Ever since my awkward tween years, fantasy genre has been my go-to genre. Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander, Tamora Pierce, Anne McCaffrey—each new author brought to life a world where a loser kid like me might find power. Strength. Belonging.
But one book… Oh, one book ruled them all.
It was Sabriel by Garth Nix.
Almost twenty years after discovering this book, I can still vividly recall the first time I read it. I was in the sixth grade, and the school librarian had saved this new release for me. She thought I’d like it based on the summary—“Don’t you like girls with magic?” she’d asked.
Why yes, yes I did, Dear Librarian. I also liked girls with fantasy-esque tunics and bandoliers, so the book’s glorious cover had me instantly sold. (And to this day, it remains my most favorite cover of all time.)
I peeled back said cover not two minutes later, smack-dab on the sidewalk while I waited for my mom to putter up in her Dodge Caravan. And though Mom did putter up eventually, I scarcely noticed. In fact, I scarcely noticed when my twerp of a brother stole the front seat. For the rest of that day, I stumbled around blindly, my eyes glued to the page.
I was hooked. Completely, irrevocably hooked with the story unfolding before me.
You see, we begin in a familiar world: boarding school in a land built on technology. But our heroine, young Sabriel, must go home, to a world where magic thrives.
A world where the dead can return to life.
Yet even though I knew that rising dead were a possibility—I mean, the opening scene shows Sabriel resurrecting a favorite pet—I didn’t understand what it actually meant. It’s not as if I’d never read anything with zombies or necromancy before.
But then one pivotal scene came along. A scene that will remain forever burned in my brain as the Most Frightening, Most Intense read I’ve ever encountered.
In order for Sabriel to enter death, you see, she must leave her body frozen and exposed in life. Though she can protect herself with magic, it’s a limited spell, forcing her keep her time in death as quick as possible.
In this pivotal scene, circumstances are against Sabriel, and she must enter death right beside a grim battle scene—and right after discovering that one of the “Greater Dead” has been released into the world. But after casting a shaky protection spell, off Sabriel goes into death, and the chapter closes.
Now I’m sure you can guess what happens next: while Sabriel is in death (her body vulnerable in life), a walking corpse arrives.
Yet the way Garth Nix handles it—oh, I still think it’s sheer brilliance. Rather than keep us in Sabriel’s narrative, the story suddenly jumps into the point-of-view of the walking corpse.
“Charter Magic on Cloven Crest,” the book reads. “It was like a scent on the wind to the thing that lurked in the caves below the hill, some mile or more to the west of the broken Charter Stone.”
Oh, snap. Things just got intense, right? And needless to say, the scent of Sabriel’s magic lures the walking corpse into the open—and also needless to say, you’re totally hooked. You want to know if Sabriel will escape the creature, don’t you? I know I sure did.
But, spoiler alert: while Sabriel does indeed evade that Lesser Dead, she almost immediately discovers something much, much more terrifying on her trail.
A Greater Dead. A Mordicant. “It was manlike, more than man-high, and flames ran like burning oil on water where it trod.”
Wow, my chest is clenching just typing that line, and still to this day, no other walking dead or necromantic spirits have terrified me quite like that Mordicant did. In fact, no other world or cast of characters has ever managed to capture my imagination to the degree that Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom did.
So go! Get thee to your nearest library and find out how our heroine manages (or perhaps fails!) to best the Mordicant. Just make sure that when you do, you’ve got time to spare because trust me: once you start reading Sabriel, you won’t be able to stop.
Susan Dennard has come a long way from small-town Georgia. As a marine biologist, she got to travel the world—six out of seven continents, to be exact (she’ll get to Asia one of these days!)—before she settled down as a full-time novelist and writing instructor. She lives in the Midwest with her husband and two dogs, and is extremely active in social media. You can find her on her blog, Twitter, or Misfits & Daydreamers, a weekly newsletter on all things books and writing. Her new book, Truthwitch, is available now from Tor.
I had much the same experience as you as a young adult. I think I discovered it when I was a senior in high school and completely devoured it. Unfortunately I felt the sequels weren’t as great and the most recent one, Clariel, was practically unreadable. I love the Charter so much and want more of that!
zomg Sabriel! I found it on the shelf in my school library and thought it looked neat, and then oh mylanta was I hooked on it! When I found out about Lirael, I drove myself to Hastings and bought it immediately, and Lirael remains to this day one of my favorite books of all time.
One of my favourite books ever, though I’d disagree with Kaila that the Lirael and Abhorsen were weaker, I actually prefer them to Sabriel (though its kinda like saying I prefer having 1.01 grams of gold to 1 gram of gold – so close as to be nearly pointless to consider). They made such an impression that when it came to name my 2 new kittens, they easily became Sabriel and Lirael (and there’s a joke that there’s a ghost cat in the house that they play with called Clariel).
I think I prefer the cover of the ones I got here in the UK though – Sabriel was a simple white cover with a red fire charter mark, Lirael was black with a blue flame mark and abhorsen was red with a white flame mark. The simplicity of the cover really spoke to me and I’d read the book twice within a fortnight of being given it after my mother found it and thought I might like it.
I haven’t read Clariel yet, but its on my list, just need to find a clear block of time (oh for when I was 12 and could read a book twice in a fortnight).
Thank you for this! I didn’t discover Sabriel until I was in my twenties and in grad school to become a librarian. I think Sabriel and Lirael were out in the US by then. I remember being in at a bookshop in London in the summer of 2003 where they had a sign advertising the upcoming release of Lirael, which was already out in the US and I had read. I was talking to the clerk and mentioned I had read it and how good it was — she was indignant that we had it so much earlier!
@3 — I think the covers you described are the same, or similar, to later editions published in the US.
I’m really excited to read Truthwitch now that I know you’re an Old Kingdom fan, Susan! I’ve had a galley on my desk for a while now and keep meaning to pick it up. Might have to put aside my current book for it now!
“Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander, Tamora Pierce, Anne McCaffrey” and Garth Nix! You just wrote directly to my soul and now I intend to read everything you have written and everything you will write – thank you.
I read the Abhorsen books as an adult and was a little meh about them. Then I read and obsessively adored Nix’s Keys to the Kingdom series (and still do). It’s always nice to see opinion-explanations of why the Abhorsen books are so much more popular. The gates and “precincts ” of death’s river-world really are interesting and original, along with Liriel’s explorations and all the Free Magic creatures and…yeah. Good stuff. KttK just had more anthropomorphic personifications and wordplay and marine life.
I read the Abhorsen Trilogy as a 40ish male (complete with shaved head!) and completely loved them. Great series that I highly recommend to anyone regardless of age or gender. The characters are well-drawn and the world-building is interesting and different. I especially loved the voyages into Death. And of course, the Disreputable Dog and Mogget!
I also loved Sabriel. It’s energetic and original as settings go. I enjoyed Lirael less, mostly because of Sam. While I understand what he is going through, paralyzed indecision is not really an endearing character trait, especially when the character spends 3/4th of the book in it.
I stumbled across Lirael in my local bookstore but I was 12. Needless to say, I adored the brilliant relatable characters and was captivated by the amazing world of the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre!
I was stoked that Sabriel existed and quickly devoured that too. I have to say the Stilken was by far more terrifying for me than the Mordicant!
As for the much criticised Clariel, though it differs from the other books, I still think it is a fantastic read. I liked Clariel so much I was very saddened by her plot dwvelopments.
I’m 25 and I still adore the Old Kingdom. I still hope to see more of both Sabriel and Lirael soon.
I wish (hope?) you read The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray when you were that age too, because it has a similar sense of tension building throughout. More a YA horror story than a fantasy story, but still fantastic.
I also found and fell in love with this book at a young age. I was 13 and saw this wondrous cover at the middle school book fair where newly paper bound books were ripe for my grabby hands. I’ve always judged books by their covers, and I’ve found some really amazing books because of the gripping artwork placed on the threshold of stories. Sabriel has been my favorite novel for 18 years. I’ve read it at least 15 times, almost every year since I first discovered it. It never gets old, it only gets better.
No matter how much you love the books and how often you’ve read them, you haven’t fully experienced them until you’ve listened to Tim Curry read them. His Mogget and Disreputable Dog are perfect and he adds a complete extra dimension to the books. I was crushed when I learned that he wasn’t well enough to do Clariel. It’s well done but not at all in the same league as S, L and A. Treat yourself. Listen to them in the car and you’ll be sitting outside your destination at least until you get to the end of the chapter.
Loved this book so much.
And the sequel.
And the third one starring the nerdy librarian who knew she’d never amount to much… until she did. AND kept her librarian’s uniform.
I didn’t read them in the right order originally (somehow I always ended up with the second book of a series first for awhile), but eventually I read and loved them all. I reread them all again recently when Clariel came out, too. In some ways I liked Lirael better than Sabriel, but they’re all good.
Sabriel is one of the first fantasy heroines I ever read too! This book is like a piece of treasure, full of lovable characters and great storytelling. :)