Customer Reviews
Daughter of magic - By: E. A Solinas, 17 Jul 2008 
Garth Nix changed the face of dark fantasy (usually just horror with a prettier cover) with his instant hit "Sabriel." It spun up an alternate world full of un-cute talking animals, deadly & dark magic, & a likably strong heroine.
And he doesn't disappointin "Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr," a strong sequel that reenters the world of the Old Kingdom, & brings out a new threat & new heroes to combat it. Without missing a step, "Lirael" followsin "Sabriel"'s footsteps, with the same dark blend of humor & horror.
Lirael is a daughter of the Clayr, but she won't be a full Clayr until she gains the Sight. On her fourteenth birthday, she is the oldest girl to not yet have gained the Sight.
After contemplating suicide, Lirael is assigned to workin the library, & inadvertently sets loose a hideous Free Magic creature. Desperate to deal with her mistake, Lirael calls up the Disreputable Dog (somehow made both of Free & Charter Magic), & soon finds ancient birthrights & buried secretsin the Clayr's citadel. And before she knows it, she's being sent off to deal with a rising evilin the Old Kingdom...
Elsewhere, Sabriel's teenage son Sameth has his final day of school disrupted by a swarm of Dead, & a mysterious necromancer who is attempting to enslave him (but nabs his best friend Nick instead). After months of ever-growing fear & confusion, Sameth sets outin secret to accompany Nick to the Old Kingdom -- but he finds that he'sin far more danger outside the castle walls...
"Lirael" is somewhat different from Garth Nix's first Abhorsen book,in that it takes a long time to wind up to the action. Instead, he takes the time to explore the rich world of modern/high fantasy that he's conjured, & spins up an increasingly complex plot with everything from endangered immigrants to a masked necromancer of mysterious origins.
And Nix spins a truly exquisite little worldin here -- we have glacial citadels, medieval castles & British boarding schools, full of ice, shadows, malignant creatures & dark forests. And there's plenty of gruesome content -- rotting bodies, the Book of the Dead, or the secret plot of the evil necromancer. Yet he never forgets to include little moments of humor, such as the magic-animals' frequent snippy remarks, Nick's flaky missives, or Sameth's schoolmates singing their school song during an attack from the military & Dead.
And old favorites return -- we have thirtysomething Touchstone & Sabriel, as well as a cameo by the dangerous kitty Mogget. And while they often seem rather overburdened with angst, Nix handles Lirael & Sameth well -- one of them is a perpetual outsider who is only just finding her placein the world, & the other is a prince who is literally terrified of what is expected of him. The scenes where he gets panic attacks at the Book of the Dead is well done, & makes the dissatisfied boy seem like more than a bored prince.
The Disreputable Dog is a lot like Mogget,in that she's more than she seems & a handy source of info, but not as quietly menacing as Mogget was & is. She's more humorous & maternal. Ellimere was the one character who fell flat; she seemed a little too "bossy princess" with few dimensions beyond that.
The biggest problem with "Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr" is that it ends on a "to be continued" note. But from beginning to end, this delicious sequel is dark, funny, creepy, & gloriously creative.
Slightly Disappointed - By: lisa simpson, 16 Jun 2008 
After reading Sabriel which i loved, i was slightly disappointed with Lirael, i felt it dragged on an little, i really liked the character of Lirael & the Disrteputable Dog & loved the part of the story about them & it was great to welcome back Mogget, but i felt Sameth was a bit dull, his charachter started off very well when they were attacked coming from the Cricket, he wasin the thick of it sorting out everything but i felt it kinda went on a little too much about the fact that he didnt want to be the Abhorsenin Waiting, & he came across to be a bit whiney about it all.
Overall the book was good & i am looking forward to Abhorsen & the Finale of the Series.
Courtesy of Teens Read Too - By: TeensReadToo.com, 13 Jun 2008 The second bookin Garth Nix's ABHORSEN trilogy picks up fourteen years after Sabriel leaves off, & begins to focus on a new generation of characters; for this reason, it's definitely best to read the trilogyin order. Part One is centered on Lirael, a member of a race known as the Clayr, renowned for their ability to See into the future. Unfortunately, Lirael at the age of fourteen still has not received the Sight, something nearly unheard-ofin Clayr society. To make matters worse, her dark hair & pale skin mean that she doesn't even look like the other Clayr. Her mother, a Daughter of the Clayr, disappearedin Lirael's childhood, & she never knew the identity of her father. Eventually, Lirael begins to workin the Libraryin the Glacier where the Clayr live, but even the work she does there cannot distract her from her continued lack of the Sight.
Meanwhile, problems are mounting bothin the Old Kingdom &in Ancelstierre. The Abhorsen Sabriel & her husband, Touchstone, restored to his position as King, have been ruling the Old Kingdom & doing the best to keep the Dead from disrupting life, but after twenty years of their rule things are still chaotic. Prince Sameth, their youngest child & widely known as the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, encounters a necromancer while at schoolin Ancelstierre, there are warsin the far South, & unrest mounts within the Old Kingdom itself. A series of events lead Lirael to leave the Glacierin search of a boy the Clayr have Seen her with, since they have also Seen that this possible future is the only way to avoid the destruction of their world as they know it. Along the way she meets Sameth, with his own personal reason for finding the same young man as Lirael, & the two of them try to work out the secrets of their shared past & uncertain future.
While at first I was disappointed that the story no longer focused on Sabriel, who I'd come to lovein the previous book of the trilogy, Lirael quickly grew into a characterin whom I was equally interested. Her personal struggle between her desire to belong as Clayr & the nagging knowledge that she was meant for some other purposein the world was well-written & believable. Her companion, a construct of Free & Charter Magic known only as the Disreputable Dog, was a satisfying enigma of a character. And while Sameth was at times more annoying than regal, there is no denying that his fear of Death & pursuing the calling of the Abhorsen was compelling. I was also glad to see that Sabriel & Touchstone didn't disappear entirely from the narrative. Though they played dramatically smaller rolesin the storyline, I enjoyed every scene that they werein together.
The end of this book took me by surprise, as the major external conflict had not been solved by the end of it. It's not a book you want to finish if you don't have the following novel on hand! However, the book does come to an emotional climax & conclusion; although the external threat has not been dealt with, the characters are certainlyin a different place at the end of the story than at the beginning, & the development of this book proves necessary for the actions that they undertakein the third & final book of the trilogy. If you're looking for lots of apocalyptic battle sequences, this is not quite the right book, but as a story of emotional & personal growth, the novel sparkles.
Reviewed by: Candace Cunard
An excellent follow up.... - By: Suzannah Reid, 10 Dec 2007 I bought Lirael & Abhorsen before I'd even finished Sabriel, & I'm glad I did! This is a fantastic follow up to Sabriel & a perfect bridging book to take you to the final installment of the trilogy. Still completely gripped by Sabriel, I read this bookin about 3 days, I just couldn't put it down. Another amazing book!
Promises more intrigue than is delivered. Solid, but overated - By: Mrevilpants, 03 Oct 2007 
Lirael has more of a stunted pace of Sabriel as the story is divided between the eponymous lirael (Naive, self pitying goth) & Sameth (Mewling underachieving coward).
The drawback of this, is that Liraels story (With more than a few nods to harry potter) is infinitely more interesting than that of sameths, which is basically a dull exploration of familial relationships & being an underachiever.
Because of this imbalancein its parallel narrative, much of the superb pacing of the original book is entirely lost, as you claw through sameths sections (not a likable character) to get to liraels parts.
Im still unsure where the author is going with his creation of charter/free magic. The idea of the great charters is intriguing, but then so was the idea of walkingin death until it turned out to just be a bunch of successive water based escapades!
I find it jarring, that there is no superhardcore wizardin these books. Everyone seems to be roughly equally proficientin the magic arts, meaning none of the hero worship of Walker from the shannara series, or Pug from Feists books.
All criticism aside, when Lirael works, it works well, & though the end is anticlimatic, it suggests alot of promise for the finale! Lets hope he gets his dark lord right this time round though.
