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

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

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