Sabriel

As far as I can tell, the only time I had any fun while reading this book, were the rare moments when Nix managed to knock a good joke into the narrative when I least expected him to.

I'm at a loss to explain the popularity of this book. Most everything I've read this year has been leagues better than this... tale. The lead character is, at best, boring. And there are only two other characters (noteworthy) in the story - yeah, a grand total of three main characters. The cat was interesting for a while, but then it was made obvious that his story wouldn't be told in this book, and he / it became a decoration, for the most part. The third guy is the obligatory romantic interest for our just-out-of-school heroine - another flat and uninteresting character whose story never really gets explored.

And then there's the weird, and frankly senseless magic system. Charter magic which... er... comes from these huge stones (??? never really explained) and is somehow seen as wriggling glyphs once they're in place. Oh, and ringing bells, and whistling that controls another form of magic (??? again, never explained) Or are they both the same thing? I wondered at one point why, if the basis of their magic system was that elementary, more people in the story didn't know it (at least a little). Sabriel's world has the most quixotic magic system I've encountered in (my short-term) memory.

In other words, skip this one, go re-read Harry Potter. Or delve into Bartimaeus's tales. Heck, even Percy Jackson and his merry band of demigods is a better bet.

disclaimer: I listened to the audio book version narrated by Tim Curry.

I've heard great things about this book, but could never get into it. Finally decided to give the audio book a chance.

The beginning caught my attention. Then it was a long slow march to the 50% mark. It takes awhile to understand what's happening. Most of the time I had to go back a few pages. Tim Curry kept me going.

I feel like this would be a great book to reread. It's hard to get into at first, because of the language, but I think I'd like to reread it at some point.

Sabriel did a decent job of scratching a recent itch I've had for high fantasy novels, but it often felt unconvincing. While the world Nix has created is in itself interesting, the way it was explored and described left me acutely aware that I was reading someone's fantasy novel. Sabriel is a very isolated character until roughly halfway in when Nix introduces two compelling characters, Mogget (a demonic cat) and Touchstone (an amnesiac & fallen hero). It was only as Sabriel began to interact with them that I felt her personality became distinct and complex. Those two characters definitely didn't get enough time in the novel, and I think these relationships deserved to be explored a little more before the resolution of the story.