Abhorsen

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Garth Nix: Abhorsen (2003, HarperCollins Publishers)

English language

Published April 19, 2003 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:
978-0-06-053273-4
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4 stars (3 reviews)

Book three in Garth Nix's internationally acclaimed Old Kingdom fantasy trilogy that began with Sabriel and Lirael.Beneath the earth, a malignant force lies waiting, greedy for freedom from its ancient prison. As the Old Kingdom falls once more into a realm of darkness and terror, the people look desperately to the Abhorsen, the scourge of the Dead, to save them. Yet Abhorsen Sabriel is lost, missing in Ancelstierre.Only Lirael has any chance of stopping the Destroyer. With her companions Sameth, Mogget and the Disreputable Dog, she travels across the Old Kingdom in a race against time, battling Shadow Hands and dark necromancers to reach Ancelstierre before it is too late. But what hope can one young woman have against a terrible evil with the power to destroy life itself?This eagerly awaited conclusion to Garth Nix's extraordinary Sabriel and Lirael is a complex and vividly imagined story, powerful, terrifying and compelling.This …

19 editions

Review of 'Abhorsen' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Maybe 3.5 stars, but I'm feeling generous. Certainly improved over [b: Lirael|47624|Lirael (Abhorsen, #2)|Garth Nix|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1266458951l/47624.SY75.jpg|2067752], if only because it has a story with an actual plot and ending (albeit carried over from the previous book). Oddly, like its predecessor, however, the book's title implies that the story is about one person when in fact it is primarily about another. I'm not sure who's responsible for naming these books—whether Nix or someone at his publisher or perhaps a Shadow Hand stuck in a cubicle somewhere—but the titles of the second and third volumes of this series leave a lot to be desired.

Now that I've gotten to the end, I can't help but think that the story itself suffers from the absurdity of the escalation. It's the same sort of thing that happens in TV shows, where the Big Bad gets bigger each season, until the showrunners have …

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rated it

5 stars

Subjects

  • Children's fiction
  • Fantasy fiction