Sabriel, by Garth Nix

The weakest fantasy I’ve read since Paolini’s Eragon (though not nearly as bad as that particular piece of cack).

Sabriel’s concept is a good one: a great land has been divided in two – the Old Country, where magic is abundant, but so are strange animated corpses and other dark forces known simply as the Dead; and on the other side of a wall, Ancelstierre, where there is little magic, but greater technology (always an interesting comparison; unexplored here).

Sabriel goes to school in Ancelstierre, but near the wall, where she can learn the fundaments of charter magic, a system based on various sigils. Her father is known as Abhorsen, but it soon becomes clear that this is a title, not a name – the Abhorsen, aided by specially created bells and a magical sword, can enter the world of death and lay spirits to a final rest by sending them beyond the ‘final gate’. The premise is a sound one, reminiscent of Bleach, but unfortunately, the story and characters – as well as Garth Nix’s writing – are a dreadful mess.

Sabriel, in her search for her lost father, goes on a uniquely dull quest, beginning by skiing through snow, before picking up a talking cat called Mogget (actually a powerful, volatile spirit) and an insipid, angsty love interest who insists on calling himself Touchstone because of his foolish actions in the past (literary allusions, ladies and gentlemen!). None of these characters are even remotely interesting, Sabriel being absolutely predictable and superficial throughout. Even the sardonic cat fails to amuse.

But most irksome of all is that Nix, who was at one point an editor, struggles with basic syntax, making a series of simple grammatical errors, or phrasing things in extremely clumsy and artless ways. The story clunks along with deus ex machina after deus ex machina, plot convenience after plot convenience, until the utterly laughable villain appears for a cartoon showdown. And it’s really very hard to take a villain seriously when his name is Rogir.

A novel of good ideas, but in the execution, deeply flawed.