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

[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.