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jadehorse77 · Demon Slayer Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 296

I'm re-reading the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix.

YOU GUYS SHOULD READ IT!!! It's so cleverly written, it's a fantasy world that is unlike any fantasy world I've ever read.

My brief synopsis:

Sabriel is born as her mother dies. The Charter Mage tells the midwife that Sabriel is also dead, but her father, the Abhorsen, disagrees. He kneels down in front of the fire, closes his eyes, and uses his powers as the Abhorsen to enter Death--which is a cold, gray river with many gates made of mist. He sees the "dead" infant Sabriel floating along, and sees her scooped up by Kerrigor, one of the Greater Dead, who is his greatest enemy. Sabriel resists him, even as an infant, and he drops her. Abhorsen snatches her out of the current, and fights his way back to the border of the river. Back in Life, Abhorsen shakes the ice off of himself as Sabriel takes a breath. She is baptized with a Charter Mark, and all is well.

That's the first few pages. The Charter is the source of magic, it is made up of marks, or hieroglyphs if you will, that give power. A person sketches the marks in the air, or writes them, or envisions them in the mind and transforms them into a whistle.

Then there is Free Magic, most often used by dead spirits who have forced themselves back into life, or by petty necromancers that use dead spirits to do their bidding.

The Abhorsen is a master of both, the Charter and of Free Magic. His weapons are a set of seven bells, each with a certain power to control the dead imbued into the sound. Abhorsen also has a sword, covered with Charter marks, that he also uses to bind the dead. The petty necromancers use the dead for their own gain, but Abhorsen is a servant of the greater good, binding dead things and sending them where they belong.

This is an excellent trilogy, and I highly recommend it. It is by Garth Nix, and is usually found in the young adult literature or science fiction/fantasy section of your bookstore.

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