By Garth Nix.
One day fifteen years ago, seven Overlords appeared and everyone over the age of 14 vanished. The children were herded into Dorms until their fourteenth birthdays, then to be taken as collections of useful parts and made into biological monsters for the Overlords' war games.
The reviewers on Amazon seem to think this is horror; it certainly is horrible, although horror wasn't the first label I would have thought of.
It was definitely readable, although probably not worth reading. The first chapter was so provocative (Ella implying she was going to die) that I immediately skipped to the last one to find out if she did, before reading the rest of the book.
There are some holes in the tale: What happened to the world outside of the city? It seems more likely than everyone vanishing the world across (although certainly possible), the Overlords merely translated the City into a slightly different reality, leaving everything they didn't want behind. And, what happens when their technology is destroyed?
Not really worth reading, although it wasn't really painful either.
Showing posts with label Garth Nix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garth Nix. Show all posts
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Friday, September 01, 2006
The Abhorsen Trilogy
Consisting of Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen by Garth Nix.
The Abhorsen are a family of necromancers dedicated to putting the dead to rest. The first book, Sabriel, feels almost like a separate story from the other two, which are tightly joined. Sabriel as a character struck me as cold and perhaps a bit proud, and for some reason I didn't like her book that much. There were a lot of vague hints about things that I took to be much more than they were in the second and third books.
I was starting to be concerned that the second book was all about "teen angst", with Lirael complaining, when things started to happen. She immediately became a (more) sympathetic character when her memory was tampered with by the leaders of the Clayr, her own people, something which I can't stand in any book. She is very quiet and perhaps shy because she doesn't fit in, but also somewhat headstrong and hasty, like Sabriel. As she meets up with Prince Sameth (Sabriel's son) and finds other companions, she begins to find her place in the world, a process that continues in the third book.
I suppose these books were interesting, but they somehow lack charm and appeal, for me. Perhaps it's because they deal so much with death. I'd like to recommend them, but I can't.
The Abhorsen are a family of necromancers dedicated to putting the dead to rest. The first book, Sabriel, feels almost like a separate story from the other two, which are tightly joined. Sabriel as a character struck me as cold and perhaps a bit proud, and for some reason I didn't like her book that much. There were a lot of vague hints about things that I took to be much more than they were in the second and third books.
I was starting to be concerned that the second book was all about "teen angst", with Lirael complaining, when things started to happen. She immediately became a (more) sympathetic character when her memory was tampered with by the leaders of the Clayr, her own people, something which I can't stand in any book. She is very quiet and perhaps shy because she doesn't fit in, but also somewhat headstrong and hasty, like Sabriel. As she meets up with Prince Sameth (Sabriel's son) and finds other companions, she begins to find her place in the world, a process that continues in the third book.
I suppose these books were interesting, but they somehow lack charm and appeal, for me. Perhaps it's because they deal so much with death. I'd like to recommend them, but I can't.
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