Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen (Old Kingdom)

Originally published on Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/flyicarus

In a return to the Old Kingdom, that place we all know and love (and are a little frightened of), author Garth Nix gives us the origin tale of Clariel, who Abhorsen series readers will later know as the necromancer and Greater Dead Chlorr of the Mask. That future is far away, though, and Nix introduces us to Clariel as she was before she started walking her dark path. Clariel is the daughter of a Goldsmith that was summoned to Belisaere, the capital city of the Old Kingdom, but she goes unwilling. Clariel has a passion for the forest near Estwael, the town she was born and raised in, and she hates that she's being forced by a weak father and a domineering, distant mother to go somewhere she willed not; all her thought is bent on escaping somehow. Little does Clariel know that her new home is a snake pit of machinations, politicking and danger both visceral and magical. As Clariel becomes aware of the danger that is around her, her desire to be free grows, and tragedy and unrest in the Kingdom come before she realizes entirely what is happening. All Clariel knows is that she wants to be free, to be on her own, and whether she gains that freedom through Charter or Free Magic is something inconsequential to her. She understands all too late the price she must pay.

I'm a huge fan of Nix's Old Kingdom series, and I've been waiting for this book for years - sometimes patiently, sometimes not. I actually had to stop myself from staying up all night to read it, because I could easily have devoured the book entirely if I had stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to finish, but I'm glad I didn't. This was a really good book and a nice addition to the Old Kingdom series - I'm glad that we as readers had an opportunity to see more of the world we love, and also have this prequel with insight into Chlorr of the Mask's origins. When I first started reading I had difficulty actually caring about Clariel - I think this may have been because I know what she turns into. However, around halfway through the book, I went from merely empathizing with Clariel to actively caring about her and feeling sympathetic, even wanting to take care of her. I'm sure many a reader can understand well the feeling of wanting to be free, yearning for some simple dream that is deferred or denied by those around you. I honestly wanted Clariel to be able to go back to Estwael and to the Great Forest, to live among the green and the animals, to have her peace. It was a tragedy, both of outside influence and her own making, that rendered it otherwise.

It was interesting to have Clariel be a berserk, like Touchstone. I liked having that callback to something Nix had written before, and hearing more about others of the blood having that issue as well, and how they learned to cope with it, that there were resources out there for them, was really well done. Being berserk seems, at least to me, rather to be a kind of disability - blinding rage, loss of coherent thought, loss of memory, etc. Readers know of Touchstone being berserk, how he went into the rage after he witnessed his family being murdered at the hands of Kerrigor, and later, when someone attempted to assassinate Sabriel and he wrenched blindly at the throne as if to throw it at the assassin. It seems that Touchstone himself did not have many resources, at least none that were mentioned, but that there is that in the Old Kingdom - the opportunity to learn, to grow, to master yourself and live a normal, if controlled, life is huge to me as a reader. The ease with which queer relationships were mentioned, as well as what I interpret to be asexuality/aromantic tendences, was so so so huge to me - Clariel mentions repeatedly that she doesn't feel attachment to either men or women, and another character, Belatiel, infers that Clariel might like women when she tells him she's not interested, but a conversation with Clariel's aunt reveals that she doesn't desire (for the most part) anything sexual or romantic, she prefers to be alone. This kind of representation is hugely important, and it was so nice to see Nix include it and not in a way that was fetishizing or derogatory.

I found that something that especially got to me where the dynamics between the characters - this is something that Nix does well, and a few areas I'd like to point out are: The relationship between Jaciel, Clariel's mother, and Clariel herself, for one. Clariel thinks that her mother has no feeling for her, that all Jaciel cares about is her work; this perception is altered slightly when Clariel realizes that Jaciel has the same berserk blood in her veins as Clariel herself does, and that Jaciel's work is her escape, her calming influence that keeps the rage in check. But, she still resents her mother, and as the reader, you also grow to resent Jaciel even as you get a hint of understanding as to why she is the way she is. However, when Kilp and his men attack Clariel and her family, you see Jaciel go into the rage at the murder of her husband and the threat to her daughter; she sends Clariel running with a Charter spell, and risks herself in the rage to save her. That was so powerful to me. I also really liked the dynamic between Clariel and Belatiel. Nix hinted at the possibility of Clariel feeling the same way for Belatiel but not realizing until too late, and then giving up on the possibility of something once she's separated from the Charter, scarred, traumatized, and tainted by Free Magic. I like to think about another world, where Clariel might've stayed with Belatiel and found her peace and belonging, learning to live with her berserk rage and also how to temper the Free Magic inside of her. I wanted Clariel to have a happy ending, even though I know, we all know, that isn't possible.

Seeing Clariel start to become drawn to Free Magic was fascinating and horrifying - as a reader you can understand why Clariel wants that power, that freedom, but we know what it will bring her, what price must be paid. Horrifying, because we know what she becomes and, at least for myself, I wanted to help her turn from that path. Mogget as always was a delight, but I must say it was definitely a departure from the Mogget we know in the original trilogy. Mogget here was unrepentant and manipulative, if downright a liar, and it was directly his influence that led to Clariel falling as far as she did, and as fast. Though even Clariel herself says that she would have more than likely have been drawn to Free Magic/necromancy anyway, but there it is. Learning the origins of the mask and Chlorr's outfit was interesting as well, as where she would get her first set of bells. Charter skins! The insight into the history of the Abhorsens - Hillfair was entirely unexpected, as was the bridge over the stepping stones, but I really enjoyed the history of a people, a place, that I hadn't known before.

Overall I was really pleased with this book and I can't wait for the continuation of the Abhorsen series with the book coming about Nick Sayre and Lirael.

My main complaint is that the plot was exceptionally slow to get started, and the story felt cut off at the end. By the time I was halfway through the book, the action seemed barely to have begun. Nix did a good job of portraying Clariel's situation in Belisaere, but I wanted more adventure, more complex interactions with magic, more of what made the original trilogy so interesting.

I am, as the title says, entirely unimpressed. I waited for this book for years and I was eager to return to the Old Kingdom. It's always been such a refreshing place to visit. Garth Nix has always been so talented in creating female characters that have fortitude, strength and yet are so real and someone I can imagine as my friend. I've been a huge fan for more than 15 years. I was ready, oh-so-ready, to read a book that was just 'right.' I didn't know where it was going to take me, I was just sure it was going to take me to the right place, at the right time.

Well, I don't know what went wrong here but I think it might just have been 'everything.' Characters, plot, writing, editing and even the setting just didn't work.

Clariel is whiny, rude, capricious, callous, short-sighted, lacking in depth and dimension. I couldn't identify with her. She's the kind of person I wouldn't actively choose to talk to had I met her in real life. I know that sometimes book characters are supposed to bother the reader as a literary effect, but this went far beyond that. She's also described as slim, with a boyish frame, or sometimes even described as having a boy's body which is one of my pet peeves in YA books with female main characters. Between her attitude, portrayal and body-descriptions, Clariel comes across as another supposed female main character that is more like a cranky, spoiled, effeminate young boy in need of an attitude adjustment than a real female character.

The supporting cast is similarly flat and uncompelling. The book strongly features a tough Captain of the Guard, an Eccentric Magician, Ladder-Climbing parents and a boring but serviceable 'friend.' And Mogget, who is the ensemble darkhorse in every Old Kingdom book is just as flat and uninspired as these stereotyped filler characters. If you had told me it was Kerrigor, I might have believed you. But he didn't feel at all like the Mogget I know and appreciate.

I felt like I didn't recognize the setting. Gone was the sensation of visiting a familiar haunt or a place I could visualize. I couldn't see the Old Kingdom in my head. I kept feeling like I'd fallen into work by Brandon Sanderson or L.E. Moddessit. There was a genericness to this Old Kingdom that hadn't existed in previous books.

As for the plot -- if you were expecting Garth Nix to deliver a new twist on the descent into darkness... this book was not it. It's a rehash of Nolan's Batman's backstory, with just a dash of tortured hero that felt really tacked-on. The rest of the plot seemed to have been pulled wholesale from various low-quality 'comedy of formal manners' fantasies that were so popular in the eighties and early nineties. A good half of the book felt like meandering plot-fill. Part of me feels like this could have been a fantastic short-story like "Across the Wall" but it bloated into a book unchecked.

I actually appreciated the message of "hey, cities aren't all they are cracked up to be" but the underlying themes were handled with ham-handedness and the whole book came across as a really over-wrought effort to connect with the 'youth of today.' And it came across as patronizing when looked at that way.

Frankly, I should probably give this one star. Year ago I would have, but it is better than what is passing as best-selling literature these days, despite a number of editing errors that are honestly shocking in a book put out by this caliber of author and this caliber of press. It's better than some of the best-selling even if it is some of the worst writing I've seen out of Nix. So two stars it is.

As a fan, I'd like to say that Sabriel was the first Fantasy book I ever read. It was the beginning of a wonderful lover affair. And I feel like I've just lost something that carried me along when nothing else did. I feel like I've lost an old friend.

Very disappointed. Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen were books you couldn't put down. They kept you enraptured with what was coming next, the beauty of the Old Kingdom, and the mysteries it held close. I felt connected to Sabriel, especially so with Lirael, and still get all worked up when I read the ending of Abhorsen for the umpteenth time. For Petes sake, I have a white cat I've named Mogget, a black one named Kerrigor and am waiting until I find the perfect dog to name her Kibbeth. That's how much I love the previous trilogy.

Clariel is really none of these things. I kind of hate her as a character. She's boring and I didn't feel like I could relate to her decisions as I could with the Sabriel and Lirael. Though I understand sometimes you're supposed to dislike characters, take Umbridge from HP for example, it really wasn't a passionate disklike, Clariel is just annoying and flat.

The only reason I give this 2 stars is because it was kind of cool to see how Chlorr came to be for the later books. However, I knew Clariel was Chlorr before the halfway point and then it felt drug out the rest of the way. In addition, the plot feels very disjointed from beginning to the end.

Here's to hoping the next one is much, much better and brings back the sparkle and mystery of the Old Kingdom.

Garth Nix's latest Old Kingdom story sends us back in time, to a rather different world just as delightful as the one he created in 1995.

As Sabriel (Book 1 from the original trilogy) opened, the Old Kingdom represented a shattered society, and the following two volumes portrayed the efforts of the people to reclaim their land and shape it into something that would once again endure.

The great value of Clariel is the way in which it reveals the author's vision of that culture as it stood on the brink of its decline. Superficially ordered and urbane, it nevertheless has begun to show seething undercurrents of resentment and dissatisfaction. The Royal Family and Abhorsens have neglected their duties far too long, eroding the fabric of the Charter itself. Sensing this weakness, sinister Free Magic agents seek to exploit it, so that they can come into power once more. These events unfold for the reader through the lens of 17-year-old Clariel, an unhappy young woman whose goals conflict with what her parents want for her... and for themselves.

I, personally, like all that behind-the-scenes origin story stuff a lot. And that certainly applies to Clariel. However, it must be noted that a lot of the world-building is expressed through long passages of exposition or expository dialogue, and the pacing sometimes drags as a result. Moreover, the tiresome teenage angst from Lirael (Book 2) shows up here in spades. And I'm not going to lie. It's very, very tiresome. Such passages occupy a substantial portion of the first half of the book.

But once you reach the halfway point, it suddenly becomes quite exciting indeed.

Nix assumes his reader's knowledge of specific situations from the original trilogy, even of the magical systems and terminology of the Old Kingdom; and so he dispenses entirely with any kind of 'primer' in Charter Magic or the Abhorsen's bells. In Clariel, instead, we do get some additional insight into the nature of Free Magic (depending on which characters you believe).

I think that, apart from the distracting elements previously mentioned, this is a great instalment, stronger in fact than Abhorsen (Book 3). It has a tightly woven tragic structure not unlike Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

To sum up, while I think it is highly advisable to read the books in the order of publication, I definitely recommend indulging in Clariel along with the rest.

I've highly enjoyed Garth Nix's "Old Kingdom" books -- "Sabriel" was a fantastic fantasy with a compelling heroine, "Lirael" was just as enjoyable even if the protagonists weren't quite as memorable, and "Abhorsen" rounded off the trilogy with an emotional yet satisfying ending. "Clariel," despite being toted as the fourth book in the series, seemed to be a prequel, and I was eager to catch a glimpse of what the Old Kingdom might have been like before Sabriel's day -- either in its glory days or immediately after its fall. Sadly, "Clariel" turned out to be a disappointment, between the worldbuilding that feels off from the previous books and a protagonist who's one of the whiniest I've come across in awhile.

"Clariel" takes place hundreds of years before "Sabriel," in an Old Kingdom that has fallen into decadence. The king is weak and largely usurped by the Guilds who run the capitol in all but name, Charter Magic is regarded as old-fashioned and a craft practiced by peasants and servants, and even the Abhorsen, charged with defeating necromancers and Free Magic creatures and the dead, prefers hunting and living in luxury over actually seeing to his duties. In the midst of this kingdom on the cusp of a fall is Clariel, daughter of a high-ranking goldsmith who hates having moved to the city and longs to return to the Great Forest where she feels she belongs. But she bears strange gifts of her own -- she is a berserk, capable of wielding her rage as a weapon, and strongly connected to Free Magic. And as she seeks a path to the Great Forest on her own -- and is recruited in a gambit to protect the king from being overthrown by the corrupt Guilds -- her gift will prove to be both a blessing and a curse, and could either save the Old Kingdom or destroy it...

Nix's writing is still fairly strong, but here I got the feeling that he was out of practice writing in the Old Kingdom world, and was spending much of this book struggling to get back into the groove of writing it. The Old Kingdom described here doesn't feel like the Old Kingdom I grew to love in the previous books, but a new fantasy world tinged with Victorian-era mannerisms with the Old Kingdom label slapped onto it. Only towards the end did I feel it truly started to become an Old Kingdom novel... and I'm sure by that point more than one reader would have thrown in the towel.

As I read this book, I couldn't help but draw parallels between it and another book by a different author entirely -- "Brightly Burning" by Mercedes Lackey. Both books are prequels set hundreds of years before the rest of their respective series ("Heralds of Valdemar" in the case of "Burning"), both star protagonists who are children of gifted craftsmen who hate living in the city and want to return to their homes in the countryside, both discover they have powerful but destructive gifts, both forge strong bonds with creatures of magic, and both end up being recruited to save their kingdoms despite having the potential to destroy them. The similarities are uncanny enough that I wonder if Nix read "Burning" at some point and copied it for "Clariel," inadvertently or not.

The biggest difference between these two books? I didn't want to slap Lan, the protagonist of "Burning," upside the head every few pages. He has his emotional and whiny moments, but matures over the course of the book. Clariel, meanwhile, will not. Stop. Whining. She constantly reminds both other characters and the reader that all she wants to do is go back to the Great Forest, over and over and over until I wanted to scream "I get it! Move on!" And worse, even when it becomes clear that far more important things are happening in the kingdom and that her help is needed to halt a great evil, all she cares about is going back to her precious forest. Even when she and an ally are on the run from the Guilds' guards, she wants to make a detour to her precious forest because... that's all she cares about, evidently. I've seen protagonists with single-track minds before, but Clariel was obnoxious even by those standards.

Also, much ado is made of Clariel being asexual in this book. While it's nice to see a protagonist, especially a female protagonist, not obsessed with romance or forced into a relationship (or heaven forbid a love triangle), Clariel is not exactly the best protagonist to represent the asexual community. Can we get an asexual protagonist who's actually likable for once?

None of the other characters are particularly memorable either. There are a LOT of unlikable characters in this book, from Clariel's parents to the Guildmasters to even the Abhorsen and his family. And while I get that we're not supposed to like many of the characters, it's still not a pleasant experience to read a book full of characters you don't like. The "heroic" characters are all fairly bland, to the point where the only one who was particularly memorable to me was Bel, the Abhorsen-in-waiting who actually takes his job seriously. The only returning character is Mogget, the Free Magic servant of the Abhorsens, and here he takes a dark and sadistic turn... though I didn't particularly mind it, as it was a sharp reminder that for all his helpfulness, he's still a creature of Free Magic and not to be entirely trusted.

SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH: The one bit of satisfaction I had in this book was seeing Clariel's single-mindedness and bullheaded-ness coming back to bite her in the butt at the end of the novel. It wasn't enough to redeem the book, but it was some consolation. I know I should have felt sorry for her in the end, but given that I couldn't bring myself to care about her throughout the book, the ending wasn't nearly as tragic as Nix was hoping. (Also, the revelation that she becomes Chlorr of the Mask brought a resounding "meh" from me. I was lukewarm toward the character in "Lirael" and "Abhorsen," and wasn't particularly chomping at the bit to learn her backstory here.)

I'd hoped for a prequel novel that helped explain the fall of the Old Kingdom, but this book wasn't it. I feel like I could have skipped it easily and not missed much of the story of the Kingdom, and wish it had been focused on Touchstone or another character instead. If you're reading the Old Kingdom series, I'd recommend skipping this one and moving straight to "Goldenhand" instead.

I debated between 3 and 4 stars on this one. I think it's really about 3 1/2. I enjoyed reading a story from centuries before Sabriel when the Old Kingdom was in its heyday but starting to decline into the Death ridden Old Kingdom we first come to know in Sabriel. Also seeing the line of Abhorsen's being skittish and not committed to their birth rite was interesting and a different take on things I found fascinating. The fact of Charter magic being for the lower classes was also interesting and I found myself wanting to know more about this time and world these characters lived in since we know where the Kingdom ends up 400+ years later.

I enjoyed Clariel's character at first. She was solitary and brooding in a typical teenage fashion, and I found her disconnection from those around her very easy to relate to.

But she grew to be a little one dimensional to me. Her obsession with getting back to the forest became a little annoying and then almost bordering on boring by the end. I think a focus more on the frustration of learning the Charter and discovering how easy this free magic was, more detail into the world of this free magic and what it is and what it can do would be far more interesting to me.

Overall, not my favorite Old Kingdom novel. I think the first will always hold such a special place in my heart and I have been able to enjoy it from teenhood into my 30's, showing the test of time, that I expected a little more from this one.

Eh. Really not all that necessary for fans of the Abhorsen series, as far as I can see. Yet I honestly found myself enjoying this more than the main Abhorsen series, and I think that is because Nix has produced so many other books in the meantime that he has really honed his craft. He was a good writer to begin with, but there's a definitely rise in quality in this volume. So if you're a BIG Abhorsen fan, you'll probably be all over this, but you will be so confused if you've never read the books.

It was pretty nice to see a return of Mogget, after the wrenching end of “Abhorsen.” Really, he's the most compelling character in the series, and him being gone is going to make the next book feel a bit odd. And I especially loved how, in this book, Mogget is pretty unashamedly chaotic in nature, if not downright evil. Mogget has always been a self-serving character, but here, he takes advantage of some great opportunities.

Clariel is a bit...TOO “not like other girls” for my tastes. Her parents are encouraging her to make a marriage deal, but all she wants to do is run off and live in the wilds. I did like that her school, ostensibly a finishing school for women going into married life, actually works WITH her, meeting her parents half way by putting her in some classes which will benefit her in a wifely/business position, and in some that will be best suited for a hard life out of civilization. But her time there is so brief that it almost feels like a tacked on section of the story.

This is definitely not to be placed first on an Abhorsen series reading list. It doesn't have the same draw as “Sabriel,” where we're thrown into the necromatic world of the actual Abhorsen, rather than the drama of a relative of the Abhorsen. So, if you have a child or friend that picked this up for reading, do them a favor and send over the original trilogy and make sure they go with that, first. “Clariel” may have better writing quality, but Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen have all the world-building and intense action that will make new readers into avid fans.

Eh... meh. I agree with the reviewers who stated that this book is not the same quality as the original trilogy, and more in line with today's "YA" novels. Although it was an enjoyable read overall, this book lacks substance and it adds next to nothing to the Abhorsen mythology. The vocabulary and technical quality of the writing is well above par for YA, but character development, world building, plot, and backstory... not so much.

That said, I disagree with the people who wrote a paragraph complaining about Clariel's personality. Although she does have a one track mind, she's hardly a selfish brat. Her attitude is exactly what it should be, considering that her parents spend half the book treating her like a piece of property that they can barter for social status, and scorn her attempts to exercise free will. (which is a common theme in YA books these days) Nix only describes her as having a boy-like appearance once, very briefly, so I'm not really sure what other reviewers are complaining about in that regard either. I actually found it refreshing to have a 17 year old female protagonist who isn't obsessed with cute boys or how her hair looks, but isn't a closeted lesbian either. I found her a sympathetic character, if lacking as a protagonist. My only major gripes with Clariel's character are her willful ignorance, and her childish behavior about relationships. It would be one thing if she just didn't feel anything for boys, but she actively discourages herself from having romantic feelings when they threaten to pop up, for no reason that is ever properly explained.

I found the character development across the board very lacking. None of them have much of a personality, and none of them evolve at all from the beginning to the end of the story. It's a constant annoyance throughout the book that you want to get to know the Abhorsens better, or you want to know what makes someone tick, and you never get it. Or you want to know more about the magic stuff since this is a fantasy novel, and you never get it. The pacing also left a lot to be desired. Nothing happens in the first 150 pages aside from world building and some minor tiffs between Clariel, her parents, and some people at school. For the amount of time spent on this, you'd expect more detail in the world building. I wanted more expose about the Old Kingdom, the magic, etc, and instead, I get Clariel's parents endlessly lecturing her to make nice with their rich friends' snotty kids. Around the time I was about to give up and write it off as another case of a good author dumbing down his work to meet the demand for mediocrity in today's YA market, suddenly the rest of the book became nonstop action; it jumped from too slow to too fast. There's also a "plot twist" involving Belatiel that is so predictable that it seems anticlimactic when it finally does come.

Speaking of Belatiel... Nix never bothers to mention if it's customary for the royal and Abhorsen bloodlines to intermarry... so there's this pseudo romance between Clariel and her cousin Belatiel that Nix did not write very well, and I spent about 3/4 of the book wondering if it's normal to put the moves on your cousin in the Old Kingdom. Part of me wanted them to be together, and part of me was going.... BUT THEY'RE COUSINS.

I wanted some explanation of why the Abhorsen bloodline always have names that end in -el, like the angels in Judeo-Christian mythology, or if it's a distant allusion to the angel of death... and I'm still waiting. This book really added nothing to the world the trilogy is set in, and didn't explain anything that was just touched upon in the trilogy. Nix notes in the afterword that Clariel is "Chlorr of the Mask" in Lirael, who was such a minor character that I don't remember what she did. I also have no idea what's up with the "The Lost Abhorsen" subtitle because Clariel is not an Abhorsen by title and she has no talent with or desire to understand the things Abhorsens do. He also noted in the afterword that he's working on another Abhorsen book. We'll see how that goes.

If you've actually read to the bottom of this review... I'd still tell you to read Clariel. It's an entertaining book, and still better than most of the garbage in the YA section of the store... but prepare for disappointment if you've been an Abhorsen fan for over a decade and squeed your brains out when you heard he wrote another book about them.

Major letdown. I had high hopes for this book, being a longtime fan of the series, but this character and story were dull, and full of missed opportunities.

It was a nice look at the Old Kingdom but the main character and where the story was going felt muddled and lost. It felt like everyone failed the main character at every opportunity and instead of Clariel rising to the situation despite this, she lets events run her over instead of fighting back and winning.

I started reading the book and hoped that the character would evolve and change in great ways but she just felt really whiny, and constantly let things happen TO her instead of making things happen FOR her. She didn't take charge. She just sort of mentally complained and grumbled about everything. I wanted there to be a turnaround point, where she grew from her experiences of made changes to what was going on around her but she didn't. All the adults in Clariel's life seemed bent on shaping her future to their own whims but none of them actually paid the slightest bit of attention to what this girl needed in the moment. It felt like she was constantly failed by everyone.

The end felt like being tossed from the trolley unexpectedly, it came out of no where and left you dazed and confused as to what just happened. Super rushed.

Clariel is the prequel to the Abhorsen trilogy (which is already published) and takes place 600 years before Sabriel and Clariel the main character is a young woman who had lived all her life near a forest, loves nature and is used to have some freedom, but when her parents decide to move to the big city of Belisaere, which is a walled city, without much nature, has a very marked social classes and apparently all have big plans for her, since she is the cousin of King and the Abhorsen granddaughter, so she could be instrumental in a struggle for power and suddenly her life is no longer her own and what she most wants is to escape to her beloved forest, but all oppose to this and this could push her to take drastic measures.

Clariel is a young woman that because of her blood ties to the King and the Abhorsen, has much power within her, but has not been trained to make use of it, but other than that she has something called the rage or berserk that means that the person can not control their anger and can be lost in the rage and attack blindly, unable to control themselves with a desire to end their opponent or the person that threaten them.

It's sad to see how everyone wants to use her to their advantage in the struggle for power over the kingdom and how she wants nothing to do with them, she just wants to live in the forest, alone, since there she finds peace.

In this world there are two kinds of magic: Free Magic, which is considered evil and Charter magic which is permitted in the kingdom though there aren't many practitioners. And apart from what happens with Clariel, several creatures made of free magic begin to wreak havoc in the kingdom.

Something I think is worth mentioning is that the character of Clariel is asexual (at least she gave me that impression), since she is not interested in either boys or girls, so there isn't romance in story.

Clariel is interesting for those that like high fantasy books, the pace at the start of it's a little bit slow, but it kept my attention throughout the book because I was intrigued to know what would happen with Clariel and another character is that is part of the Abhorsen trilogy, which I have not yet read. And also because I saw a video of the author, in which he says who is really Clariel in the future books and I really did not expect that ending, which I found very sad and tragic.

I have MISSED the Old Kingdom.

This book had everything for me. Clariel's a fabulous, strong character. The world building is addictive - I haven't read this series since high school and Nix pulled me right back in like I was never away. Darling Moggot is here, and we get to watch our hero teeter-totter on the edge of good and evil. What else is there?

Oh yes. There's an amazing fight scene. One of the best I've ever read. Characters are NOT who you think they are, so trust nothing and nobody. There are NO romantic relationships, so don't come into this book for kisses. No kisses. Even CLARIEL rolls her eyes when people proposition her.

It's a short book, but no less rich and immersive than any of the rest of this series. Even better, it's a prequel with standalone protagonist, so it can be read without all the rest. Recommend, recommend, recommend.

I’ll start by saying that this is a stand-alone novel set in the same world as Garth Nix’s ‘Old Kingdom’ series, however it’s set several hundred years before the previous books. So if you’re new to the world, you can start with this one. Having said that you can, though, I personally wouldn’t recommend it - there were several little details in this book that mean so much more when you’re familiar with the other books. I just feel like people will enjoy this book more if they’ve read the others in the series.

It was so much fun to be back in the world of The Old Kingdom again! I really love the original trilogy and it’s one I re-read bits of almost every year. Clariel was fun to read but it wasn’t my favourite of Mr. Nix’s work. Something about the pacing of the novel just didn’t work for me and I wonder if the story was originally either longer or shorter and got changed to fit the stand-alone novel length that it is. This is another reason I don’t recommend it as a starting point. I don’t think this is the best representation of Garth Nix’s writing. One thing I did really like about it was that Clariel is asexual. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a book with an asexual main character and that was interesting and refreshing. It wasn’t just done to make an ‘issue’ either which I appreciated; it’s a central part of who Clariel is (obviously) and ties in hugely to why she wants what she does and acts the way she does.

Yes, I liked this book, but it’s not my favourite in the series and while Clariel was a very interesting character to read about and see the little choices that lead her down her path, the plot and pacing just didn’t quite build enough intensity for me.

My verdict on this one is 7/10.
[Review originally posted on my book blog, link is in my profile.]

This review was originally posted on Narrative Investigations

I was a bit surprised to see that this book is set 600 years before the main trilogy (since the Old Kingdom was practically frozen in time for 200 years you can think of it as a 400 year difference too) since practically nothing is different. The country is better maintained with fewer dead and the clothing is a bit different but that is the difference of decades, not centuries. These settings are just too similar for me and made it really hard to believe that there was any difference at all, if Nix has wanted this book to be set a mere 200 years earlier (when the royal family was killed and the undead became more populous) that would have fit just as well which is a bad thing. While reading I was reminded of Tamora Pierce, they both started writing YA before the current boom and I think that her books are a fantastic timeline of just how people started approaching fantasy settings differently over the past two or three decades. Her books also cover a long period of time (about 5o years or so, with it's own prequel 200 years earlier) and the changes we see in that world work much better, it's not a complete change in government, popular beliefs etc but you can see the changes both as they happen and as a result, it's a much more satisfying read for it.

To switch gears, I had a friend tip me off that Clareiel is asexual and I agree, the text seems to be very deliberately written that way (which would make her only the third I've ever read, second lead). She (or the un-present narrator) however repeat the fact that she's not interested in men or women many, many times and it became rather tedious to read, I suspect Nix was trying to make sure that was the only way to interpret it but I wish it had been done a bit more elegantly. The fact that she's a loner in general doesn't help, I could see some people read these two traits as connected but I don't think that's a failing of the work. It is frustrating but more because there are so few other asexual characters that she has to represent a huge group, a problem for queer characters in general, but I'm left more unhappy at her character but not Nix's idea*.

There was one area where I felt like Nix mis-stepped and it's a bit hard to address in this review. Clariel has popped up before in the series, it's even mentioned on the book flaps, and her eventual fate is not a happy one. I felt like Nix really wanted to remind people of this fact however since she practically had "THIS CHARACTER IS DOOMED" stamped on her forehead. I felt like her character was oddly constrained and not allowed to grow at all in order to keep putting her in the worst situation she could end up in. Compared to other "fall into darkness" stories I've seen this one was much shorter time-wise, it occurs over two months or less, and I think that might have been part of the problem, that this shouldn't have been a single, standalone book but part of it's own series and then we could see Clariel both triumph and fail instead of continuously failing.

On that note, I think it might actually be best to read Clariel before you read the rest of the Abhorsen series since, while this book does hint heavily that things won't end ideally, you can go in with fewer expectations, especially since this book doesn't actually do what those tag lines tell you. To clarify for readers of the series proper, the thing that Clariel is known for does not actually happen in this book. Clariel makes many poor choices, and those at the end will clearly help lead her to that fate but it doesn't happen. Her mindset doesn't seem right yet, and Nix goes "who knows???" in the afterword when he talks about writing future books which I personally found frustrating, especially considering how many years this book has taken. And that is a flaw, this is an important series of events in Clariel's life but it doesn't cover everything it needed and in some ways felt pointless for it. It's not a bad book, and I can recommend it, but in many ways it was rather unsatisfying.

When I start blogging back at the start of 2014, I watched news of upcoming releases closely. Imagine my surprise, when I discovered that there were other fans of Garth Nix’s Abhorsen series and that a fourth book was being released at year’s end. I added Clariel to my TBR pile quickly and awaited its release.

Sadly, Clariel did not live up to my expectations. It took me two months to finish this book. I’ll admit I had a lot going on in June and July, but read over 10 other novels or short stories during those two months before I buckled down and actually finished Clariel.

Right away, I struggled to connect with Clariel. She was whiney and her constant complaining grated on my nerves. She talked about getting away, but never once made an attempt. Her parents seemed to provide no supervision, she bragged often about her skills as a hunter and never once made the attempt.

I was lost in the Old Kingdom. It has been years since I read the original trilogy and that was a concern when I started the book. But this story is set several hundred years before the original books so I thought I would be fine. I was wrong. I’m not sure rereading the series would have help in this case. The politics and the people seem to be different. The Abhorsen is complacent. The only thing that seems the same is the Charter Magic and it would have been nice to have “a refresher course” on how it works.

The plot of Clairel plodded. It was like walking through shoe-sucking mud in a downpour. It seemed like I never made any progress. There would be a few chapters of action and then nothing for several more. The ending sped by because outside forces started to act to bring the story to conclusion. This was a book, when I was about 50 pages from the end, I couldn’t believe there were only a few pages left because I thought more needed to happen because nothing happened for a good portion of the book.

While I am still a fan of Garth Nix’s books, I am not a fan of Clariel. Too much of nothing happens for about three quarters of the novel and with a lack of connection with the main character, I don’t have a burning desire to travel to the Old Kingdom via new adventures any time soon.

It's been over ten years since Garth Nix released a book set in the world of the Old Kingdom, where an ancestral line produces individuals who take on the mantle of the Abhorsen, the necromancer responsible for keeping the dead beyond the Gates where they belong.

Set six hundred years before the events of Sabriel, Clariel is a young woman with dreams of becoming a forester, preferring solitude to anything the city can offer. Unfortunately her mother is one of the most sought after goldsmiths in the world, and the family's move to the royal city of Belisaere provides her with more materials for her craft. Clariel hates it, and in the dinner parties and formal lessons that follow, she quietly plots her escape.

An opportunity arises from unexpected quarters. After an "attack" that's so clumsily staged even Clariel realizes it's just for show, she becomes aware of the political intrigue that's broiling under the surface of Belisaere's streets. Guildmaster Kilp conspires to overthrow the King, and when Clariel meets with those trying to stop him - who also believe he's in league with a dangerous Free Magic creature - they offer her a way out of the city in exchange for her help.

As the relative of the Abhorsen, Clariel is in a unique position to lend aid. More attuned to unnatural forces, all she has to do is help them find the Free Magic creature. Naturally, this is easier said than done.

Clariel makes for an unorthodox heroine, and not strictly an appealing one. Asexual and aromantic (that is, uninterested in any forms of intimacy), she borders on anti-social at times and has no desire whatsoever to get involved with city life. I always welcome a female protagonist that doesn't feel any compulsion to be likeable - either to the reader or other characters, and she's sharply written as a young woman driven by her need to live alone in the forest, only for her growing sense of responsibility to spur her into action against Kilp.

But Nix never undermines her love of solitude or her consistency in rejecting overtures of love. She never meets "the one" who makes her reconsider her decisions, and she politely but firmly shuts down any attempts to make her change her mind. It's rare to find a female character who is so confident in who she is and what she wants.

As antagonists go, Guildmaster Kilp isn't hugely interesting, though I enjoyed the portrayal of his son Aronzo. Arrogant, rude, aggressively in pursuit of Clariel - in any other YA novel these characteristics would probably make him the romantic lead, but Clariel hasn't got the time of day for him.

The novel deals with themes of social responsibility and the effects of power. Clariel consistently wants to abandon everything and go live in the forest, whereas the King's apathy and the current Abhorsen's obsession with hunting have created a power vacuum that greedy men like Kilp are quick to take advantage of. Yet in taking responsibility for stopping them, Clariel has to tap into powers that undermine her own identity: not only the hereditary trait of berserker rage, but in controlling the will of other Free Magic creatures. It creates genuine suspense and raises questions about how far an individual is allowed to go to achieve their goals, and how much of themselves they're willing to sacrifice to attain them.

There are a couple of weak notes: a subplot about the King's missing daughter Tathiel is never fully fleshed out and resolved in such an anti-climactic manner that I'm not even sure why it exists, and there's an open-ended resolution that's somewhat undercut by Nix's afterword. In it he reveals that Clariel...

SPOILERS

... will eventually become Chlorr of the Mask, one of the antagonists in Lirael. It's probably not something I would have picked up on by myself (despite Clariel's acquisition of a bronze mask) but I immediately thought: "well geez - where's THAT story?" Without knowing how the heroine of this book eventually becomes a terrible, near-mindless enemy in the later ones, "Clariel" sort of feels like a prequel to an origin story that hasn't been written yet.

END SPOILERS

What's also missing is the interplay between the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre, which lies over the wall to the south. Whereas the Old Kingdom is awash with magic, Ancelstierre is devoid of it entirely, depicted more like England at the turn of the 19th century than anything you'd usually find in a fantasy novel. In previous books it provided some very interesting back-and-forth between two profoundly different worlds, and without it the Old Kingdom lacks its social/geographical/cultural foil.

So ultimately, I think I overhyped myself a little. I really enjoyed reading "Clariel"; she's a great character and the plot is action-packed without getting chaotic (one of Nix's strengths as a writer), but it didn't enrapture me the same way "Sabriel" and "Lirael" did. Yet after ten years it felt great to be back in the Old Kingdom again, especially when a couple of familiar faces pop up (specifically one irascible white cat). And since Nix is already writing more stories set in this world, I'm already anticipating the next.

I have MISSED the Old Kingdom.

This book had everything for me. Clariel's a fabulous, strong character. The world building is addictive - I haven't read this series since high school and Nix pulled me right back in like I was never away. Darling Moggot is here, and we get to watch our hero teeter-totter on the edge of good and evil. What else is there?

Oh yes. There's an amazing fight scene. One of the best I've ever read. Characters are NOT who you think they are, so trust nothing and nobody. There are NO romantic relationships, so don't come into this book for kisses. No kisses. Even CLARIEL rolls her eyes when people proposition her.

It's a short book, but no less rich and immersive than any of the rest of this series. Even better, it's a prequel with standalone protagonist, so it can be read without all the rest. Recommend, recommend, recommend.

I’ll start by saying that this is a stand-alone novel set in the same world as Garth Nix’s ‘Old Kingdom’ series, however it’s set several hundred years before the previous books. So if you’re new to the world, you can start with this one. Having said that you can, though, I personally wouldn’t recommend it - there were several little details in this book that mean so much more when you’re familiar with the other books. I just feel like people will enjoy this book more if they’ve read the others in the series.

It was so much fun to be back in the world of The Old Kingdom again! I really love the original trilogy and it’s one I re-read bits of almost every year. Clariel was fun to read but it wasn’t my favourite of Mr. Nix’s work. Something about the pacing of the novel just didn’t work for me and I wonder if the story was originally either longer or shorter and got changed to fit the stand-alone novel length that it is. This is another reason I don’t recommend it as a starting point. I don’t think this is the best representation of Garth Nix’s writing. One thing I did really like about it was that Clariel is asexual. I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a book with an asexual main character and that was interesting and refreshing. It wasn’t just done to make an ‘issue’ either which I appreciated; it’s a central part of who Clariel is (obviously) and ties in hugely to why she wants what she does and acts the way she does.

Yes, I liked this book, but it’s not my favourite in the series and while Clariel was a very interesting character to read about and see the little choices that lead her down her path, the plot and pacing just didn’t quite build enough intensity for me.

My verdict on this one is 7/10.
[Review originally posted on my book blog, link is in my profile.]

This review was originally posted on Narrative Investigations

I was a bit surprised to see that this book is set 600 years before the main trilogy (since the Old Kingdom was practically frozen in time for 200 years you can think of it as a 400 year difference too) since practically nothing is different. The country is better maintained with fewer dead and the clothing is a bit different but that is the difference of decades, not centuries. These settings are just too similar for me and made it really hard to believe that there was any difference at all, if Nix has wanted this book to be set a mere 200 years earlier (when the royal family was killed and the undead became more populous) that would have fit just as well which is a bad thing. While reading I was reminded of Tamora Pierce, they both started writing YA before the current boom and I think that her books are a fantastic timeline of just how people started approaching fantasy settings differently over the past two or three decades. Her books also cover a long period of time (about 5o years or so, with it's own prequel 200 years earlier) and the changes we see in that world work much better, it's not a complete change in government, popular beliefs etc but you can see the changes both as they happen and as a result, it's a much more satisfying read for it.

To switch gears, I had a friend tip me off that Clareiel is asexual and I agree, the text seems to be very deliberately written that way (which would make her only the third I've ever read, second lead). She (or the un-present narrator) however repeat the fact that she's not interested in men or women many, many times and it became rather tedious to read, I suspect Nix was trying to make sure that was the only way to interpret it but I wish it had been done a bit more elegantly. The fact that she's a loner in general doesn't help, I could see some people read these two traits as connected but I don't think that's a failing of the work. It is frustrating but more because there are so few other asexual characters that she has to represent a huge group, a problem for queer characters in general, but I'm left more unhappy at her character but not Nix's idea*.

There was one area where I felt like Nix mis-stepped and it's a bit hard to address in this review. Clariel has popped up before in the series, it's even mentioned on the book flaps, and her eventual fate is not a happy one. I felt like Nix really wanted to remind people of this fact however since she practically had "THIS CHARACTER IS DOOMED" stamped on her forehead. I felt like her character was oddly constrained and not allowed to grow at all in order to keep putting her in the worst situation she could end up in. Compared to other "fall into darkness" stories I've seen this one was much shorter time-wise, it occurs over two months or less, and I think that might have been part of the problem, that this shouldn't have been a single, standalone book but part of it's own series and then we could see Clariel both triumph and fail instead of continuously failing.

On that note, I think it might actually be best to read Clariel before you read the rest of the Abhorsen series since, while this book does hint heavily that things won't end ideally, you can go in with fewer expectations, especially since this book doesn't actually do what those tag lines tell you. To clarify for readers of the series proper, the thing that Clariel is known for does not actually happen in this book. Clariel makes many poor choices, and those at the end will clearly help lead her to that fate but it doesn't happen. Her mindset doesn't seem right yet, and Nix goes "who knows???" in the afterword when he talks about writing future books which I personally found frustrating, especially considering how many years this book has taken. And that is a flaw, this is an important series of events in Clariel's life but it doesn't cover everything it needed and in some ways felt pointless for it. It's not a bad book, and I can recommend it, but in many ways it was rather unsatisfying.

When I start blogging back at the start of 2014, I watched news of upcoming releases closely. Imagine my surprise, when I discovered that there were other fans of Garth Nix’s Abhorsen series and that a fourth book was being released at year’s end. I added Clariel to my TBR pile quickly and awaited its release.

Sadly, Clariel did not live up to my expectations. It took me two months to finish this book. I’ll admit I had a lot going on in June and July, but read over 10 other novels or short stories during those two months before I buckled down and actually finished Clariel.

Right away, I struggled to connect with Clariel. She was whiney and her constant complaining grated on my nerves. She talked about getting away, but never once made an attempt. Her parents seemed to provide no supervision, she bragged often about her skills as a hunter and never once made the attempt.

I was lost in the Old Kingdom. It has been years since I read the original trilogy and that was a concern when I started the book. But this story is set several hundred years before the original books so I thought I would be fine. I was wrong. I’m not sure rereading the series would have help in this case. The politics and the people seem to be different. The Abhorsen is complacent. The only thing that seems the same is the Charter Magic and it would have been nice to have “a refresher course” on how it works.

The plot of Clairel plodded. It was like walking through shoe-sucking mud in a downpour. It seemed like I never made any progress. There would be a few chapters of action and then nothing for several more. The ending sped by because outside forces started to act to bring the story to conclusion. This was a book, when I was about 50 pages from the end, I couldn’t believe there were only a few pages left because I thought more needed to happen because nothing happened for a good portion of the book.

While I am still a fan of Garth Nix’s books, I am not a fan of Clariel. Too much of nothing happens for about three quarters of the novel and with a lack of connection with the main character, I don’t have a burning desire to travel to the Old Kingdom via new adventures any time soon.

It's been over ten years since Garth Nix released a book set in the world of the Old Kingdom, where an ancestral line produces individuals who take on the mantle of the Abhorsen, the necromancer responsible for keeping the dead beyond the Gates where they belong.

Set six hundred years before the events of Sabriel, Clariel is a young woman with dreams of becoming a forester, preferring solitude to anything the city can offer. Unfortunately her mother is one of the most sought after goldsmiths in the world, and the family's move to the royal city of Belisaere provides her with more materials for her craft. Clariel hates it, and in the dinner parties and formal lessons that follow, she quietly plots her escape.

An opportunity arises from unexpected quarters. After an "attack" that's so clumsily staged even Clariel realizes it's just for show, she becomes aware of the political intrigue that's broiling under the surface of Belisaere's streets. Guildmaster Kilp conspires to overthrow the King, and when Clariel meets with those trying to stop him - who also believe he's in league with a dangerous Free Magic creature - they offer her a way out of the city in exchange for her help.

As the relative of the Abhorsen, Clariel is in a unique position to lend aid. More attuned to unnatural forces, all she has to do is help them find the Free Magic creature. Naturally, this is easier said than done.

Clariel makes for an unorthodox heroine, and not strictly an appealing one. Asexual and aromantic (that is, uninterested in any forms of intimacy), she borders on anti-social at times and has no desire whatsoever to get involved with city life. I always welcome a female protagonist that doesn't feel any compulsion to be likeable - either to the reader or other characters, and she's sharply written as a young woman driven by her need to live alone in the forest, only for her growing sense of responsibility to spur her into action against Kilp.

But Nix never undermines her love of solitude or her consistency in rejecting overtures of love. She never meets "the one" who makes her reconsider her decisions, and she politely but firmly shuts down any attempts to make her change her mind. It's rare to find a female character who is so confident in who she is and what she wants.

As antagonists go, Guildmaster Kilp isn't hugely interesting, though I enjoyed the portrayal of his son Aronzo. Arrogant, rude, aggressively in pursuit of Clariel - in any other YA novel these characteristics would probably make him the romantic lead, but Clariel hasn't got the time of day for him.

The novel deals with themes of social responsibility and the effects of power. Clariel consistently wants to abandon everything and go live in the forest, whereas the King's apathy and the current Abhorsen's obsession with hunting have created a power vacuum that greedy men like Kilp are quick to take advantage of. Yet in taking responsibility for stopping them, Clariel has to tap into powers that undermine her own identity: not only the hereditary trait of berserker rage, but in controlling the will of other Free Magic creatures. It creates genuine suspense and raises questions about how far an individual is allowed to go to achieve their goals, and how much of themselves they're willing to sacrifice to attain them.

There are a couple of weak notes: a subplot about the King's missing daughter Tathiel is never fully fleshed out and resolved in such an anti-climactic manner that I'm not even sure why it exists, and there's an open-ended resolution that's somewhat undercut by Nix's afterword. In it he reveals that Clariel...

SPOILERS

... will eventually become Chlorr of the Mask, one of the antagonists in Lirael. It's probably not something I would have picked up on by myself (despite Clariel's acquisition of a bronze mask) but I immediately thought: "well geez - where's THAT story?" Without knowing how the heroine of this book eventually becomes a terrible, near-mindless enemy in the later ones, "Clariel" sort of feels like a prequel to an origin story that hasn't been written yet.

END SPOILERS

What's also missing is the interplay between the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre, which lies over the wall to the south. Whereas the Old Kingdom is awash with magic, Ancelstierre is devoid of it entirely, depicted more like England at the turn of the 19th century than anything you'd usually find in a fantasy novel. In previous books it provided some very interesting back-and-forth between two profoundly different worlds, and without it the Old Kingdom lacks its social/geographical/cultural foil.

So ultimately, I think I overhyped myself a little. I really enjoyed reading "Clariel"; she's a great character and the plot is action-packed without getting chaotic (one of Nix's strengths as a writer), but it didn't enrapture me the same way "Sabriel" and "Lirael" did. Yet after ten years it felt great to be back in the Old Kingdom again, especially when a couple of familiar faces pop up (specifically one irascible white cat). And since Nix is already writing more stories set in this world, I'm already anticipating the next.

Taking us back to a time, a time before the story many of us already know and love….and if you don’t already know – well that’s ok too

Clariel returns us to the land of the original Abhorsen trilogy but at least 600 years preceding the events that take place in the first book, Sabriel. The main character this time is a 16 year old Clariel, a cousin to the king and daughter of a renowned goldsmith who is also a daughter to the current Abhorsen. Clariel is very unhappy because she has been forced to leave her home town of Estwael and now live in the capital, Belisaere. Here her parents expect her to forget about her own lifelong dreams and marry.

And then there was, a Crooked Governor, his shiesty rich son, dangerous free magic creatures, frustrating parents, a meddling magician, a doe eyed cousin, and a grumpy old king…phew what a cast right?

The city is currently run by a crooked man, Governor Kilp and his nasty natured son Aronzo. Both have designs upon Clariel. Indeed there seems to be all sorts of political machinations going on in which Clariel is a pawn. But she is determined to have none of it – though as we all know seldom do things work out the way we want them to, especially at the tender age of 16. She is enrolled in a local academy where she meets her cousin Belatiel and is sent to additional charter magic lessons with Magister Kargrin. Kargrin being another person might might have plans for her.

She may be young but don’t count her out

Clariel however, is not without a sense of resourcefulness. She is stubborn and somewhat bull headed and has a bit of a family curse called the Fury that makes her berserk whenever a big fit of anger strikes her. Throw all of that together and the fact that everyone seeks to trap her in situations not of her liking and sooner or later anyone would snap. She is obsessed with returning to Estwael and her beloved great forest so she can live as from the land away from the hustle and bustle of cities. Readers should know this is definitely a character focused story even with the fair amount of world building and background that you get, Clariel is still the main focal point. Everything other then the prologue is told from Clariel’s point of view. Because of that you get to suffer through all of her aggravation, tempers and slight injustices that likely many a girl of her age and time may have had. There were a few times I wanted to smack her for going on the way she does about her forest and what she wants but then I don’t blame her since no one other then her aunt has ever really taken her and what she wants into consideration. She is a great character and her story a good one.

While there is a fair amount of magic and rich world building the book moves at a decidedly slow pace up until the 75% point perhaps. Not the same pace throughout – just one that only slowly increases as you read through it. If you enjoy delving deep into character development and the political maneuverings of fantasy worlds then you will still enjoy Clariel despite the slower pace. Don’t despair tho, there are still a few action scenes through the book but I admit I had thought I would have more of an adventure from this return to the Old Kingdom. I did enjoy the read and was lucky enough to both read the print version and listen to the audio in tandem. It helped me get through the book in two days and I can’t recommend the narrator Graeme Malcolm. I really hope I run across another novel narrated by him soon.

If you enjoyed the original Abhorsen trilogy, Clariel is definitely not a book you’d want to miss. And even if you haven’t read those books you don’t need to in order to read Clariel.

I'm a fan of Nix's Old Kingdom novels and I was excited to find he'd written more in that universe. Clariel is a new and somewhat frustrating character, because she's incredibly stubborn and at times, stupid. What I found more interesting than our new heroine was the difference in the kingdom in this time period, versus what I was used to in Sabriel - the Abhorsen spends much of his time hunting animals, rather than dealing with the dead, and there seems to be less importance in this role than in Sabriel's generation. We also get more Mogget (yes!) and his nature is more wild due to the lax attitude of the Abhorsen in that time.

Clariel's story was a bit dry. I was more interested in the world and the political upheaval than whether she would get to be a forest ranger like she'd always dreamed. Towards the end of the book her story did pick up, but then the book ended and I was left feeling like this was more of a setup to another potential trilogy than a real prequel to the current Old Kingdom books. I would have liked to have seen more development with her magical studies and I'm especially interested in hearing more about her character after reading the author's note (which I accidentally read before the book and spoiled myself) because there's a tidbit in there that gives more information about who she is. I'll certainly read more about Clariel if Nix chooses to write more - my only disappointment is that I was hoping more a bit more detail about the Old Kingdom and its inhabitants and this book felt like more of a tease.

For established Old Kingdom fans, Clariel will probably be a nice treat, just to have more work set in this world. If you're just starting out, I'd recommend sticking to Sabriel as your first book.

I can’t even explain how excited I was for this book. The Abhorsen Trilogy has been my favorite set of books for many years now. Clariel was this chance for a whole new set of characters and adventures. Which we got, but not in the way I think a lot of us were planning.

First off, let me just say that Clariel is not a good person. She goes on and on and ON about wanting to go back to the Great Forest. We get that after the first few times. We know that she aches for the trees. Now stop talking about it please! Nix also likes to keep bringing up that Clairel is not interested in men. Or women. It’s a great character point, but again, only needs to be mentioned ONCE.

Clariel calls her classmates by the B-word and it instantly took me out of the book. Out of all the other books Nix has written in this world, no one has EVER said that word before, or anything even remotely close to it. In this fantasy world, and let me just say, Clariel takes place a whopping 600 years before the originals, the dialogue is different from what we use. It just frustrated me to know end.

The story is incredibly boring and rushed. Nothing really happens until the last like 1/16th of the book. It bored me to tears and left many holes I’d love to know more about.

And then there’s the adults in Clariel’s life. I understand that for this to truly be YA, adults need to be absent or clueless and these adults are in the latter. They just meet her, tell her she’s a berserk, and then leave her to go take down a free magic creature with NO training of any kind!!!

My face– 0.0

I just could go on and on about this book and not in the best way. It could partially be due to my pent-up excitement about it being let down so hard. I don’t know. Nix is releasing another book next year I think about Lirael and Sam and Lirael was my favorite book. IS my favorite book. I mean, a librarian who can cast spells and banish the dead? Heck. Yes. So please. PLEASE. Don’t mess it up Garth.

One of the only good things about this book is that Mogget shows up.

CLARIEL is an epic fantasy set in the world of Nix's Abhorsen trilogy but happening hundreds of years before it. It tells the story of a young girl named Clariel who is the daughter of a famous Goldsmith and a cousin of the King. When she is taken to Belisaere, she is very unhappy. She wishes to be a borderer and spend her life in the great forests of the country. She doesn't like the crowds; she doesn't like the noise; she doesn't like being surrounded by stone and walls. Clariel has a difficult relationship with her parents. She wants to love them but they only see her as a pawn to be played to further their ambitions.

Belisaere is in a state of flux. The King has refused to rule for many years and has become a recluse in his castle. The power vacuum has been filled by the Guilds. Guildmaster Kilp of the Goldsmiths is the city leader but he is still hungry for more power. It is his wish, abetted by her mother, to have Clariel marry his son. He has a further goal of deposing the king and setting up Clariel as his puppet Queen. Clariel meets his son Aronzo and takes an immediate dislike to him when she attends a school that is attended by all the "best people." There she also meets Belatiel who is the great-nephew of the current Abhorsen and also a relative of Clariel and the King.

This is also a story about magic. It is a time of conflict between Charter Magic and Free Magic. Charter Magic is going out of favor with the "better people" of Belisaere. Clariel has the baptismal Charter mark but doesn't have much interest or skill in Charter Magic. Free Magic is unbound magic. It is the duty of the Charter families - the King, the Abhorsens, the Clayrs - to protect from Free Magic. But the king is in hiding and the current Abhorsen is more interested in hunting than doing his job to control Free Magic. Clariel has a talent for Free Magic and is a berserker. It is when she lets her rage go that she can control the elementals who are Free Magic.

When she gets caught up in the politics of the day, she turns to Free Magic to try to right wrongs. But she is riding a tiger and doesn't know it. Her good intentions are almost overwhelmed by the seductive nature of Free Magic.

The story is filled with action and adventure, magic and mayhem. I recommend it to lovers of epic fantasy.

Imagine the Wizard of Oz scene in Futurama where Farnsworth is like "Click your big honking boots together and go live with your dirt-farming aunt and uncle." And Leela does, but then immediately wishes to become a Witch instead

That's sort of what kept rolling through my head as I was reading this, lol.

-Spoilers Ahead-

There's some tendrils of an interesting story here, particularly with the mother character and the missing princess, but it's such a wasted opportunity. Karagin, the old woman, and Bel are all supposed authority figures on magic yet make such incredibly dumb decisions, it's no wonder things turned out the way they did.

I feel like Clariel herself is 50% interesting/cool and 50% an obnoxious dweeb. I would love a hypothetical story with her coming to terms with her inner darkness and free magic maybe paired with Bel on an adventure to find the missing princess, where he comes into his own as an abhorsen or something. But perhaps that might have been retreading the previous books too much? Maybe he could have been chasing/followingClariel as she went down her dark path on the hunt for a princess who'd been kidnapped by some Free Magic demon?

In any case, I wish we had gotten more blood on the face, smoking mask Clariel. The story is ok if you're a patient reader, but it's not quite as deep on character as previous books

I loved this book it delved deeper into the world and gave an idea of how things were before sabeiel. Now I don't know if this is good or bad but it reminded me a lot of the legend of korra you know a city were magic isn't really used a tough outdoorsy girl this image for clariel was korra from the last season , I really liked the twist at the end though I kind of figured it out along the way I do wish nix hid the surprise better I wish I figured it out on the very last page but I'm satisfied either way. Though there is one question I have about one character who might of acted oddly. But over all this book was great I didn't have to wait as long as those who have been reading the books since they came out I never got around to finishing them till a year or two before this books release so I wasn't overwhelmed by hype so if your like me you will enjoy this addition to the story :)

All of the Old Kingdom books have been dark because so far they've focused heavily on death, the dead, and the ruin of the kingdom. While this book takes place before the interregnum and the river of death only makes a few offstage appearances in Clariel, if you're into the darker side of the Old Kingdom's magic system and the forces of will at the edge of the Charter, you're in luck. Clariel is dark in the way that narratives about the Hindenberg or the Titanic can only be dark. Though it's a prequel, Clariel was written to be read by someone who at the very least has read Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen (if not all of the canon novels and short stories).
You would think that given the prescient knowledge of the ultimate fate of the characters in this book, it'd be difficult to become fully invested in the story... maybe it's just my personal taste or maybe it's that Nix is just wonderful at writing sympathetic characters, but all of it was really compelling and though it was bittersweet, it didn't have that "what's the point" hopelessness.
I did feel like the ending had nowhere to go though... you can see a trajectory and the ultimate destination, but because the narrative's set up like it's going to fill in the blanks, you're left feeling like someone's done half the MadLibs page and put it down to do something else. Either way, I was really happy to read this book and I'm happy to hear in the afterword that in about 30 years, we'll get another Old Kingdom book because this really is my favorite fantasy vacation destination. A+ Thanks Garth!

I definitely enjoyed this book, which is no surprise. It feels a bit more in the vein of his other novels than the Abhorsen trilogy (...series?), and I will probably never love it as much as I love the original three, but a lot of that simply has to do with my intense love for Lirael. In fact, in some ways this feels like a really well fleshed out novella. It's definitely a stand alone, and it's novel length...but it just...GAH I DON'T KNOW. There's just something missing for me.

Anyway, long story short, this is another great book from Garth Nix, I loved it almost as much as the original trilogy but not as much (And I feel like it could have gone further than it did - I think Clariel could have been badder. But oh yeah - I'm pretty sure she's asexual, which I've never encountered in literature before, and it was AWESOME).

I was so disappointed by this novel. I kept hoping it would recapture some of the old kingdom feel from the other books, but that never happened. It really was like all the imagination behind the first three books was completely sucked dry from this one. It feels like it was written by a completely different author that only had a vague notion concerning the "world" about which they were writing. The writing was lack luster and dull for me. And the female lead really was not relatable, nor were any of other characters fully developed. Clariel, in particular, felt like some kind of whiney Katniss-esque (hunger games) Hodge podge of unlikable and unbelievable characters to the point I genuinely despised her internal monologues. I could not relate to her. The writing style was so unlike the other books in this series. It lost so much substance in this book. Sad for the old kingdom. This was not it.

Before I put my two cents down, I would like to note that I hadn't read the trilogy since middle school, so about 6 or 7 years and forgotten all about Clhorr of The Mask. After reading Clariel, I promptly made it a point to reread the books. Now, I just finished rereading (literally minutes ago) the series as a young adult, and I have been moved in ways that I had not, when I first read them.

Clariel is a fantastic addition to the series and it is a must have. Blood runs deep in the Old Kingdom and this is one of the things I love about it. In each book, we learn about the Abhorsens, The Clayr, The Royals, The Wallmakers and The Charter itself. AND even in Clariel; explores the same Berserk nature that runs in torrigan aka Touchstone. I love it.

Clariel's story is tragic and at it's climatic point, when everything changed for the worst, I was floored. Garth Nix makes it easy to invest your emotions into the characters and it is totally worth it the read. In the case of Clariel, you really do ponder the meaning of, Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?

I loved getting a look into the back story of the rest of the Abhorsen series. In Clariel, you see the Old Kingdom on the edge of collapse, and witness how the courts and royal family functioned (or failed to function) to bring about the shattered society in Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen. Clariel is a young woman forced into a dangerous position within this society that she neither wants or understands. Her tale is a complicated and bittersweet journey. Readers will sympathize with this strong-willed girl who only wishes to forge her own destiny, but does not understand the consequences of the choices she is making to do so.

I can't wait to read the next addition to this wonderful series.

I love Garth Nix's Old Kingdom with all my heart and would read anything he wanted to write in that world. I love his style of writing and I am completely fascinated by his world of charter magic, free magic and Death. That being said, I struggled to finish Clariel for several reasons:

1. Clariel is not an easy character to get to know. I understand that her increasingly questionable actions are justified by an overlying motive: she "just wants to return home to her life in the forest", but Nix reiterates that point CONSTANTLY. Not a single chapter goes by where he fails to tell us that motive two or three times. I get it. Really. Just stop saying it. No matter how many times it's said, I still don't think it's a very compelling reason for the drastic choices Clariel ends up making over the span of the book.

2. The concept of Clariel's character is interesting, but the reality is not. Clariel is obviously meant to be a sympathetic villain. However, villains we can identify with usually have a "human element" to them that helps the reader understand or even sympathize with the rationale behind their poor choices. Clariel is hard to identify with. She has no attachment to her family or friends and no interest in romance. While I admire Nix for writing a rather unconventional character and (in theory) like the idea of a teen girl who can carry her own plot without romance, in practice, her very unusualness makes it hard to connect with her in any meaningful way.

3. Nix's selling point in the series is the incredible world he's created, where life in both the Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre (a land similar to our world) depends on the balance between charter magic, free magic and Death. The first half of Clariel features none of that. Clariel has no interest in magic and is increasingly drawn into the politics of the Old Kingdom. Unfortunately for the reader, that equates to no magic (bummer) and too many politics (in which I share Clariel's complete lack of interest).

I'm looking forward to the sequel to the Abhorsen trilogy. Lirael is by far a more interesting and compelling character to spend time with.

I loved this book and the idea of being "set 500 years before Sabriel".
As a young teenager Sabriel was the first fantasy book i had read specifically suited for someone of a YA age. I was captivated by the description of the old kingdom and felt i couldn't put the book down.
This then continued when reading Lirael however at some stages in the book i found myself wanting to skip chapters only containing Sam the young man - this continued throughout the majority of the book however i believe that was what Garth Nix was actually aiming for - for female readers to find this young man extremely annoying and feeling like you need to tell him to buck up and face the facts.
Anyway - When reading Abhorsen this feeling of irritation only progressed which is something of an annoyance when i felt the book was rather good although nothing in comparison to the first two.

Now this book however is one that i could easily read balancing out the irritation of a character that really needed to get her act together as well as being exciting enough to make you want to continue reading.

I think the majority of reviews on here are forgetting that indeed this book was before Sabriel was even born therefore the city was completely different as were the problems the people faced - if you also remember correctly this was in fact the time of Touchstone before he was turned into a boat head figurine.

I feel this is a good read and if you are willing to remember that the book won't give you the love of the characters in the series as well as understanding what sort of troubles they are going through then by all means i salute to you and employ you to take a read.
However if you are expecting a book that basically follows on in the same century or era of the other books then you shall be disappointed as this is not that sort of book.

I must also point out that although it is set before any of the other books it is defiantly not a book to read first - i feel you need to understand really what the old kingdom is about in its later years to completely understand the plot of this specific book.

I have to first say that I am a HUGE fan of Garth Nix and have read many of his books. This book was, unfortunately, not of the same caliber of story I am used to, but was still engaging enough to keep me reading. Nix is still a good writer, I just feel like this book was kind of stifled. It was good in that it was not at all what I expected, but at the same time there were elements missing. For one, having some of the other character's perspectives might have helped flesh out the story and given a more complete view of Clariel's importance and hit home the tragedy of her situation. The biggest difference for me between Clariel and the other Old Kingdom books is how little I felt for her compared to the other female protagonists. I get Clariel's desire to be alone and stuff, but I feel like she was rather 2-dimensional compared to Sabriel or Lirael. So, not sure if Mr. Nix was rushed to make this book or if maybe he was pressured into writing a different book than what he wanted or something- but there is a definite disconnect between the author and the characters in Clariel.I wanted to weep for Clariel and feel her heartbreak and her anger and her frustration. I wanted to feel her terror and her despair. I wanted to be there with her. Everything felt rather vague. I feel like there was a lot of stuff that could have been built up and was just glossed over instead. Not a horrible work by any means- Nix is always a good writer- just disappointing in its lack of depth and suspense.

I'll be brief - there's no point in getting passionate over this book. I will say first of all, I'm glad I read the reviews on the store before reading this book. Not that they would ever deter me, but yes, I was expecting another Sabriel. Or Lireal. Or even Abhorsen, or Across the Wall. I wasn't even hoping, I just knew this would be another thrilling, magical, rich story that I was accostumed to. And Garth Nix fell abysmally short. Just ridiculously short. I cannot fathom the reason he chose to go in the direction he chose for this book, when he could have taken such a different path. I was expecting rich back story about the makings of a necromancer and country I had so enjoyed reading about in the other books...instead this was a completely flat, listless story of a spoiled brat who does utterly nothing interesting. There is no depth to the Old Kingdom or these characters, and that was its biggest flaw.

So, I was glad to read the reviews, because they made me completely reevaluate my expectations, and they were lowered so much that I probably would have ended up (almost) enjoying anything I read by Garth Nix. With no expectations, this book was readable, and in some parts almost exciting. It was a huge struggle to finish though, I'll be honest, and it left me wanting in the most intense way. As a long-time fan of this series I am grossly disappointed and saddened by this wasted opportunity I waited so long for.

This book was a decent addition to the Old Kingdom legacy. It did not have the power of Lirael or Sabriel, possibly because we really didn't care about any character except Clariel (save maybe Belatiel), and we all know who Clariel will become. Her love of the forest was Clariel's main redeeming point, and we didn't see it in action hardly at all. My favorite part of the book was Mogget, but then he is the best part of the whole series. I wish he had been in there more, it would have made this much more pleasing. As it was, it was a good read once, though I don't know that I'll read it again.

After waiting 12 years for Clariel, I must admit, I am rather...disappointed. That is not to say I didn't enjoy the book. I did enjoy it. However, to be blunt, I feel like Clariel simply lacked the magic and wonder of the rest of the Old Kingdom books.

The story itself was OK, and I recognize that things were different 600 years prior to Sabriel, but there was almost no sense of adventure. My biggest gripe is the characterization. Too many of the characters felt like stereotypes, and I had a hard time connecting with anyone but Bel, Kargrin, and Gully, who, sadly, were not featured enough for my tastes. Clariel really doesn't seem to have much personal growth throughout the story, and her constant whining about wanting to get back to the Great Forest got old, especially after 300 pages. Also, I can't even count the number of times Clariel "whispered something to herself."

Let me be clear, ANY Old Kingdom writing is awesome, and I am so amazingly happy Garth Nix decided to return to the setting. That being said, I may have been a victim of my own (false) expectations of this book blowing me away. And while I did enjoy the book, I, unfortunately, was not blown away.

i read the first books when i was little and enjoyed them immensely, and have reread them as an adult a good few times, and found they held up just as well as ever. i reread the books before setting out on this one, even, so they're fresh in my mind. what stood out, with the world-building and appealing characterisation, was never feeling condescended to. i never payed attention to book categories as a kid, so i never really realised the trilogy was a 'YA' series. they were just good books that happened to feature young people. they still strike me that way. good, solid, immersive books, not a niche-filling collection of tropes.

in other words, completely unlike this newest addition to the series. i can already see this is capitalising on the desire to see more asexual and aromantic representation, which is not uncommendable! but despite that fact, it's already more blandly teen romance-y than all the rest of the series combined, at least for the first half of the book. boring sleazy evil chauvinist character, hot headed 'not like other girls' protag, 'distant yuppie parents wanting to live through their children' plot...yick. this is every uninteresting 'how to write a YA novel and make bux' trope in a mushy bowl of angsty oatmeal. i am very disappointed. i wouldn't have finished this book as a teen. i wouldn't recommend it to one now over any other vaguely Hunger Games inspired disposable paperback. i'd hand the original trilogy to someone looking for an aro/ace-friendly read in a heartbeat, two of the three books stay nicely clear of cringy adult-written teen romance and the first handles it sweetly without resorting to arranged marriage tropes. but this reads like really rushed fanfiction by someone not super in touch with the feel of the story's world.

and so painfully mundane and contrived. the threat? cookie-cutter dystopian politicking, (everyone is superficial and capitalist, which is Bad like Apple products, oh no the world has lost its flavour like in The Giver...) which our Katniclone of course has no interest in, because she's Simple and Self-Sufficient and can't stop thinking about trees. and the only reason any of the plot can happen is because everyone has grown cripplingly aforementionedly weak. which could itself be a great plot, a dilution of bloodlines or a menacing ploy by a destructive cosmic force, to weaken the institutions that protect the Old Kingdom, but if that's where this was going, why is the next book to do with Nick and Lirael? (not complaining though!) without follow up it just reads as a series of unfortunately, coincidentally uninvolved guardians failing a child and a kingdom. which is...tragic, but what was the point, again? it felt almost like there was a fear of having too much going on in the background, since this IS the story of how Clariel came to be what we know she is, but there really wasn't enough going on in the foreground to justify that worry.

in short, i agree with other reviewers who have said this feels like a hamhanded and patronising attempt to grab at YA trends. incredibly disappointing, and the first one hundred and fifty pages in particular are just about skippable. that doesn't leave a whole lot. again, agree with others who say this could have been a serviceable short story or novella, but definitely not a book. it passes the time like any other pulpy forgettable fantasy novel, but if you know the rest of the series and were looking for more of what made it so good, it's going to be a let down.

The Abhorsen series is my absolute favorite book series, so I was very happy and excited to hear Garth Nix was writing a prequel of sorts. After a year of waiting, I finally got to read Clariel and it was everything I hoped it would be. It's definitely different from the other three books because the Old Kingdom was a very different place 600 years in the past, but it was an interesting change of pace. It was a hard read for me knowing what would eventually happen to Clariel, but at the same time her spiral down is like a waterfall you can't escape; I just couldn't stop reading! If you're a fan of the other books in the series, don't hesitate to read this one as well. Nix's writing style hasn't changed at all, so within the first few pages I found myself transported back into the Old Kingdom world and I just loved it. I'm going to read Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen again now as well, it only seems fitting!

I'll admit that I let the negative reviews psyche me out before reading this book. I almost passed on it -- and I'm so glad I didn't. I enjoyed the world- and history-building of CLARIEL -- the Old Kingdom 600 years before Sabriel. I think writing this book must required a fine balance: how to make a character that the reader identifies with, yet who ultimately will meet a horrific end and cause much suffering along the way. My only complaint was that there could have been MORE to the story because Clariel is still *Clariel* at the end...a bit tainted but not corrupted and evil. I wanted to read more about what happened next, before we meet her again in LIREAL.

The Old Kingdom books have always seemed to me to be the finest work by Garth Nix.. When it was announced that a prequel to Sabriel was on the way i was quite excited. Clariel, unfortunately, does not measure up to the other Old Kingdom titles. The story seems rather flat and Clariel seems like a whiny child fixed on her desire to live in the forest. Mogget does not seem like himself either. This book is set 600 years before the birth of Sabriel and does build a bit of the Old Kingdom culture so it does add something previously unseen but still doesn't give you that page-turninig fervor. If you are a fan of the Old Kingdom you will certainly want to read Clariel but it is a somewhat weak addition to the series. One good thing: it seems that Nix is working on yet another Old Kingdom book. Hopefully it will have a bit more zing than this one.

Like so many others have said, this was an overwhelming disappointment. I got this as a gift for my birthday, and had been looking forward to reading it for months. I've now had it for over two months, and have still barely reached halfway through it. If it had been my first read of an Old Kingdom book, I'd have given up completely within the first few chapters (as I did with Mr Monday - another one I read because it was by the author of the Sabriel books).

Unlike some other reviewers, I enjoyed all the books in the original trilogy - although I did find the start of Lirael a little tedious. This book is just a thumping bore. If I read one more thing about Clariel wanting to run off and live in the forest, I think I may actually scream. How many times can Nix actually say this in the first sixty or so pages? Doesn't he think the reader might have got the point after the first twenty or so mentions? It's tedious and irritating beyond belief.

Aside even from this, Clariel comes across as nothing but a whining, spoilt, immature brat. Nothing that has happened so far has been in any way interesting - far from it. I can't believe the amount of dross Nix has included in the book. Everything is over-described and for no good reason that I can see. The characters are flat and lifeless, the setting described in excruciating detail to no real purpose.

Doubtless, I will slog my way to the end eventually but, since I know what the twist is now, there really seems little point. I don't even care. The book so far is such a disappointment. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone and, if anyone reads this before the rest of the books, I'd be amazed if they ever move onto them, which is a pity. Garth Nix should be ashamed of himself for producing such a tiresome, irritating read.

The Old Kingdom series is one of my favorites. Garth Nix spins a world of equals were gender is just a fact and not a big deal in the heroes and culture misunderstanding has real consequences. Heroes make real mistakes and are real people. Clariel and the other characters in the story are no exception.

The story is excellent and because this is a prequel, an avid reader will be able to see the long term consequences of the decisions that are made by many of the characters in the book. Nix leaves the reader to answer questions of mercy vs. justice for themselves and there is no easy answer to the question What does it mean to be lost. Overall, an incredible book and excellent addition to the series.

Boring with a very whiney main character. We got treated to Clariel going on and on and on about how she wants to go back to the forest. And pretty much nothing else. Even when she got to school things didn't get more interesting. The immediate drawing of social lines and cliques held no interest for me. I gave up reading about then.

This book tarnished the love I have carried for Sabriel over the years. That a character so sullen, flat and lacking in empathy could be deemed worthy of being a heroine (if you can actually even apply that word to the character of Clariel) is a sad disappointment. This book was not gripping. Clariel's utter disdain for everyone was understandable at first, as she was miserable in the city, frustrated, etc. That was all clearly explained - perhaps too clearly told and never shown. But she never redeemed herself or offered any likable aspect of herself to the reader and I didn't enjoy reading and hoping she would.

Clariel, the latest Old Kingdom book by Garth Nix, follows the story of the title character, a seventeen-year-old girl living 600 years before the events of Sabriel. Clariel's family has recently moved to the capital city of Belisiaere, where her mother, a talented artisan, has achieved a high rank in the Goldsmith's guild. Clariel resents the move and wants nothing more than to return to the Great Forest where she grew up, to pursue her dream of becoming a Borderer. Instead, she gets swept up in political conflict and magic.

I'd been waiting for another Old Kingdom book for a long time, so I wanted to like this book better than I did. But I found the characters flat and the story a bit tedious. Clariel herself struck me as one-dimensional and somewhat whiny, and I had a hard time sympathizing with her. When, about 3/4 of the way through, I saw what Nix was doing, the set-up made better sense. But I think he was dealing with more story than he had space for in 382 pages. It would be hard to say more without spoilers, but the story turns out to be about Clariel's transformation--or the beginning of her transformation--into something else. And while it's interesting to see how that transformation took place, I think it would have been better served with a lengthier book and more developed characters.

I absolutely loved Nix's Abhorsen series. When I saw that this book was coming out, the excitement could hardly be contained. I was even happier when I was able to get the ARC on this book.
This is a prequel to the first 3 books. Although it can be read as a stand alone book, I think you get a much better understanding of the Clayr and the Abhorsen if you read the first 3.
This book is about Clariel. A girl that wants so much to live in the forest and keep to herself. Her parents have different ideas and move her to the city and prearrange a marriage to a pretentious jerk. Clariel is very unhappy and plans her escape. In the process she finds allies to help her but in return she must help them. From there it is a whirlwind of adventure.
I took a star off only because the beginning of the story was a bit slower than I was used to from Nix. Also, I had a hard time liking Clariel. In the end, I'm wondering if I was supposed to dislike her. Definitely had mixed feelings but she still ended up being a strong character.
If you liked the Abhorsen series, then you need to get this one!
I try to make my reviews as helpful as possible. If there might be more I need to add or questions you might have, please leave me a comment.

The book was very enjoyable to read, but I'm only giving it 4 stars because I didn't enjoy it as much as the original 3 books in the series. The lead character is a little flatter and less developed compared to other past protagonists. The first half of the book is a little slow, but gladly, the pace picks up in the second half. Stick with it, and you'll be rewarded with more knowledge about the Old Kingdom, including several things that the original series hinted at but never fully explained. And yes! More Moggit!

In this must-read for fans of the Old Kingdom series we're treated to a story about an event that happened centuries earlier than any kingdom history we've been given before. We also learn a bit more about the corrupting effects of Free Magic. The writing is at the level you would expect for Garth Nix, my only complaint is that the climax happens at the very end of the book and there is minimal denouement. It pretty much ends and flips over to the author saying "And that's how [SPOILER] came to be."

Compared to the other audio books this one is the most boring, the editing is blatant and almost too dull unlike the others.Garth Nix should fire who ever helped him edit because Iv lost the tension seen before in books 1-3.

Probably my fault for expecting a prequel packed with violence but instead we have some kind of slow pace soap opera.

Or it could be that Tim Curry is a better narrator than Graeme Malcolm, used to have night terros falling sleep to him read the books but this one just seems bland

An active follower of the Abhorsen series since 7th grade and exhausted the Trilogy for all its worth, I truly was excited for Clariel to hit the shelves. Overall I was entertained by the story and the action packed pivotal moments that flared up every so often. Unfortunately, I was not entirely captivated by Clariel's persona. I enjoyed the perspective of an inside view of an entranced Abhorsen with the powers of free magic, since as readers, we have only lived through the eyes of charter Abhorsens. I wish Nix would have delved into more detail about free magic for this reason.
The book starts off slow and builds up right at the end of the novel. I feel as if the story was cut short and there was too much left unexplained. I would have opted for a longer read if this meant a more full-bodied explanation of details. I would love if Nix created a book that held all the interesting information and details regarding the world of the old kingdom. An encyclopedia of sorts, I'm obsessed with game guides and enjoy reading excess information about fantasy worlds. Otherwise, Clariel was a great look into the troubled path of a rouge Abhorsen. I now need to reread Lirael/Abhorsen with this background information regarding Chlorr of the mask. Cannot wait to draw parallels.

*Spoilers* After waiting for several years I was ecstatic to find that Garth Nix had published the next book in the Old Kingdom series. I loved Sabriel and Lirael's characters but I didn't really feel a strong connection with Clariel until the end of the book, at which point I felt pity more than anything. It's true that Clariel's character is not easy to relate to but throughout the book the foundation is laid for her to evolve into the character that we know as Chlorr of the Mask. I appreciated this book for the glimpse into the Old Kingdom's "golden age" before the dark era of Sabriel's time. It was illuminating, although disheartening, to discover the apathy that the current Abhorsen held for his position and the repercussions that resulted from his failure to perform his duty. Above all, it was a joy to return to this universe in a new novel and learn more about the characters who shaped the growth and deterioration of the Old Kingdom. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment in this series!

Having read the previous books in the series, I enjoyed this story greatly! It was fun to see the mischievous little cat, Mogget. Unlike some of the other reviews I read, I enjoyed the pace of the story. Also, I did not dislike the titular character, Clariel. The story added a different aspect to the world that Garth Nix created that I very much enjoyed.

I was so waiting for this book to come out, having loved the previous three and today when I walked into my local bookstore, it was on the shelf. I bought it then and there after squeeing with joy a little and have not put it down since. (finished in 6 hours or so)

Garth Nix has done it again. I love what he's done with this character, she's strong, intensely flawed and satisfying. She's not interested in romance and her steps onto her path are beautifully played. I won't give any spoilers but I love this glimpse into the past of the Old Kingdom and what happens when people fail to keep to their duty.

Amazing..... now I'm impatiently waiting for book 5 that apparently is in the works.

I like many readers were thrilled that the author was releasing another book in this series because the first three were great. However, this one lacked interesting characters...and was really disappointing. I really like this author, I hope the next one that returns us to our beloved first three book characters is better.

I really enjoyed this book. I did not read it physically but listened to the audio book (very well done voicing). Though Clariel was a character with whom some people found it hard to identify, I found myself wishing that I could be her big sister as I listened. She is a struggling teen hard set on her goals and really cried out to be understood throughout the book. She wanted peaceful solitude but instead ended up with bitter loneliness, and her efforts to do what she though was right ended up destroying her. It is a really tragic story that speaks volumes about manipulation, trust, and impulsivity. Also, didbI mention there is a freaking dragon?! Hells yes!

***Contains mild general spoilers for the Abhorsen series.***

Clariel was no Sabriel, but was still a very enjoyable read. As another reviewer noted, there's a certain level of 'teen angst' to Clariel that reminds me of Lirael. It's one of the primary reasons I prefer Sabriel to the other books in the series. Clariel's 'return to the forest' fixation does get a bit repetitive, and some of the characters are a little one dimensional (I've forgotten her name, but the other female classmate (not Denima) comes to mind). I liked Bel, and I'm always interested in more Mogget. The apathy on the part of some of the higher-ranking characters seemed excessive at times, but this is the Old Kingdom at a very different time than we're used to, and I suppose I can understand why an Abhorsen who's never had to do his job wouldn't be on the same level as the ones we're used to. About 2/3 of the way through the plot really kicks in to gear and it's hard to put it down.

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the original trilogy. A lot of the magic/world probably wouldn't make sense without having at least read Sabriel first.

(In the author's notes Nix mentions he's writing another book that falls after the trilogy. While I'm excited for more of this world, what I'd *really* love is something set in between Sabriel and Lirael. I'd love a peek at Sabriel and Touchstone rebuilding the kingdom.)

I've just finished reading the whole book and the only thing that comes to mind is utter disappointment..complete and utter disappointment, which feels like someone just sucker punched me in the gut. Seems like I've been waiting forever for this book to come out, even re-read the first 4 books for the 20th time.
Some other reviewer said the first half of the book was boring. Damn right it was but I persevered through, still with high hopes that something wonderful was just a few more pages away. But...
"Clariel" feels like it had been thrown together in a couple of months. Sad to say, even "Creature in the Case" beats it hands down. The character Clariel is so flat, it grated on my nerves how she whines about the luxury she's in and how she longs to roll on the grass in some forest far away...from chapter 1 til the very end. Her parents are also so stereotyped. There's just no character growth. Through the whole book these characters remain so distant that I don't feel connected to them in the sense that I'm just going through the motion of flipping the pages in a hurry to reach the end.

*Spoiler* If any of you are expecting the grand making of the powerful ancient necromancer in the mask...you'll be as sorely disappointed as I am..

I was unsure about this book, forgetting where this fell timewise compared to the first books. Even as it ended, everything seemed very abrupt... but then the author's note at the end brought everything into sharp focus (but there be spoilers).

Clariel is a fantastic book (literally) that gives readers a glimpse of the Old Kingdom before we see it through the eyes of Sabriel and Lirael. The story is captivating and leaves you with an itch to reread the series all over again. I only wish I could read more of Clariel's storyline.

Garth Nix takes a new turn with this tale of the Old Kingdom, exploring how far a series of seemingly innocuous choices can lead us from our original goals. The story compelled me through to the end, despite definite misgivings about where the characters were headed. Well worth the read. Those who already love the Old Kingdom will be happy to get a bit of the history of the Charter families and of Mogget.

Clariel was long awaited and I give it four stars instead of five because when you wait ten years for a book it is nearly impossible to live up to its expectations. That being said, it was also an unexpected direction. Nearly the first half of the book was a build up. It was great to see a view of The Capitol in historical times. Once Mogget got involved it felt much more like the earlier books in the series. Typical of the earlier books in the series when finished I wished there was already another book written to follow up the story. Always captivating Mr. Nix, a tip of the hat to you.

Only a few chapters in but still loving me some Abhorsen. Got some free time this weekend and can't wait to dig in deep. My only complaint is this book is a few hundred pages shorter than the others. After such a long wait I was hoping for an encyclopedias worth of information.

The book ties fairly nicely in with the trilogy of Sabriel, however it takes far too long to get going and isn't paced very well. It was a fun read and I enjoyed getting back into the Old Kingdom. The later half of the book was quite exciting. Basically as soon as Mogget rejoins.

The book ties fairly nicely in with the trilogy of Sabriel, however it takes far too long to get going and isn't paced very well. It was a fun read and I enjoyed getting back into the Old Kingdom. The later half of the book was quite exciting. Basically as soon as Mogget rejoins.