Writer. Reader. Reviewer.

Sabriel by Garth Nix is one of my all-time favorite books. The first in The Old Kingdom series, Sabriel is the book that introduced me to reading and started off my addiction. I can remember vividly loaning the book from my school library, laying down in my living room and just becoming lost in a new world.

Sabriel is a book that I constantly reread and is my go-to book for getting over a reading slump, as I then must read the next two books: Lirael and Abhorsen.

I have recently started to listen to the audio books on Audible, narrated by the amazing Tim Curry and was shocked that I had not listened to them earlier. His voice acting is incredible, and I am really enjoying his portrayal of Mogget; which is making me laugh, even in the middle of the street whenever he speaks. I love how he shifts the tone of his voice when voicing a character, becoming higher and softer when being female characters and lower and gruffer when becoming the male ones.

The story follows Sabriel, who is the main character and the daughter of the Abhorsen – a necromancer who lays the dead to rest rather than raising them, on her journey to find her father and rescue him. Sabriel has been hidden in Ancelstierre by her father, to attend a boarding school and hidden from the Old Kingdom, where dark forces are on the rise. As Sabriel ventures from Ancelstierre into her homeland, her experiences begin to shape her, and she becomes more mature and confident in herself as she transitions from an unsecure schoolchild into a warrior-mage who has inherited an immense legacy.

In some ways Sabriel is thrown into the deep end, having no guides, other than Mogget – an ancient spirit bound in cat-form to serve the Abhorsen bloodline, who is also a sarcastic little shit at the best of time (he is my other favorite character, other than Sabriel of course). I loved how she had to face her fears of the unknown and overcome them, thereby being brave. I liked how she made mistakes because of her naivety but worked to correct them. Sabriel is smart as well, able to piece together clues about the history of the Old Kingdom and eventually discover how to defeat her enemy.

Mogget was a brilliant character who was lazy and sassy in equal measure. He had no care with how he spoke, speaking what he saw as the truth and most of the time browbeating Sabriel about what he saw as stupidity and naivety. He was an enemy of the Abhorsen that had been bound to the bloodline and took the shape and characteristics of cat, to both boon and bane.

The worldbuilding of Sabriel was a massive draw for me. I especially like how the two countries were linked and separated by a vast magical wall. The two countries were also incredibly different from one another; like night and day. One country: Ancelstierre, shares similarities with early 20th century Britain; from speech and technology. I thought it especially clever how magic did not work there and only did so close to the Wall, where magic bleed over from the Old Kingdom and the fact that technology did not work in the Old Kingdom, breaking down from the magic in the very air. The Old Kingdom is more medieval in nature, being ruled by a royal family and being protected by ancient bloodlines that tie the magic together into the land.

I loved learning the history and the back story that led to the present. The history was rich, and different threads were introduced and woven together into a tapestry of lore and magic. I especially loved the fact that many old myths were incorporated into the lore. From how running water deterred the dead and how even the bells of a necromancer were linked to the ringing of church bells that frightened away dead spirits. Even the Abhorsen’s familiar Mogget had links with mythology; with cats being tied with Death as protectors and guardians – able to walk between the boundary of the living and the dead.

Another aspect of the worldbuilding I enjoyed was the magic system called The Charter, which is a set of magical laws that was imposed upon Free Magic, which was raw power and incredibly corruptive, therefore instilling order into chaos. I loved how Garth Nix does not into detail with this system and instead remaining vague and therefore allowing the reader’s imagination to fill in the gaps. And finally, I liked how Death was an integral and physical aspect of the world, how Necromancers and Charter Mage could enter Death of they chose by casting the correct magics; even the small detail of their bodies becoming frozen over in hoarfrost when their souls enter Death, was well done. Death itself was represented as an immense river, infinitely wide on either side and grey, preventing those that wander from seeing more than a few feet around them. As a river, the current twists, and turns in eddies, exerting a pull on those that enter and trying to draw them deep into Death, through the nine precents of Death – each separated by a gate. It is the dead that resist this pull that are the enemies in the book, the river having stripped away the humanity they once had and leaving only cruel intelligence that desperately want the “life” and can only stay out of Death by consuming it. It is the Abhorsen duty to bind these dead and send them beyond the ninth gate.

Sabriel will always get a 5/5 from me and I would recommend reading it and the rest of the series.