'Sabriel' by Garth Nix
'Sabriel' by Garth Nix

The good

  • Interesting concept around being able to go between the world of the living and the dead.
  • Sabriel, Mogget, and Touchstone are all interesting, fully-flushed out, balanced characters.
  • Decent plot and pacing.

The not so good

  • The book is based around lots and lots of magic (free magic, charter magic), with very little attempt to define what the powers are, what you can do, what the limits are, or anything else. As a result, most things are resolved deus ex machina style, with characters (both good and bad) able to pull out whatever random magic abilities they need at just the right moment. This takes away all suspense or creativity or surprise. It’s also just plain confusing. We’re told a bit about the power of Sabriel’s magic bells, but other than that, we have no idea how anything works. Can she go into the world of the undead any time she wants? Can anyone else come out when they want? What are the gates all about? Are these references to Dante’s Inferno? What is the power of running water? Who is affected by it and who isn’t? What does her sword do? What can it kill or hurt? What is this diamond spell? What does it protect against? None of this is ever really answered. We just jump from one thing to the next, and the result is underwhelming and a bit boring.

  • The main antagonist is an incredibly generic take-over-the-world, look-at-all-my-power, monologue-rather-than-do-things, dark wizard villain. He has no personality, no obvious motive, we barely see him in the story, and he’s easily defeated in the end.

Rating: 3 stars