Mass Market Paperback, 705 pages
English language
Published April 30, 2002 by Eos.
When a dangerous necromancer threatens to unleash a long-buried evil, Lirael and Prince Sameth are drawn into a battle to save the Old Kingdom and reveal their true destinies.
A bit odd. I only give it this rating with the understanding that I’m going to read the sequels. This book by itself doesn’t really tie up many of its conflicts, certainly not the main ones.
I was a bit disappointed in this book. The Empire Strikes Back notwithstanding, I generally think mid-series stories should still have plots of their own, even as they set up the next story. This one did not – it seemed primarily concerned with making revelations that were too long in coming and which were not all that revelatory in the end. It also spent way too much time on characters not Lirael (coughSameth*cough) to be called Lirael.
That said, what we get of Lirael and the Clayr is generally great, and I continue to enjoy learning how the two forms of magic – free magic and Charter magic – work and are differentiated. Lirael's adventures in the library are especially great. I only hope that the payoff in the next book is worth the somewhat slogging buildup in this one.
Garth Nix writes incredibly believable adolescent girls.
For all that Lirael in the library is some of my favorite stuff in the series, overall I feel like this is the weakest book of the trilogy, in large part because it is intended as a transition between the more straight-forward adventure story that was Sabriel and the more epic battle of Abhorsen. It does, however, do a good job of setting up the characters and giving hints at what is yet to come.
The Disreputable Dog and Mogget are probably my favorite characters in the series. They manage to be clearly magical creatures that fit into this world and can talk, and yet also very clearly act like a dog and a cat, respectively. Since I am re-reading it, I love all the hints about their pasts that I didn't understand the first time through.
It was not uncommon for librarians to lay down their lives for the …
For all that Lirael in the library is some of my favorite stuff in the series, overall I feel like this is the weakest book of the trilogy, in large part because it is intended as a transition between the more straight-forward adventure story that was Sabriel and the more epic battle of Abhorsen. It does, however, do a good job of setting up the characters and giving hints at what is yet to come.
The Disreputable Dog and Mogget are probably my favorite characters in the series. They manage to be clearly magical creatures that fit into this world and can talk, and yet also very clearly act like a dog and a cat, respectively. Since I am re-reading it, I love all the hints about their pasts that I didn't understand the first time through.
It was not uncommon for librarians to lay down their lives for the benefit of the Clayr as a whole, either in dangerous research, simple overwork, or action against previously unknown dangers discovered in the Library's collection.
Really enjoyed this, but did not expect the cliffhanger at the end. Will have to read the next one now.
Was quite enjoyable, I even liked it more than the previous one! Though it is a sequel, it takes place many years later and the protagonists of Sabriel are more background characters. This book ends in the middle of a story, though, to be continued in the sequel.
Insanely annoying protagonist.
It takes a lot to make me dislike a female lead, but being a selfish, whiny, typically obnoxious teenager with few redeeming qualities and then making me sit through her moaning forever will do it!
Loved Sabriel though. It's shocking that this is so unbearable in the light of that. Or maybe that makes it MORE unbearable because I know that Nix is perfectly capable writing an extremely likeable teenage heroine.
Great story, but it ends in the middle! Grr!
