10. Abhorsen
Abhorsen by Garth Nix
Third in the Abhorsen Trilogy
Pages: 518
Finished: Jan. 20, 2008
Reason for Reading: next in the series. Series Challenge
First Published: 2003
Genre: YA, fantasy
Rating: 4/5
First Sentence:
Comments: The last book in the Abhorsen trilogy starts the moment after the second book ends. This is mostly a quest story as Lirael and Prince Sameth travel to save the world from the Destroyer. The prologue ends with a shocker that took me quite a few chapters to come to terms with and then I settled down into the journey part of the story. The journey lasts three-quarters of book and I found that at times it lagged and seemed overlong. The action did pick up around the halfway point though and the last 200 hundred pages were page-turners for me. Not quite so good as the second book, which is the best of the three in my opinion. A very satisfying ending that completes the trilogy nicely yet leaves one wanting more. Recommended.
I've recently come to learn that Garth Nix has the go ahead for two more books in this series. He will have a prequel which takes place many years before the trilogy and deals with Chlorr of the Mask and will be called "Clariel". The estimated date is 2010. Then in 2011 he will have a book which will follow the trilogy and is yet unnamed. I am so excited about this!
Finally, this is my last book in the trilogy and the first series I have completed for the Series Challenge. There is one more related story I will be reading as there is a novella which takes place in the Old Kingdom. Since I am almost finished my current short story book, my next book will be "Across the Wall", a collection of short stories and the above mentioned novella.
Third in the Abhorsen Trilogy
Pages: 518
Finished: Jan. 20, 2008
Reason for Reading: next in the series. Series Challenge
First Published: 2003
Genre: YA, fantasy
Rating: 4/5
First Sentence:
Fog rose from the river, great billows of white weaving into the soot and smoke of the city of Corvere, to become the hybrid thing that the more popular newspapers called smog and the Times "miasmic fog."
Comments: The last book in the Abhorsen trilogy starts the moment after the second book ends. This is mostly a quest story as Lirael and Prince Sameth travel to save the world from the Destroyer. The prologue ends with a shocker that took me quite a few chapters to come to terms with and then I settled down into the journey part of the story. The journey lasts three-quarters of book and I found that at times it lagged and seemed overlong. The action did pick up around the halfway point though and the last 200 hundred pages were page-turners for me. Not quite so good as the second book, which is the best of the three in my opinion. A very satisfying ending that completes the trilogy nicely yet leaves one wanting more. Recommended.
I've recently come to learn that Garth Nix has the go ahead for two more books in this series. He will have a prequel which takes place many years before the trilogy and deals with Chlorr of the Mask and will be called "Clariel". The estimated date is 2010. Then in 2011 he will have a book which will follow the trilogy and is yet unnamed. I am so excited about this!
Finally, this is my last book in the trilogy and the first series I have completed for the Series Challenge. There is one more related story I will be reading as there is a novella which takes place in the Old Kingdom. Since I am almost finished my current short story book, my next book will be "Across the Wall", a collection of short stories and the above mentioned novella.
I really have to read this trilogy. My brother gave me his books and they've been sitting around for so long, I keep forgetting about them!
ReplyDeleteYou can't go wrong with Garth Nix. I love all his stuff!
ReplyDeleteTwo more in the series would be wonderful. I agree that Lirael is the best so far. I re-read the first two books and then started Abhorsen for the second time - I got absolutely stuck at the end of the prologue, I was actually too upset to go on! Isn't that bizarre - I'd already read it once. Must go back and finish it though.
ReplyDeleteI found you at Semicolon. A friend sent me this trilogy and said the first one was OK, that the second one would have me hooked, and that the third resolved things well, and I found that to be true. I was also floored by the prologue, but went on and found how it made sense in the bigger picture. I look forward to the new books in the series.
ReplyDeleteI agree this trilogy is hard to beat, and unlike any other fantasy I've read - such a strong mix of magic and practical military grit. They are lyrical, dark, disturbing, uplifting, scary, and full of hope. I normally dislike anything that leans towards horror, but these don't work like that, even though they deal so heavily with the dead.
ReplyDeleteGarth Nix has a way with the English tongue, and I heard it best in Lirael, read on an audio version by Tim Curry. His reading, in particular, of Mogget and the Disreputable Dog is amazing - perfectly feline and canine.
I'm glad you enjoyed this series as much as I did. I hope to read Across the Wall this Year for another look back into the Old Kingdom.
ReplyDelete