Fantasy/SF Book Reviews
Page Two of TwoLirael by Garth Nix
HarperCollins, April 2001.Hardcover, 496 pages.
Ages 12 to Adult
ISBN: 0060278234.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
To the north of modern England lies the Old Kingdom, a place
of magic, necromancy and the constant threat of the rising
of the Dead, controlled by a force even more evil and powerful
than the most powerful necromancer. Only a wall of
Charter magic keeps the Old Kingdom contained, and most
of the modern world is blissfully unaware of the
incredible kingdom that lies beyond the wall. Lirael is a
Daughter of the Clayr: a sisterhood of Seers who live in the
remote North and can See into the future. But Lirael
still doesn't have the Sight, although she is much older than
the other girls. Still, she manages to get a post in the Library,
a fantastic magical place with more than a hint of danger
buried in long-forgotten rooms and passages. With her
Disreputable Dog for company (a magical being Lireal created with
the help of Charter and Free Magic) Lireal sets out on a
quest to help save the Old Kingdom from a great evil.
She meets up with the disconsolate Prince Sameth, who is
extremely unhappy about his status as the heir to his mother the
Abhorsen, who
is responsible for leading the fight against the Dead. Sameth and
Lireal must find Sameth's old school friend Nick, who has
unknowingly brought a great evil into the Old Kingdom which
could destroy the kingdom entirely.
Lirael is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Sabriel, which told the story of Sameth's mother, Queen Sabriel, the Abhorsen. We learn more about the remarkable magic of the Old Kingdom, including the Abhorsen's ability to control the Dead using a special set of bells. Lirael has always felt like an outsider, and her longing to fit in is perfectly and movingly written. The mysterious Disreputable Dog who follows Lirael on her adventures is a real treat: a wise-cracking font of wisdom who knows just how to bully Lirael out of a bout of teen angst -- she gives her a little bite, which generally has the desired effect. Garth Nix has a real talent for creating believable and compelling characters, and his imagination is fantastic. This is fantasy adventure at its best, and readers are sure to look forward to the next installment of the story in the Abhorsen. Highly recommended.
--Claire E. White
Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
HarperCollins, May 2001.Hardcover, 336 pages.
ISBN: 0060199563.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
Time is taken pretty much for granted in
Discworld, as it is in most places. But without the Monks of
History, who regulate the distribution of Time, there
would be no certainty that tomorrow would happen at all.
For example, when you ask "Where did the Time go?" most likely
it wasn't that you were having so much fun that Time seemed
to go by quickly. More likely, the Monks has simply siphoned
it out of your day to pump it somewhere where it was urgently
needed, perhaps to a corporate boardroom full of Type-A personalities
who never seem to have enough Time in a day. When a mysterious
woman contracts with clockmaker
Jeremy Clockson to create the world's first perfectly accurate clock, the Monks
are very concerned. For the creation of a perfect clock will stop Time
itself. It's up to monk Lu-Tze and his apprentice Lobsang Ludd to
find and stop the clockmaker, before Time runs out for everyone -- even
Death himself.
Thief of Time is a hilarious send up of king fu movies, the nature of Time, Modern Education, and a host of other related and unrelated topics. Especially entertaining are Death's granddaughter, Miss Susan, who bucks the trend of Modern Education by actually requiring that her students learn something, the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse (he left the group before they became famous) and Qu, the Monk who provides exciting exploding gadgets to Monks on special missions. You need not have to have read any of the other 25 Discworld books to enjoy Thief of Time. But one thing's for sure: after reading it, you will want to track down all the other entries in this wildly entertaining and witty series.
--Claire E. White
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