Abhorsen
Book three in Garth Nix's internationally acclaimed Old Kingdom fantasy trilogy that began with Sabriel and Lirael.Beneath the earth, a malignant force lies waiting, greedy for freedom from its ancient prison. As the Old Kingdom falls once more into a realm of darkness and terror, the people look desperately to the Abhorsen, the scourge of the Dead, to save them. Yet Abhorsen Sabriel is lost, missing in Ancelstierre.Only Lirael has any chance of stopping the Destroyer. With her companions Sameth, Mogget and the Disreputable Dog, she travels across the Old Kingdom in a race against time, battling Shadow Hands and dark necromancers to reach Ancelstierre before it is too late. But what hope can one young woman have against a terrible evil with the power to destroy life itself?This eagerly awaited conclusion to Garth Nix's extraordinary Sabriel and Lirael is a complex and vividly imagined story, powerful, terrifying and compelling.This beautiful edition includes Garth Nix's answers to the questions he is most frequently asked about the Old Kingdom books and writing in general, and a discussion of his favourite books from his own childhood.'The reader's absorption into the intrigue, magic and dazzling richness of the worlds and characters created by Nix is irresistible pleasure...' Australian Review of Books'Terror, courage, bitterness, love, desperation, and sacrifice all swirl together in an apocalyptic climax that pits both Life and Death together against the destruction of…
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What Hacker News says
- Oh and the best author from that discovery was hands down Garth Nix. I love the Abhorsen series!
- I've really enjoyed lurking through the comments and seeing everyone's suggestions (thanks! my reading list just increased by 25 books, lol!). Out of fiction, I read mainly fantasy/sci-fi. Here are a few of my picks (which I don't think have been mentioned yet).
- The Worlds of Chrestomanci and _everything_ else by Diana Wynne Jones; it was this and 'Chronicles of Narnia' which first introduced me to fantasy as a child. Really great fun, have re-read most of her books over the years. There's something there for everyone.
- Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix; read this in my youth, deals a lot with death, undead things, and magics concerning death. Its not depressing, rather it gave me the feeling of being life re-affirming!
- The Riddle-Master trilogy Patricia McKlippet; refined high fantasy series, lacks the prosaic good v. evil, instead focuses on rationality and chaos.
- The Incal series by Alexandro Jodorowsky; when I first read this, I kept finding all these crazy parallels with other stories (books, film, tv, etc.) and then I realized that this was the source (e.g. The Fifth Element is based on this). An absolutely mouth dropping, eye-popping, mind-bending tale! Great pencil/ink to boot as well.
- The World of Edena by Moebius (because of course!); amazing, along the same vain as 'The Incal', but much 'finer' - less mind-bending, more more contemplative.
- The Dark Knight trilogy by Frank Miller; an epic right up there with Beowulf IMHO.
- Watchmen by Moore and Gibbson; genre setting with an amazing story; and 'Before Watchmen' omnibus adds to it as a modern contrast.
- I find the premise of the article odd. Characterization of Hobbit in the movies as something that was made "trying to honor every one of J. R. R. Tolkien’s footnotes, appendices, and letters" and fit into LOTR film trilogy. Since Jackson did not have a licence to anything other than Hobbit, LOTR books and its footnotes, that's what they used. Where they went with it made it impossible for me to watch more than the first film...
I don't get what are the values of this "morally bankrupt" middle class according to Moorcock, if Tolkien's work is confirmation of those. Destruction of nature for profit, corruption of power, strong being capable of using evil either blindly or wantonly. That is shown as bad, whereas simple, polite and modest (albeit with great amounts of food, ale and tobacco) life is good. I'd want a any "class" to adhere to those.
As for being Anti-Tolkien, I'd have to see some one produce as much content, build a world so intricate and even write a fable of it. Works of Tolkien have so many aspects beyond the stories of Hobbit and LOTR, that saying something is anti- to that feels too simplistic. I have read only a few of Eldrich books, but what I remember from those was not so encompassing or ambitious.
If you choose this one aspect from Tolkien's works and decide to attack that, you certainly can, but what you actually accomplish? I'd rather read good fantasy from any writer, be it simple or complex. I'm currently re-reading Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy, which might be classified as a children book, but it's still very enjoyable and intelligent for an adult me.
