Sabriel also travels between Ancelstierre and the Old Kingdom, two completely different worlds - one with magic, one without. Traveling between worlds is a major theme of “Sabriel_.”_ As Abhorsens, the heroine and her father travel from Life into Death and back. Things like the Dead, Free Magic, the Charter, a family of good necromancers, and a talking cat that is really a bound demon make up the tapestry of “The Abhorsen Trilogy.” A Complex Worldįrom early modern Ancelstierre where science governs society to the Old Kingdom where electronics don’t work because of magic, the world of “Sabriel” is fascinating and memorable. Something evil from the Kingdom’s past is plotting again - and now that the Abhorsen is gone, Sabriel and her companions are all that stand in its way. Touchstone cannot remember (or refuses to remember) his true identity, but Sabriel suspects he was involved in the murder of the royal family and the downfall of the Old Kingdom. Along the way, she rescues a young man called Touchstone from a two-hundred-year enchanted sleep. With the help of Mogget, the sarcastic white cat and sometimes-demon in service to the Abhorsens, Sabriel starts out to find her father. The Abhorsen is gone and so is the balance of life and death.Īs the Abhorsen’s daughter, it is Sabriel’s job to right the balance and restore order - but she fears she is too inexperienced to fill her father’s shoes. There is no law and the people live in fear of the Dead - corpses, spirits and demons animated by necromancy. Ever since the slaughter of the Royal Family two hundred years ago, the kingdom has been ruled by anarchy. Sabriel soon realizes that the Old Kingdom is not the place of her childhood memories. When she receives a desperate message for help from her father, she has to leave Ancelstierre, cross the Border, and venture into the Old Kingdom to find and rescue him - if she can avoid falling into the same trap.

But an ordinary education cannot prepare Sabriel for life across the Wall. Eighteen years later, Sabriel is a mature young woman excellent in Fencing, competent at Etiquette and top of her class in Magic.

The Abhorsen names his daughter Sabriel and sends her away from the Old Kingdom, across the Wall to the “modern” country of Ancelstierre. As the Abhorsen, it is his duty to keep the balance between Life and Death. On a cold night in the Old Kingdom, a baby is born dead - and resurrected by her father, a necromancer.

Sabriel book