Sabriel by Garth Nix

[meganbmoore]

Sabriel is a student in a boarding school in Ancelstierre, a country similar to 1920s England, but is actually from The Old Kingdom, a country to the north where magic works. Those in Ancelstierre who don’t live near the border, however, don’t believe this, nor do they believe that dangerous spirits ranging from zombies to free elementals run wild in The Old Kingdom. Sabriel knows they exist not only because she’s from there, but also because her father, Terciel, is Abhorsen, a hereditary position responsible for controlling these spirits that surround the Wall between the two countries. When her father is overcome by a new threat, he has his sword and bells sent to Sabriel so she can take up the position of Abhorsen. Sabriel, however, sets out to find her father, accompanied by Moggett, a Free Magic construct in the form of a talking cat who is bound to the Abhorsen-no matter who it is at the time, and is later joined by Touchstone, a young mage who is 200 ears out of his own time.

I liked it, and the characters, but I read the firs half with a vague feeling of dissatisfaction. About midway through, I realized what it was: there’s never really any reason to worry about Sabriel. Yes, she goes through a number of difficulties, but there’s never any reason to worry whether or not she’ll come out of them OK. We as the reader know that, more often than not, good will vanquish evil, the lovers will find each other, the heroes will overcome their differences and band together, the detective will learn the identity of the killer, etc. We have a perconceived comfort zone that we adjust to what we think the author will do, and then it's up to the author to shake us out of it, or to give us hope. Sure, sometimes rocks fall and everybody dies, but you can usually tell those are coming. The job of the author is to make you wonder if the hero will make it in time, if s/he is up to the challenge, if the lovers will ever work things out, if the dodgy character will join the good guys or betray them, etc. We may know that there’s a 90% chance things will work out to some degree (the lovers die, but only after saving the world), but we need to worry that there’s a chance it won’t. This is why figuratively punching the reader in the gut isn’t always a bad thing.  (The above, of course, applies to fiction with a Threat. Light and fluffy things have different rules.)

There’s never any chance with Sabriel. She’s calm, confident and skilled. She has the magic weapons and the advisor almost from the start. At one point, Sabriel comments that her father never prepared her for her destiny of Abhorsen, but she never feels unprepared. She has to work throughout her journey, and she doesn’t have it easy, but there’s never a reason to worry about her.  Nix does play with that a bit near the end, but not enough for me. 

The end does, though, play a bit with a fictional trope that I don’t think gets used enough.

That is, that Sabriel can’t die because there has to be an Abhorsen, and she has no kids. (Presumably, it could also pass on to siblings or other close relatives, but she seems to lack those, too.) One day, I want one of these people to be stuck living forever because they’re sterile.

Mind you, this series has been highly recced to me for about two years, so I’m likely subconsciously being more critical than I would be otherwise. In addition, the general consensus from the f-list seems to be that the other two books in the series will be more my thing.

Unrelated: I am so happy I saw a dozen “OMG LJ WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY PROFILE CHANGE IT BACK!” posts before looking at my profile. It’s not as bad when you expect something that will make your eyes bleed.

Comments

[anime-heart.livejournal.com]

I thought this books was rather poorly written, though I liked Sabriel, since I enjoy competent heroines. So I never read the rest of it.

lol @
One day, I want one of these people to be stuck living forever because they’re sterile

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I like competent heroines too. Quite a bit. But...there needs to be the threat that they'll be challenged beyond their ability, that they'll really need that competency. Sabriel's competency is never desperately needed.

And you know that would be awesome. *pencils it in for "characters what Megan should one day write about"*

[yukina-raven.livejournal.com]

I read and really enjoyed the entire Sabriel trilogy. It's a pretty awesome world.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think I forgot to mention that I rather like that he "special power" is getting to pwn zombies.

[anatomiste.livejournal.com]

Maybe you'll like the third book in the trilogy better, then (although the second is my favorite because it starts off with the best fictional library ever)--one of the two main characters is Sabriel's son (I promise, that's not a spoiler) who, when he ends up having to use the bells, feels hopelessly inept. There's a lot more tension built around him having to do things that he feels totally unprepared for.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Sabriel and Touchstone were obviously getting together. That usually mean mariage and babies. Barring sterilit that causes immortality.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

although the second is my favorite because it starts off with the best fictional library ever. Squee! Yes absolutely the bestest library ever!

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

I liked the first book a lot (and for years and years it was the only one I'd read, until I found out that later there had been others written, and eventually I pulled those from the library, reread Sabriel, and then read the others). I wasn't all that bothered by Sabriel's competence and the lack of suspense that resulted from it, not directly, but I did occasionally find myself a bit irritated by the constant Narrowly Escaping A Fate Worse Than Death, But Of Course. I was also somewhat bored by the romance, but I was more in it for Mogget and the setting than anything.

As a general rule, I liked the characters in the next two books more. Sabriel was okay, but slightly boring to me as a character; I found Lirael much more interesting.

That is, that Sabriel can’t die because there has to be an Abhorsen, and she has no kids. (Presumably, it could also pass on to siblings or other close relatives, but she seems to lack those, too.) One day, I want one of these people to be stuck living forever because they’re sterile.

This does get played with a bit (although not in the 'stuck living forever because they're sterile' sense) in the next two books, I think.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. There's a "But of cours? Why would you worry?" to all the problems. I think the thing with Sabriel being interesting is that she isn't challenged. If we have a hero who's going to save the world, we need them to face something that challenges them enough to make us wonder if they're up to it. The interest comes from seeing them meet those challenges.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I liked the trilogy very very much, but Sabriel was my favourite book. On the whole, this was one of the series I wish I read when I was a teenager, it is all kinds of fabulous but didn't give me too many "adult" things to think about (if this does make sense and in any way, this is not at all negative remark).

But yep, I believe Lirael is just your kind of girl, book-lover and all. :D

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about it likely working better for a teen.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I liked Sabriel for her competence and general good sense and cool head on her shoulder (and would have been really over the moon if I'd found something like that when I was more of the target age, and desperate for kickass heroines). But that same competence and well-balanced psyche and such are also a big part of what kept her from having the same emotional resonance for me as Lirael.

As far as messing with the audience's preconceived notions of what will happen, I think there are aspects of the second and third books that will please you more -- Lirael in particular seems to be set up in a lot of ways to be that same sort of wish-fulfilment fantasy trope we've seen a million times in Harry Potter and other books, where the unhappy misfit orphan finds their true magical heritage...only things don't play out quite the way that trope usually goes, especially on the emotional front.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think Sabriel is a little too balanced. There's nothing that really challenges her. I really like balanced, competent heroines, but narratively, the ones who don't start out that and have to work their way to it tend to work better.

I get the impression that having preconceived notions challenged is part of why everyone is sure I'll love the other books.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I'm so disappointed that it seems I'm the only one who really adored Sabriel.

Frankly, her competence is what kept be interested in her, and provided a great balance for her proper English miss personality. Lireal actually annoyed me a bit - she just kept suffering and suffering and never ever god angry even once.

I wonder if the fact that I read Sabriel at the exact target age was why I honestly found the world ominious and scary.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think some of it is target age. If you "meet" her at 13-17~, she's probably the coolest thing ever. Smart, competent, always together, capable of handling any situation. From the perspective of 20-and-up, she's still pretty cool, and you can appreciate all that, but you also notice that she isn't really challenged, and there's never a need for her to grow or learn. Competence is great (more characters of both genders would benefit from it) but the limits of it need to be tested.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I loved Sabriel on first read, because I was fifteen and the idea of such a calm, skilled, collected female protagonist really got me. I reread it recently, and while nostalgia carried the day, I definitely see that she was perhaps not put up against the challenges that her character seemed to demand, if that makes sense.

If you go on to read the sequels, I'd be interested to see what you think. (I'm suppressing my own comments because I don't want to influence your read of it.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

No, that makes perfect sense for Sabriel. All the attributes you listed are definitely there, and have the makings for an amazing heroine, but she isn't really given challenges that let her show what she's capable of.

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

I liked Sabriel when I first read it, and when I look back on it now I think of how much of a set-up it is for the books that follow. In Lirael and Abhorsen, the up-front characters are challenged with things that just seem waaaay beyond their league--mostly because both Lirael and the prince(can't remember his name atm) both have the challenge of getting out from underneath the shadow cast by the people around them; Lirael, because she's a member of the Clayr who lacks the Sight, and the prince because his parents (Sabriel and his daddy) just rock so much harder than he does, as well as not looking quite as cool in comparison to his sisters.
I kind of like the short story that Nix wrote in an anthology that's a continuation of the series that features Sameth (I think that's the prince's name?) friend, Nicholas Sayre, and his adventures on the other side of the wall as a result of stuff that happened in the second part of the Abhorsen trilogy (Lirael and Abhorsen).

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Err...getting a little close to spoiler territory.

[kakkobean.livejournal.com]

...

Crap.

*hates it when she does that*

[animeshon.livejournal.com]

I do love this series. Particularly once they introduce Lireal!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm curious to see what I think of her.

[fourthage.livejournal.com]

Huh. I had the exact opposite reaction to Sabriel and following books. It was one of the few series where I actually worried about the protagonists.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I may just be jaded. Though, in retrospect, not necessarily a good book, my first fantasy novel (at age 12) involved a young woman journeying to an island overrun by monsters and fighting her way through it to find a lost nation, then carrying said nation back through the island (inside a jewel via magic) and having to find her way back to her homeland, which was being overrun by magic similar to what created the monsters, only bigger and scarier version. And her Token Magic Talismans were trying to devour her soul.