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eBook editions

Sabriel: The Abhorsen Trilogy, Book One (The Abhorsen Trilogy #01)

by Garth Nix

Sabriel: The Abhorsen Trilogy, Book One (The Abhorsen Trilogy #01) Cover

ISBN13: 9780064471831
ISBN10: 0064471837
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Since childhood, Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who refuse to stay dead. But now her father, the Mage Abhorson, is missing, and Sabriel must cross into that world to find him.

With Mogget, whose feline form hides a powerful, perhaps malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage, Sabriel travels deep into the Old Kingdom. There she confronts an evil that threatens much more than her life'and comes face to face with her own hidden destiny...

Garth Nix's first young adult novel, Sabriel was nominated for the Aurealis Award for Excellence in Science Fiction in Australia.

Review:

"Rich, complex, involving, hard to put down, this first novel...is excellent high fantasy." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Review:

"A page-turner for sure, this intricate tale compares favorably with Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass and will surely appeal to the same audience." Booklist (Starred Review)

Review:

"By turns rousing, charming and slyly funny, Sabriel is an engaging tale that slays sexual sterotypes along with its monsters." San Francisco Chronicle

Review:

"Sabriel is a winner, a fantasy that reads like realism. Here is a world with the same solidity and four-dimensional authority as our own, created with invention, clarity, and intelligence. I congratulate Garth Nix. And I look forward to reading his next piece of work." Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass

Review:

"Nix has created a...remarkable and persuasive world; and done it in the grand style of heroic romance." Lloyd Alexander, author of The Black Cauldron

Review:

"Nix adds his own flavor to the fantasy novel and tells a unique tale of the female hero quest." Children's Literature

Review:

"This wonderful new fantasy is filled with rich and complex imagery." VOYA

Review:

"[A] vividly imagined fantasy....[Nix's] monsters are scary and repulsive, his sense of humor is downright sneaky, and he puts his competent but not superhuman heroine through engrossing physical and emotional wringers. This book is guaranteed to keep readers up way past their bedtimes." School Library Journal

Review:

"Nix is a new and welcome voice....He creates a believable setting and peoples it with characters who are fascinating....The adventure is dramatic enough to make a reader lose a night's sleep, because the book cannot be put down." The Alan Review
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About the Author

Garth Nix was born in 1963 and grew up in Canberra, Australia. After taking his degree in professional writing from the University of Canberra, he slowly sank into the morass of the publishing industry, steadily devolving from sales rep to publicist, until in 1991 he became a senior editor with a major multinational publisher. After a period in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia in 1993, he left publishing to work as a marketing communications consultant. In 1999, he was lured back to the publishing world to become a part-time literary agent. He now lives in Sydney, a five-minute walk from Coogee Beach, with his wife, Anna, and lots of books. Garth is also the author of Sabriel and Shade's Children.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 6 comments:
crowyhead, October 11, 2007 (view all comments by crowyhead)
While this pales a bit in comparison to its two sequels (Lirael and Abhorsen), this is the book that sets up the world and the way it functions. Sabriel is a great character; she's resilient and capable, but her confusion and grief at the disappearance of her father and her fear of taking on the mantle of Abhorsen is very real. On re-reading it, there were some things that bothered me a little, mainly that Nix skimps on the development of the emotional tie between Sabriel and Touchstone. The ending also felt resoundingly abrupt this time around, but overall I still greatly enjoyed it.
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elodiemassa, August 3, 2007 (view all comments by elodiemassa)
when you love science fiction, heroic fantasy and those type of creative writtings,
Garth Nix's books are a TREAT!!! those 3 books are just fabulous, unexpected, lovely, you just regret there's only 3, the characters are surprisingly delightfull, colorfull, full of emotions, it is also a great subject treated with intelligence and care.
go for it.
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Shoshana, January 25, 2007 (view all comments by Shoshana)
+ 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 and World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780064471831
Author:
Nix, Garth
Publisher:
HarperTrophy
performance Read:
Leo Dillon
Illustrated by:
Diane Dillon
Author:
Landa, Peter
Author:
by Garth Nix and Leo and Diane Dillon
Author:
Paterson, Katherine
Author:
Dillon, Leo and Diane
Author:
by Garth Nix and Leo and Diane Dillon
Location:
New York, NY :
Subject:
Audiobooks
Subject:
Children's fiction
Subject:
Action & Adventure
Subject:
Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
Subject:
Children's 12-Up - Fiction - Fantasy
Subject:
Fantastic fiction
Subject:
Magic
Subject:
Fantasy
Subject:
Fantasy fiction
Subject:
Adult
Subject:
Magic -- Fiction.
Subject:
Action & Adventure - General
Subject:
Fantasy & Magic
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Historical - Asia
Subject:
Children s-Science Fiction and Fantasy
Copyright:
1997
Edition Number:
1st American ed.
Edition Description:
Paperback
Series:
The Abhorsen Trilogy
Series Volume:
01
Publication Date:
September 30, 1997
Binding:
MASS MARKET
Grade Level:
from 7
Language:
English
Pages:
496
Dimensions:
6.75 x 4.1875 in 8.40 oz
Age Level:
100
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Related Aisles

Sabriel: The Abhorsen Trilogy, Book One (The Abhorsen Trilogy #01) Used Mass Market
0 stars - 0 reviews
$4.95 In Stock
Product details 496 pages HarperTrophy - English 9780064471831 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Rich, complex, involving, hard to put down, this first novel...is excellent high fantasy."
"Review" by , "A page-turner for sure, this intricate tale compares favorably with Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass and will surely appeal to the same audience."
"Review" by , "By turns rousing, charming and slyly funny, Sabriel is an engaging tale that slays sexual sterotypes along with its monsters."
"Review" by , "Sabriel is a winner, a fantasy that reads like realism. Here is a world with the same solidity and four-dimensional authority as our own, created with invention, clarity, and intelligence. I congratulate Garth Nix. And I look forward to reading his next piece of work."
"Review" by , "Nix has created a...remarkable and persuasive world; and done it in the grand style of heroic romance."
"Review" by , "Nix adds his own flavor to the fantasy novel and tells a unique tale of the female hero quest."
"Review" by , "This wonderful new fantasy is filled with rich and complex imagery."
"Review" by , "[A] vividly imagined fantasy....[Nix's] monsters are scary and repulsive, his sense of humor is downright sneaky, and he puts his competent but not superhuman heroine through engrossing physical and emotional wringers. This book is guaranteed to keep readers up way past their bedtimes."
"Review" by , "Nix is a new and welcome voice....He creates a believable setting and peoples it with characters who are fascinating....The adventure is dramatic enough to make a reader lose a night's sleep, because the book cannot be put down."
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