plot-convenient (never of course when the Abhorsen was doing it) to enslave Moggot(?) and others.  From other discussions, I gather " free magic" like M.'s was supposed to be evil (except when used by Abhorsen)...?

 

No hurry to continue series if I do.