Award-winning author Garth Nix returns to the Old Kingdom with a thrilling prequel complete with dark magic, royalty, dangerous action, a strong heroine, and flawless world building. This epic fantasy adventure is destined to be a classic and is perfect for fans of Rae Carson, Kristin Cashore, Scott Westerfeld, and Cassandra Clare.Clariel is the daughter of one of the most notable families in the … families in the Old Kingdom, with blood relations to the Abhorsen and, most important, to the King. She dreams of living a simple life but discovers this is hard to achieve when a dangerous Free Magic creature is loose in the city, her parents want to marry her off to a killer, and there is a plot brewing against the old and withdrawn King Orrikan. When Clariel is drawn into the efforts to find and capture the creature, she finds hidden sorcery within herself, yet it is magic that carries great dangers. Can she rise above the temptation of power, escape the unwanted marriage, and save the King?
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Like more than a few children of the 90’s, I’ve had the good fortune to be around for the blossoming of science fiction and fantasy into popular culture. However, there was some REAL GOOD STUFF to predate that. Before GoT hit the screens and streams, before LOTR hit the silver screens and before George Lucas made an epic mistake in 1999, Garth Nix was writing some awesome books. Sabriel (this cover is lame and not as badass as the original, but moving on) dropped in ’95 and was a great success – it won two Aurealis Awards (the Australian version of the Nebula Awards). It’s also a great read, you should absolutely check it out, especially if you like zombie-thrillers mashed with sword and sorcery. Why that’s relevant: about a decade after the Old Kingdom Trilogy ended, Garth surprised everyone with Clariel and the promise of more Abhorsen books in 2013.
Clariel is not a sequel – it’s actually a prequel to Sabriel, and by about 600 years at that. I enjoyed it for the sake of nostalgia and re-acquaintance with the Old Kingdom, but since it’s a novel, you don’t have the time to get to know the characters or learn why you like/dislike them. It’s very much a story of young people leaping before looking where they’ll land, which is very common in YA. However, it is unique in YA that we find a character with absolutely zero interest in teenage melodrama, so that’s amusing. Fun read, but not substantial – more enticing is the promise of a sequel to the original trilogy; Goldenhand. @lahsaiez , shout out to another fan who knows what’s up with Nix.
Can’t get enough of the Old Kingdom! This is the prequel to the trilogy and novella I’ve already read.. Love love love this series…for fans of old school fantasy with enough realism thrown in to make you truly believe The Old Kingdom could be just over the wall in your own backyard 🙂
This addition to the series was great for world-building. And while I am the type to read everything by a favorite author, regardless, this book may throw off some who love the first three in the series. It is much slower and takes us back before Sabriel. A history is given, the beginning of it all, and finally, a stunning ending that sets us up for Sabriel (even though this book is not technically a prequel). I loved it, but I love anything by Garth Nix.