thedisquietedpen's review against another edition
4.0
I love the Old Kingdom series. There's the right amount of explained lore and things that are left up to the reader's imagination, creating an immersive verisimilitude. I like Clariel, and I loved the idea that it would have a bittersweet or even tragic ending the entire time that I was reading it. However, I felt like the plot device of "forgetting/ignorance" was perhaps a bit overused. Throughout the novel, the King, the Abhorsen, the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, Clariel herself, and several others are "in the dark" for various reasons. While it is one thing to have a protagonist slowly discover details about the world around them, it's another thing for experts to not know or refuse to share their knowledge when the reader already knows or half-knows that same knowledge. I found myself repeatedly frustrated by the King's, the Abhorsen's, the Abhorsen's-in-Waiting, and even by Jaciel's and Harven's refusal to share more information with Clariel.
Perhaps this is how I'm supposed to feel; after all, if they had shared more with her, she would have likely made different choices.
Perhaps this is how I'm supposed to feel; after all, if they had shared more with her, she would have likely made different choices.
yolo_kurama's review against another edition
5.0
This book was the best of the series by far- it has such a different vibe to the others which made it super compelling and interesting. May be one of the best villain origin stories I’ve ever seen. Clariel is such an interesting and well-written character, and a unique protagonist for the series. Her fall from grace is so sympathetic and well done, and the political intrigues of the story were fascinating. I just really loved everything about it, it’s a big level up from the previous books.
jedibubbles's review against another edition
4.0
If you want to maximize sadness, read this book last. Reading order matters.
almas's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
moirwyn's review
5.0
This review originally appeared on my blog, Books Without Any Pictures:
http://bookswithoutanypictures.com/2014/07/21/clariel-garth-nix/
Disclaimer: This is a ridiculously early review.
When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy. I read and re-read Sabriel and Lirael until the paperbacks very clearly showed how much they’d been loved, and jumped for joy when Abhorsen was finally released. Nix’s stories had everything to love–undead villains, strong protagonists, sarcastic kitties, bardic weapons, and enchanted paper airplanes that you can really ride in.
Now, almost a decade later, Garth Nix is finally releasing Clariel, a prequel novel set several hundred years in the past. Clariel‘s release date is set for October, and clearly I’m writing a ridiculously early review. I’VE BEEN WAITING TEN YEARS FOR THIS BOOK AND COULDN’T WAIT ANY LONGER!
This review is going to be vague, brief, and spoiler-free, because I don’t want to give away too much before the book comes out. At the same time, there’s a lot of food for thought, and I’d really like to discuss it in more depth.
Clariel starts out in a very young-adulty kind of way. Yes, the whole series is YA, but Clariel is more what I think of when I think of YA. Clariel’s mother is a goldsmith, and when she’s offered a promotion through her guild, she uproots the whole family from their home in the country and drags them to the capital city. Being a high-ranking member of society means that Clariel is expected to marry or become a goldsmith herself, but she’s having none of it. All she wants to do is go back to the forest, which is the one place where she truly feels free. But of course, life doesn’t work that way, and people don’t always get what they want. The kingdom is crumbling because the king refuses to lead, the Abhorsen stops banishing the dead, and a free magic creature hiding in the city could be the one thing that makes the fragile peace fall apart.
My one criticism of the book is that there’s a lot of buildup to the action that occurs at the end of the book, and for a while, I wondered if anything was going to happen.
For the first few chapters, I felt a bit suspicious. I wasn’t sure that Clariel could live up to the previous books, or even that Clariel herself could compare to the later characters that I know and love. I was wrong. Clariel grew on me, because she’s the sort of protagonist who can both make mistakes and be heroic without being thrown into the false dichotomy of good versus evil. She’s a free spirit who’s been confined by societal expectations, and she rebels against it. Clariel makes questionable decisions, but in doing so becomes an independent force that I can’t help but like, even while knowing that the path she chooses isn’t what one would consider the “right” one.
Oh, and did I mention that Clariel is probably asexual? You don’t see nearly enough of that in literature, period. There’s got to be a romance, and opting out never seems to be an option. It’s unusual to see a character who knows and recognizes that she isn’t interested in love or sex. She’s a loner, and she knows it. It’s awesome.
Well done, Garth Nix. Clariel does not disappoint.
http://bookswithoutanypictures.com/2014/07/21/clariel-garth-nix/
Disclaimer: This is a ridiculously early review.
When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy. I read and re-read Sabriel and Lirael until the paperbacks very clearly showed how much they’d been loved, and jumped for joy when Abhorsen was finally released. Nix’s stories had everything to love–undead villains, strong protagonists, sarcastic kitties, bardic weapons, and enchanted paper airplanes that you can really ride in.
Now, almost a decade later, Garth Nix is finally releasing Clariel, a prequel novel set several hundred years in the past. Clariel‘s release date is set for October, and clearly I’m writing a ridiculously early review. I’VE BEEN WAITING TEN YEARS FOR THIS BOOK AND COULDN’T WAIT ANY LONGER!
This review is going to be vague, brief, and spoiler-free, because I don’t want to give away too much before the book comes out. At the same time, there’s a lot of food for thought, and I’d really like to discuss it in more depth.
Clariel starts out in a very young-adulty kind of way. Yes, the whole series is YA, but Clariel is more what I think of when I think of YA. Clariel’s mother is a goldsmith, and when she’s offered a promotion through her guild, she uproots the whole family from their home in the country and drags them to the capital city. Being a high-ranking member of society means that Clariel is expected to marry or become a goldsmith herself, but she’s having none of it. All she wants to do is go back to the forest, which is the one place where she truly feels free. But of course, life doesn’t work that way, and people don’t always get what they want. The kingdom is crumbling because the king refuses to lead, the Abhorsen stops banishing the dead, and a free magic creature hiding in the city could be the one thing that makes the fragile peace fall apart.
My one criticism of the book is that there’s a lot of buildup to the action that occurs at the end of the book, and for a while, I wondered if anything was going to happen.
For the first few chapters, I felt a bit suspicious. I wasn’t sure that Clariel could live up to the previous books, or even that Clariel herself could compare to the later characters that I know and love. I was wrong. Clariel grew on me, because she’s the sort of protagonist who can both make mistakes and be heroic without being thrown into the false dichotomy of good versus evil. She’s a free spirit who’s been confined by societal expectations, and she rebels against it. Clariel makes questionable decisions, but in doing so becomes an independent force that I can’t help but like, even while knowing that the path she chooses isn’t what one would consider the “right” one.
Oh, and did I mention that Clariel is probably asexual? You don’t see nearly enough of that in literature, period. There’s got to be a romance, and opting out never seems to be an option. It’s unusual to see a character who knows and recognizes that she isn’t interested in love or sex. She’s a loner, and she knows it. It’s awesome.
Well done, Garth Nix. Clariel does not disappoint.
keenanmaree's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
boydskiboo's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
geldauran's review against another edition
5.0
This book was everything I wanted out of Clariel. Like many others I've been waiting for this book for a very long time. We know what Clariel's future looks like, and I was fervently wishing this book would show me just how we got from point A to point B. So I'll just spend some time talking about everything I really liked and I'll try to do it without spoilers. Or at least very hidden spoilers.
Enter Bellisaere in a far more prosperous age than we have ever yet seen it in the Old Kingdom books. Bellisaere is a big, glittery capital of a city- but none of that really matters to Clariel. Clariel was raised in a rural city, and up to this point in her life had been fairly free to pursue her own wishes and ambitions, which have organically developed as a desire to become a "Bounder": basically a forest ranger. Clariel likes hunting, she likes solitude, she likes nature and freedom. Bellisaere and her new life there are promising to be the opposite of her dreams.
Here is where I first started to love the way the story was forming. Bellisaere and its residents are shown to us through Clariel's gaze- the city streets are complicated, cluttered, oppressive. Its residents are just like her new maid- superficial, petty, flippant and altogether uninterested in anything outside the city walls. We aren't meant to really like Bellisaere, or its gossipy, scheming, corrupted peoples. No one in Bellisaere is honest about what they want, except Clariel. The book starts pretty slowly- we've got a fairly complex political and familial situation to establish before the action starts happening.
But once the action starts, it takes off running and doesn't really stop until the end of the book.
Most importantly, the thing for me that totally ~shined~ in this book was the main character. I've read a few reviews where people complain about Clariel's complaints, or say that she's a dull character. For me, the opposite is true. Clariel's character is subtle and reserved in many ways but totally individual. Her thought process is one of the most remarkable things about the book. Despite everything -because we KNOW where Clariel ends up down the road- Clariel makes everything seem reasonable. Clariel's relationship with her family is complicated, but we can still feel her affection for them. In fact, one could easily argue that familial love is really the keystone of Clariel's entire character and the driving force of the plot. Family and duty is why she comes to Bellisaere, why she hesitates to leave even though her passions lay elsewhere, why Clariel is explicity not interested in romance, or sex, but it does not mean she is not a character full of love.
I also loved that Clariel is a morally ambiguous character. She is no shining paragon, not an example for children to follow through the ages. But that made her interesting. This book, after all, is essentially I, for one, loved the way it was pulled off. Every act is very reasonable. Its bad, but its not that bad, and its all done in the interest of some greater purpose. She is fueled by necessity. Clariel's own Clariel is a character perpetually caught between duty and desire. This ranges from her duty to her family vs her desire to life in the forests to her .
Mogget was also delightful in this book, as always. We got to see a slightly darker side to Mogget; a more manipulative side that we always suspected was around, but never really got a chance to shine in Sabriel, Lirael, or Abhorsen.
Basically I thought this book was incredibly imaginative, very thoughtful in its writing and world-building, and exciting, with a individual and unique main character, and a real HOLY SHIT of a climax.
Enter Bellisaere in a far more prosperous age than we have ever yet seen it in the Old Kingdom books. Bellisaere is a big, glittery capital of a city- but none of that really matters to Clariel. Clariel was raised in a rural city, and up to this point in her life had been fairly free to pursue her own wishes and ambitions, which have organically developed as a desire to become a "Bounder": basically a forest ranger. Clariel likes hunting, she likes solitude, she likes nature and freedom. Bellisaere and her new life there are promising to be the opposite of her dreams.
Here is where I first started to love the way the story was forming. Bellisaere and its residents are shown to us through Clariel's gaze- the city streets are complicated, cluttered, oppressive. Its residents are just like her new maid- superficial, petty, flippant and altogether uninterested in anything outside the city walls. We aren't meant to really like Bellisaere, or its gossipy, scheming, corrupted peoples. No one in Bellisaere is honest about what they want, except Clariel. The book starts pretty slowly- we've got a fairly complex political and familial situation to establish before the action starts happening.
But once the action starts, it takes off running and doesn't really stop until the end of the book.
Most importantly, the thing for me that totally ~shined~ in this book was the main character. I've read a few reviews where people complain about Clariel's complaints, or say that she's a dull character. For me, the opposite is true. Clariel's character is subtle and reserved in many ways but totally individual. Her thought process is one of the most remarkable things about the book. Despite everything -because we KNOW where Clariel ends up down the road- Clariel makes everything seem reasonable
Spoiler
except for some of the decisions she makes in the climax of the book, while under the thought-clogging influence of free power, or when she is under a berserker rageSpoiler
she seeks revenge, why she puts up with the Abhorsen and his totally useless city of cousins, why she listens to mogget, why she binds the free magic creatures, why she goes back to Bellisaere, why she protects the King, and why her last words as she believes she is dying is for someone to please rescue her aunt. Its ALL to take revenge for her family, to save her living family- including the King. She's ignoring her chance to run back to the forest to save a city that never did her any favors because family is important to her, even if she never explicity says it.I also loved that Clariel is a morally ambiguous character. She is no shining paragon, not an example for children to follow through the ages. But that made her interesting. This book, after all, is essentially
Spoiler
the back story of a villain.Spoiler
lust and desire for power were very interesting to me as well, because in a world where magic and sorcery is real, SOMEONE out there has to like how it feels.Spoiler
duty to avenge/save her family and the city vs her growing desires to use and exercise that power for less noble causesMogget was also delightful in this book, as always. We got to see a slightly darker side to Mogget; a more manipulative side that we always suspected was around, but never really got a chance to shine in Sabriel, Lirael, or Abhorsen.
Basically I thought this book was incredibly imaginative, very thoughtful in its writing and world-building, and exciting, with a individual and unique main character, and a real HOLY SHIT of a climax.
book_consumer's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25