Garth Nix

[rune]

Are there any other fans of this author browsing here

I've just started reading Grim Tuesday, (lovely book cover ). After I read Mister Monday I was compelled to buy more of this authors books. Still working on that one, but can honestly say though Mister Monday is a YA book, it's pretty entertaining and very imaginative

[Mark Robson]

Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen, but was not really struck by Mister Monday, so I've not bothered with Grim Tuesday. I'll be interested to see what you think of it.

[polymorphikos]

I've read Sabriel and Shade's Children. Loved both, but especially the latter, partially because it's nice (if that's the right word) to see Sydney turned into a hellish bastion of biomechanical monsters. I've nothing against Sydney, but it's kind of like how Mad Max was made half an hour or so from where I live, if you see what I mean.

Plus quite a cool tale.

[Esioul]

I've read Sabriel, Liriel and Abhorson- I quite enjoyed them, although at times I thought them to be unnecessariy gory, and all though it was all right, the writing style/voice/thing didn't leap right out at me or something.

[rune]

I've just finished reading Grim Tuesday and thought it was equally if not better than the previous book

It is more grim as the part of the House Arthur is struggling through is run by Grim Tuesday. So it's coal pit world and filthy. I found the characters a little more colourful too in this book.
Very entertaining, and interesting story. I will say this much Garth Nix is quite good at telling a tale, even making a YA book interesting enough for us adults

[I, Brian]

I just picked up a free copy of "Shades Children" here.

I don't really feel like reading it - I'm apprehensive that Young Adult fiction is not going to be able to deliver anything I can get really involved in - but it might be something worth reading on a long Christmas Eve.

[polymorphikos]

You, good sir, are a literary snob

[I, Brian]

Originally Posted by polymorphikos

You, good sir, are a literary snob

I admited as such a long time ago.

I've read Shade's Children now - much better than I thought it would be.

The starter is very good - I was pretty amazed to think this was Young Adult for a while - some very gruesome concepts involved.

Overall, the story is very effective - the computer commons and stats every other chapter of so are very well used.

It did lack a lot outside of the story-telling, though - the characters were very thin constructions, and there was absolutely no justification for why any of the events of the story occured.

However, that aside, the storytelling was mostly effective - it reminded me a lot of Ender's Game by it's use and sheer exploitation of children, to create disturbed feelings.

The lack of character made me somewhat bored and restless towards the end of the story, though - there wasn't enough to really care about them too deeply, though the emotive ending was decently wound up.

The big frustration for me, though, was the fact that the author created this worldscape to write in, but never justified any of the mechanics of it. For example, what caused "the Change" in the first place? Where were the children used in that way? To me, a writer that does not justify the reasons for their story is committing one big cop-out. It's literary short-cutting.

And whenever the author seemed on the brink of being able to say something meaningful, it was passed over.

Perhaps it's a case of the author working on subtlety rather than overt statement.

Mostly enjoyable read, though.

[Lacedaemonian]

Thomas, you live in Mad Max country? Fantastic!

[polymorphikos]

It's existential horror. And it's just a pulp novel for teens, so you can't expect to much. Reading it when I was younger, it all seemed fine to me, and I connected quite well and such, probably because being younger I had lower expectations. But if it were all quantified it would lose it's mystique and become dull(ish).

[rune]

I've recently finished Sabriel. She was well written as a character, but the supporting characters, I felt, weren't as strong. And the bad guy should have had more depth. Saying that, I enjoyed the necromancy theme, I liked how magic was used and the Old Kingdom was well crafted

Not as good as I had hoped, but I will see if the next book improves.

[Mark Robson]

My understanding is that Shade's Children was one of his early works. I'm guessing that he had progressed a lot with his writing by the time he wrote Sabriel. I'm prepared to be corrected if I'm wrong.

[Kai]

I like the Abhorsen Trilogy, Lireal being my pick of the three. Grabbed me more than the rest, I actually fealt for the character unlike Sabriel.

[rune]

Originally Posted by Kai

I like the Abhorsen Trilogy, Lireal being my pick of the three. Grabbed me more than the rest, I actually fealt for the character unlike Sabriel.

Are book 2 and 3 of the Old Kingdom series about different characters?

[Kai]

Originally Posted by rune

Are book 2 and 3 of the Old Kingdom series about different characters?

Book one is about and is from the perspective of Sabriel (1st person isn't it??).

Book 2 is about and from the perspective of Lireal and Sam (Sabriels son).

Book 3 is varied and contains snippets of Sabriel, Lireal, Sam and a few others just to tie some of the stories lose ends.