meganbmoore | Lirael by Garth Nix

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Lirael by Garth Nix

Lirael is a young woman of the Clayr, a race of seers, who has not gained the Sight years after most Clayr do. At fourteen, she finally finds a rescue of sorts from her life as a semi-outcast when it’s arranged for her to works in the library of the Clayr. This is a library where you have to have keys to access dangerous parts, need to worry about random things grabbing you from the shadows, and part of the dress code is a knife and a whistle attached to your clothing where all you have to do to reach it is turn your head, because something in the library may have grabbed your hands. Naturally, I am in love with the library. There, she magicks her key to let her into forbidden areas and spends years exploring the library and learning old magics, including summoning a Free Magic construct named Disreputable Dog who becomes her friend and companion.*

Elsewhere in the kingdom, Sameth, the son of Sabriel and Touchstone, has the opposite problem: he’s expected to become Abhorsen after his mother. Lirael wants a purpose and role but doesn’t have one. Sameth knows his purpose and role, but doesn’t want it. Initially, I didn’t get why people had so many problems with him. He was less interesting than anyone else in either book and a bit whiny, but not bad. Then he started whining about being expected to be Abhorsen, and planning to reject it**, and my tolerance ended. Characters whose problem is that they have responsibilities and roles they have to live up to but try to get out of it are a pet peeve of mine, and not something I can sympathize with if peoples’ lives and livelihood depend on it, and they’ve known about it for years. A ten or twelve year old kid who suddenly finds out he or she has the weight of the world on their shoulders I can sympathize with. But I figure someone in their late teens-or older-should get over it and do what needs to be done. (This is why many angsty woobies are characters I think need to just shut up and deal.) Really, he has pretty cool parents (granted, his father started out rather bland, but not whiny or responsibility-phobic) and his sister seems to have turned out well, if a little overbearing, so I’m not quite sure what went wrong there. I’m much more interested in his sister, and in his friend, Nicholas, who crossed the wall and is getting into trouble due to a run-in with a necromancer.

I can see now why some people commented that Sabriel was mostly set-up for Lirael and Abhorsen. Sabriel was a good, straight-forward adventure, while Lirael is grander in scope, and more about personal journeys and growth. I like both, but am more partial to narratives along Lirael’s lines as they more open to exploration and growth, even if they are more likely to make characters irritating at times.

Spoilers:

Was anyone else a little weirded out in the scene where Sameth seemed to be about to hit on Lirael? Granted, it’s perfectly normal for a 17-year-old guy to do when he meets a pretty girl close to his age, but I had already figured out that she was Sabriel’s half-sister from her vision of the past, so even though they didn’t know and it hadn’t been confirmed yet, my radars were already screaming that it was a bad idea.

In a way, I’m a bit disappointed that previous Clayr had Seen Lirael and prepared a path for her, and that they and the twins gave her what she needed and sent her on her way. I wanted Lirael to figure out and start on her path on her own. Still, it works well.

I’ve also decided that Moggett and Disreputable Dog dated in a previous life.

*I actually wish there had been a penalty for Lirael exploring the forbidden areas and using magic she didn’t have permission to use, but I suppose there was no time for that.
**Yes, it was eventually revealed that it actually isn’t his purpose, but Lirael’s, but that doesn’t change the fact that he planned to reject the role, knowing that it was an essential one and he the only known option for filling it.

No spoilers for or hints about Abhorsen in comments.

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You've hit the things about Sameth that made me cranky with him.

I adore the Disreputable Dog, utterly adore her. Usually, I don't much care for dogs, but I love her.

I kind of want to work in that library. I'd die very quickly, but it sounds like so much fun.

Yeah. It's the part where he wants to abandon responsibilities that are important to the world when there's no one else who can take on that responsibility that makes it unforgivable. At twelve, I could sympathize. At 17, he needs to shut up and be responsible.

I could read entire books set in the library.

What bugged me even more than Sameth's trying to wiggle out of his role was all his poutiness about his parents not having enough time for him. I know I should try to be a little sympathetic, he *likes* his folks and it's natural he should value the limited time they have to do family stuff together, and just as natural to be disappointed when they can't be together, but oh geeze did I ever want to slap him. YOU'RE SEVENTEEN, NOT SEVEN. They're not running off because they don't WANT to be around you -- they'd love nothing more than to get more family time, but there's that whole little matter of them being the only ones who have the magical gifts necessary to protect the entire kingdom. PERSPECTIVE, BOY. Get some, man up, and be quiet!

And unsurprisingly, I do not have enough words for how much I adore the library and the Disreputable Dog

Yeah, that bit was annoying to. In a younger character, it'd be understandable, but not so much in a 17-year-old. It also made me more inclined to sympathize with Ellimere. of course you're going to be overbearing when you have to be responsible and the person you'd expect to be giving you a helping hand is busy sulking about mommy and daddy not being there, and about how he has responsibilities that he ignores. It was especially aggravating when Sabriel was excited that soon she'd be able to spend more time with at least one of her children, and he was thinking about how to weasel out of it.

Being Abhorsen isn't something any sane person would really want, but so far as he knew, there wasn't anybody else to do it. To be fair to Sameth, I got the impression that some of it was the Book deliberately refusing him with some sort of repulsion field, but he didn't seem even to try. I did think that, while he was in Ancelstierre, he seemed more willing to be Abhorsen than he was when he got back home.

Hm. Maybe I should consider running a table top game set in that library. I bet some of my friends would appreciate it properly. Of course, then I'd have to come up with rules for the magic.

I do think the book was refusing him, but he didn't want it even before that. I think it's the equivalent of seeing a kid stuck in a room when a house is on fire, and no one else is around or can get there.

My best friend's dog looks exactly like the Disreputable Dog. :D

I agree with your view that this one is more interesting than the first; I don't remember what I thought about Sameth, though, since I read it a long time ago. I really should read it again, because I look back on the library and the Dog with great fondness (though it did scare the pants off me when I made the mistake of reading it late at night in a house in the middle of nowhere).

The library does have its scary bits.

Which is part of what makes it interesting, really.

You are making me want to re-read these books. The Disreputable Dog is one of my favorite things from the series.

I think people tend to find Sameth annoying from the get-go because he's so opposite from how Sabriel was at the same age. It was refreshing to have a protagonist who didn't angst about their destiny in book one, and I felt a bit blindsided when that angst popped up in book two.

Lirael is the opposite from Sabriel at that age, too, but she doesn't evoke anywhere near the same level of exasperation. Just a bit of a need to go "just talk to people..."

True. I think the big difference for me was that Lirael mostly pulled out of her funk when she got the library job, and Sameth . . . didn't.

Lirael wanted out of her funk, and to be stronger and better. Sameth just wanted to sulk. I can't even be impressed by his going off to save Nicholas, because he was still whining about it.

I haven't read this series in awhile, but I remember loving it enough to get Abhorsen in hardcover, which I didn't tend to do as a poor student. I think I may dig them out again to read....

I think Nix wrote a short story about this world after the ending of Abhorsen but I never read that one. I may have make a trip to the bookstore!

Aye, it's in a short story collection.

I know you have billions of books to read and billions of books piled up, but I'd like to rec one that's tangentially on your wavelength, but has an element of dystopian/cyberpunk scifi:

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_11?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hard-boiled+wonderland+and+the+end+of+the+world&x=0&y=0&sprefix=hard-boiled) by Haruki Murakami. I was reminded of it when you mentioned a character goes to work in a library.

~~Here's a short description~~

Ok, I can't find one that would make it sound appealing to you. It's basically split between two narratives, one chapter in the cyberpunk world and the alternating in a fantasy world (where the narrator goes to work in a library, hence my thinking of it). They two narratives eventually merge.

It's by a Japanese author so I don't think you'll find it as alien as people who only read Western fantasy. I think you'd find it interesting. I'm glad I thought of it, as I'm reminded to get Dance, Dance, Dance from the library.

That does sound interesting.

If you happen to come across it, give it a shot. I'm curious to know what you'd think.

You know, I wasn't bothered so much by Sam's fear and misery about his responsibilities. I was bothered by his inability to tell anyone about it (instead of simply hiding in his room and whining) so that he could start having help dealing with it (even if, admittedly, it would still have taken until Lirael's appearance for a solution to appear). I have little patience for that kind of drama (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CannotSpitItOut).

I read Sabriel when I was a preteen, loved it, put it aside for a long time, and much later found out that sequels had been written. When I found my old copy of Sabriel and found the other two in the library a couple months back, I finally got around to reading the whole thing. I like both Sabriel and the following books, but I found Lirael a lot more appealing as a heroine than Sabriel. Not that I disliked Sabriel, but Lirael was more flawed, more troubled, and more interesting to me.

The Disreputable Dog and Mogget are still the best part of the series to me, though.

Self-imposed angst and trauma. Yeah, not really appealing. Ditto for dealing with things in ways that just enhance it. (and so 90% of fandom's hot angstmuffins do nothing for me.)

The thing about Sabriel and Lirael is that, as a person, Sabriel is where she needs to be at the start of the book. This makes her a good heroine and likable character, but there's no real need for growth or change. Lirael and Sameth both start with a long way to go. But while Lirael (despite what seems to be almost pathological shyness) is actively trying to do something and get somewhere, Sameth is hiding away and whining. Lirael's narrative has more room for growth and change, and so more possibilities.

I really love how Lirael messes with one of the big tropes, too. We're all so used to seeing the unhappy misfit-orphan type discovering their real, loving family and special magical heritage and then it's happy endings all around. But Lirael doesn't want to be special -- the magic gift she wants is the one that would make her normal for her culture, rather than unique and different. She finds out about her real family, but it's kind of way too late for them to be any part of her life. And her special magical gifts and destiny are cool and all, but in the end they still wind up reinforcing that she is different, when all she ever wanted was to be just like all the other Clayr.

Lirael is the equivalent of being blind, deaf, mute or lame, or even severely dyslexic, in our culture. Everyone will be kind and understanding, but always treat you as being "different," when really, you just want them to stop being nice and treat you like they do everyone else. (Comparatively, Sabriel is the valedictorian, and Sameth is whining about being quarterback, or something along those lines.)

But yeah, I really liked the trope bending there. And really, I liked the trope bending with sameth, too (the "chosen one" who doesn't want to be chosen, and always knows about it instead of having it sprung on him, only to learn that nope, he's actually a little closer to normal) I just couldn't sympathize with him.

*nods* Lirael was very emo, but I could accept and sympathize with that because she did have reasons to be out of sorts -- she was different, and even though we never saw any signs of anyone deliberately teasing or belittling her for that, she was still stuck in a place where just everyday life was constantly rubbing her nose in that sense of difference -- and as you point out, as far as she was concerned at the outset, her differences made her essentially handicapped rather than special in a good way. And while her physical needs for food, clothing, and shelter were all quite decently met, she's essentially had an orphanage upbringing compared to Sameth's life as a pampered prince, and where he had two very loving, if often-absent, parents, she didn't really have anyone meeting her emotional needs for parental love and nurturing. So even when she's making bad choices or being a bit overdramatic in a teenage way about her problems, it's easier for me to sympathize because the problems are real and she's lacking in a support system to help her deal with them.

"whining about being quarterback" is a good way of putting the issue with Sameth -- much as I tried to intellectually sit back and convince myself that it was perfectly understandable for him to resent the lack of time with his parents, emotionally I just couldn't stifle an extremely visceral, negative reaction to what felt like an immensely privileged, pampered character falling apart over not having things exactly the way he wanted them. It's like seeing one of those horrible teen-socialite programs where some spoiled brat is throwing a hissyfit because her folks got her a BURGUNDY Mercedes hardtop for her birthday, when what she really wanted was a CRIMSON Audi convertible, damnit, and now her life is RUINED and nobody understands!

Lirael seemed to be being killed with kindness, which can be worse than outright discrimination.

Sameth...yeah, pretty much. or worse, complaining that mom and dad didn't come to an awards ceremony because they're working 2 jobs so you can go to summer camp.

Uh.

Mogget and Disreputable Dog did not date. Just so we're clear.

That was a joke. ~~Though they do slightly act like exes.~~

~~It would make an AWESOME crackfic.~~

I have the idea tucked away in the part of my brain that has Goku/Lirin looking like they're paired for the Sanzo/Kougaiji freakout, but they actually aren't.

Also, I know Nix is probably playing with the "they fight like cats and dogs" trope there, but I get the impression that Disreputable Dog is a dog at least partly because lirael wanted a puppy. Unless I misread it, wouldn't that also imply that Mogget is a cat because Sabriel's father wanted it? What would that make their original forms?

You find out more about Mogget and the D.D. in the last book, so I can't say very much without spoilers. Not going into their origins and backstory, though, I will say that the impression I had at this point in reading the series was that Moggett wasn't inherently feline in nature, but he'd been forced into that form for so long that a lot of cat-like traits had really started to rub off onto him (rather like an extreme version of the reaction Lirael was having after short-term animal transformations, where everything feels weird because she's gotten used to the other body); but the Dog, OTOH, felt utterly canine down to the bone to me -- intelligent and magically powerful, yes, but still with a very doggish sense of values and way of looking at the world.

THE DISREPUTABLE DOOOOOG ♥♥♥

she rocks 8DDD

and Lirael *hugs her, too*

~~stabs self to death before she can say something spoilery about ANYTHING~~

The spoiler thing kills you, doesn't it?

Very much, yes ^^;;;

A ten or twelve year old kid who suddenly finds out he or she has the weight of the world on their shoulders I can sympathize with. But I figure someone in their late teens-or older-should get over it and do what needs to be done.

I dunno, I think for me it is more complex than that, If you are terrified of the job you MUST do (like Sameth) you better NEVER EVER do it, especially if this is an important job, otherwise you can bring trouble to everyone. Fear of something is not an easy thing to control, I think.

Sameth is a problem for me, but in a different way. I found the trilogy slightly on the "positive discrimination" side, in a sense that all the girls are fearless and awesome and all the boys are much weaker.

But it's the bit where you put your fear over, frankly, the world. Or country. Or live of a few hundred people's lives. It's running away from your problems instead of facing them, and irresponsibility (and portraying it as sympathetic) is one of my pet peeves.

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Lirael by Garth Nix

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Somewhat off-topic.

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