Description

Who will guard the living when the dead arise?

Sabriel is sent as a child across the Wall to the safety of a school in Ancelstierre. Away from magic; away from the Dead. After receiving a cryptic message from her father, 18-year-old Sabriel leaves her ordinary school and returns across the Wall into the Old Kingdom. Fraught with peril and deadly trickery, her journey takes her to a world filled with parasitical spirits, Mordicants, and Shadow Hands – for her father is none other than The Abhorson. His task is to lay the disturbed dead back to rest. This obliges him – and now Sabriel, who has taken on her father’s title and duties – to slip over the border into the icy river of Death, sometimes battling the evil forces that lurk there, waiting for an opportunity to escape into the realm of the living. Desperate to find her father, and grimly determined to help save the Old Kingdom from destruction by the horrible forces of the evil undead, Sabriel endures almost impossible challenges whilst discovering her own supernatural abilities – and her destiny.

Publisher Review

"Sabriel is a winner, a fantasy that reads like realism. I congratulate Garth Nix." Philip Pullman "Fast pace, drama, vivid descriptions, excitement and humour... What more could you want?" The Guardian "Every publisher thinks they have the next great children's fantasy writer. Harper Collins know they have." Nick Holt, AML "Pacy, gripping and totally absorbing...I loved it." Wayne Winstone, Children's and Non-book Director, Ottakars "An unputdownable book, completely fabulous." Claire Nuttall, Children's Fiction Buyer, W H Smith "This 'good versus evil' tale is raised above the rest of the fantasy genre by the quality of Garth Nix's imagination and the beauty of his writing...destined to become a classic." Helen Davies, Books Etc "Captured the mood of fantasy with such realism that I was enthralled from beginning to end, a really cracking story!" Diane Sinclair, Sales Promotions Manager, Askew's Library Services