"lirael"

i had a fantastic time listening to tim curry's reading of garth nix's "sabriel" and so i highly anticipated listening to the next book in the trilogy, "lirael". but events connspired so that i wound up reading "lirael" instead.

major plot points in "lirael" set the stage for some climatic conclusion in the final book, "abhorsen":

lirael is a daughter of the clayr, but who, at a rather mature age of 14, still hasn't woken with the sight to see into the futures. her despondency drives to make the decision to end her life by throwing herself off the clayr's glacier. but events conspire (ha, phrase of the day!) so that she becomes an assistant librarian in the clayr's library instead. and here, she begins to become who she really is...

meanwhile, in belisaere, prince sameth is grappling with a traumatic episode he suffered while crossed over in death. this experience has effectively rendered him unable to continue his abhorsen studies and he whiles away his days tinkering with mechanical menageries infused with magic.

and elsewhere at red lake, an evil greater than the one sabriel vanquished in the first book is arising...

in "lirael", nix opens up the scope of his fantasy world, in both space and time, to cast special signifance on the present. and because nix puts so much detail in the telling, the scale of what's about to unfold feels epic. in the end, much is brought to light, but the story ends at a cliffhanger to be continued in "abhorsen".

first off, "lireal" is a rather hefty tome at 700 pages, even if it has the characteristic larger type and spacing befitting a teen book. so nix provides himself plenty of space for character development. with respect to lirael, nix succeeds very well, although, nix, presents lirael's initial inner struggles with affectionate derision through the experience of someone who has the benefit of hindsight. nix's presentation of sameth is lacking in comparison, especially in regards to sam's haphazard decisions. odd that nix, being a man, is able to suceed so much better in relating a teenage girl's mental state than that of a teenage boy's.

rating: 8/10