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A review by songwind
Clariel by Garth Nix
3.0
Set up
Clariel by Garth Nix is the fourth novel of the Old Kingdom series of stories.
Clariel is the only daughter of a wealthy and successful goldsmith. As the story opens, her family has moved from the backwater town of Estwale to the capital city of Belisare to further her mother's career. Clariel's mother is distant and absorbed by her work. Her father is ineffectual and totally dominated by him wife. Clariel herself is short on people skills, and is at her happiest when alone or with select others in the wilds.
Clariel immediately feels trapped and smothered by the teeming capital city. Her chief desire is to return to the country, to live with her aunt Lemon or to be alone in the Great Forest. Unfortunately for her, Clariel's parents begin inserting her into Belisare society. She is sent to the Acadamy, a school for the children of the wealthy and politically connected.
Clariel's family is connected both to the royal family, and to the Abhorsens - two of the three pillars of the old guard. The Goldsmith's guild is preeminent among the city's trade guilds, and at the head of a new, nontraditional order that has gained much power in the Old Kingdom.
It isn't long before Clariel and her family are being pulled between these two forces. To top it off, Clariel finds she has inherited the Rage, a berserker fury known to affect some descendants of the Abhorsens. Overwhelmed, under-supported and confused, Clariel decides to do whatever she can to escape the city and live the life of a forester - with her parents' consent or without it.
Review
I liked this story, but it's definitely the weakest entry into the series. Clariel's attitudes and actions, while believable for a thwarted teenager, become grating after a while. The narrative itself feels too long in places, and rushed in others. I believe this is because Nix is telling three interconnected stories, and at least two of them could carry a book on their own.
The story of Clariel is a tragedy in the classic sense. This is implied by the subtitle (The Lost Abhorsen) but it still feels out of place in the series. Furthermore, Clariel herself is very different from the other protagonists of the series, and those differences mean that a lot of the basic aspects of the other Old Kingdom series books are absent.
All in all, I enjoyed listening to this book, but it wasn't the sort of book I had hoped for when I learned that a fourth Old Kingdom novel was forthcoming.
Clariel by Garth Nix is the fourth novel of the Old Kingdom series of stories.
Clariel is the only daughter of a wealthy and successful goldsmith. As the story opens, her family has moved from the backwater town of Estwale to the capital city of Belisare to further her mother's career. Clariel's mother is distant and absorbed by her work. Her father is ineffectual and totally dominated by him wife. Clariel herself is short on people skills, and is at her happiest when alone or with select others in the wilds.
Clariel immediately feels trapped and smothered by the teeming capital city. Her chief desire is to return to the country, to live with her aunt Lemon or to be alone in the Great Forest. Unfortunately for her, Clariel's parents begin inserting her into Belisare society. She is sent to the Acadamy, a school for the children of the wealthy and politically connected.
Clariel's family is connected both to the royal family, and to the Abhorsens - two of the three pillars of the old guard. The Goldsmith's guild is preeminent among the city's trade guilds, and at the head of a new, nontraditional order that has gained much power in the Old Kingdom.
It isn't long before Clariel and her family are being pulled between these two forces. To top it off, Clariel finds she has inherited the Rage, a berserker fury known to affect some descendants of the Abhorsens. Overwhelmed, under-supported and confused, Clariel decides to do whatever she can to escape the city and live the life of a forester - with her parents' consent or without it.
Review
I liked this story, but it's definitely the weakest entry into the series. Clariel's attitudes and actions, while believable for a thwarted teenager, become grating after a while. The narrative itself feels too long in places, and rushed in others. I believe this is because Nix is telling three interconnected stories, and at least two of them could carry a book on their own.
The story of Clariel is a tragedy in the classic sense. This is implied by the subtitle (The Lost Abhorsen) but it still feels out of place in the series. Furthermore, Clariel herself is very different from the other protagonists of the series, and those differences mean that a lot of the basic aspects of the other Old Kingdom series books are absent.
All in all, I enjoyed listening to this book, but it wasn't the sort of book I had hoped for when I learned that a fourth Old Kingdom novel was forthcoming.