Books: Sabriel

Sabriel
By Garth Nix
Copyright 1995
311 pages

This fantasy novel deals with a lot with death: that's because Sabriel, the title character, is a necromancer. However, she is not just any necromancer: she is a necromancer who puts the dead back where they belong.

It's a family thing that gets passed along through the bloodline.

Sabriel is sent to school in a neighboring kingdom, one where magic is not the norm. She grows up with some knowledge of her powers, but she is not quite ready when her father goes missing and the duties of the Abhorsen, as this binder of the dead is called, fall to her.

She must return to the Old Kingdom to find her father and set things right - a huge task, since they have been array for 200 years.

Her adventures make up the heart of the book. In the end ... will she be able to beat the necromancer who has been the cause of trouble for the last two centuries, or will he take her life as well?

Good read, hard to put down. Since it deals with walking dead and such, I'm surprised this novel hasn't had a resurgence in popularity.

Many thanks to my pal in England for sending this book to me as a special New Year's present. She had read it long ago and during a discussion we were having online about necromancy (courtesy of its mention in The Hobbit movie), and decided to send me the gift.

I'm so glad she thought to send me this.