I have to admit that the reason I read it now was because the digital version was on sale. If I’m going to continue this series, I’ll probably listen to it on audiobook while I’m working out or doing chores.When I first read Garth Nix’s Mister Monday (2003) and Grim Tuesday (2004), I was told that, really, I had to read Sabriel it was his best. I’m interested in what’s going to happen next, but I have so many other books that I’m more excited about. There was a good ebb and flow of action, so I wasn’t too overwhelmed with excitement and adrenaline or bored out of my mind because nothing was happening.Īll that being said, I’m torn on continuing this series. I liked the pacing: it wasn’t too fast or too slow. It feels very reminiscent of books from the late 90s/early 2000s.

At the same time, this story screams first generation YA fantasy books. The concept of being able to travel between life and death, and that there are different levels of death, is an interesting one. In all my years of reading YA fantasy, I never come across a world quite like the Old Kingdom. There were so many names I had no idea how to pronounce (like Astarael and Belgaer), but the narrator did all the pronunciation work so I didn’t have to. I mainly listened to this on audiobook, and I’m super glad I did. I said I’d love to take them off her hands, and here we are. Recently, she contacted me saying that she’s getting rid of the books and wanted to know if I wanted the series before she donates them.

She was with me at that book festival where we got to meet SJM and Garth Nix and bought the whole series. Seven years later, I finally picked it up thanks to a friend of mine. Maas said in a panel that it was one of her favorite books growing up and inspired her to write the Throne of Glass series. I had never heard of it before, but Sarah J. Sabriel was the second book I put in my Goodreads TBR list since joining back in 2014. There, she confronts an evil that threatens much more than her life, and comes face to face with her hidden destiny. Ever since she was a tiny child, she has lived outside the Wall of the Old Kingdom–far away from the uncontrolled power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won’t stay dead.īut now, her father is missing and Sabriel is called upon to cross into the world to find him, Leaving the safety of the school she has known as home, Sabriel embarks upon a quest fraught with supernatural dangers, with companions she is unsure of–for nothing is as it seems within the boundary of the Old Kingdom. Sabriel is the daughter of the Mage Abhorsen.

Sabriel book series