Platypus of Truth

 Pictured: Kerrigor and Sabriel in Pitt pen and Brush Marker on sketch paper. It's been several years since I last did a blog-through of a book. Returning to live-blogging and Garth Nix's Old Kingdom have both been fun. So what are my final thoughts now that it's over? Nix is a much more accomplished writer than contemporary Terry Brooks. While I have fond memories of reading the Shannara series in the early 90s, I wish I had been reading Nix's stuff instead. On the other hand, even though Sabriel  is a Y.A. novel, its darkness might have disturbed me and vitiated my ability to appreciate the world the book creates. Turning to the Sabriel  and Clariel  as an adult, I find myself able to appreciate the tightness of Nix's writing as well as the genuine novelty and cohesiveness of his imagined world. I also feel much more able to appreciate Nix's Realism. There are rules to the Old Kingdom, and Nix plays by them. Many writers of Fantasy seem to confuse Real...

Today's post continues my blog-through of Garth Nix's dark fantasy, Sabriel , picking up where we left off with chapter 26. We're getting down to the end and there are spoilers galore. So, if you don't want to know how a 23 year old novel (so what if it spends every weekend binge-watching Parks and Rec , it can stop any time it wants to!) ends, don't keep reading. So here we go. The end run of Sabriel  is all about locating Kerrigor's bronze coffin (pictured at left: marker on boarding pass stub) and putting an end to his preserved remains ala Dracula  or The Mummy .  As I said before, we're now out of Brooks and Le Guin territory and into Room With a View  and All Quiet on the Western Front . Signs and portents gather as Col. Horyse, like Yates' Irish Airman, foresees his own death. We also learn that there was an incident 20 years earlier with the dead crossing The Wall in large numbers and that the towns of northern Ancelstierre have been drilli...

We're continuing our blog-through of Garth Nix's Sabriel  starting at Chapter 24. The image is of The Clayr, who I thought deserved stained glass (or Conte marker on the backing of a pack of Bic pens). We're getting closer to the end now, so if you don't want to what Nix penned 23 years ago (under no circumstances is it moving back in with Mom and Dad! -that would be weird...) really, really don't keep reading. Ok, you're still reading. Nix keeps the pressure up as Sabriel goes into shock (nice touch of Realism, that) and the scavengers from earlier begin hounding her and Touchstone (Mogget went awol when Abhorsen slipped his collar). When Sabriel is wounded, Touchstone gains super-powers and runs all the way to the top of the hill before collapsing. If we've read the prequel, Clariel , we know that berserking runs in the royal family. At the top of the hill, as promised, Sabriel encounters the Clayr. The Clayr are apparently a family of mystics that ca...

It's the GRE for me this week, so things on the blog front have slowed down. Still, that's why we take notes when doing this sort of thing, so they're there when we have time. Tonight's post will be the eighth in a series devoted to Garth Nix's break-out novel, Sabriel . If you are averse to learning the secrets of a 23-year-old novel (so what if it secretly wears My Little Pony socks to work -they're cute!) then don't keep reading. Ok, you've been warned! Here we go. When last we left our heroes, Sabriel had entered Death (a.k.a. Dragon Age's "The Fade") to find her father's spirit while Touchstone (Alistair anyone?) and Mogget remained in the diamond of protection to face Kerrigor and his undead minions of undeath (as pictured to the left on a scrap of boarding pass). Chapter 22 features the best descriptions of the Nine Gates of Death that we have anywhere in the book. They are simple, hazy, and yet still wonderfully dante...

Today we resume our walk through Garth Nix's Sabriel . Prior posts in this series can be found by visiting the blog and scrolling down. If you wish to remain ignorant of the details of a 23 year old book (it's too poor for avocado toast but day-old pizza for breakfast is just fine!), do not keep reading. You have been warned! We're picking up with chapters 18 and 19. This, at long last, brings us to civilization -or what's left of it. Belisaere, capitol of the Old Kingdom, is a sort of fifteenth century Constantinople. The boom chain that guards the harbor is there, and people do live and trade in the port, but it is clear that they are squatters in the ruins of a grander civilization. Instead of the Turks at the doors, Belisaere has the Dead. For all that, it is still beautifully described and described as beautiful; the first place to be described so in the book. The little inn where Sabriel, Mogget, and Touchstone stay, The Three Lemons, is a picture of bou...

It's a dark and stormy day here and that feels like a good background for discussing dark fantasy. So here we are at installment 6 of my read-through of Garth Nix's Sabriel . Earlier posts can be found by visiting the blog and scrolling down. Prior posts on Clariel  can be found by following the Nix label on the blog and scrolling down. I will give you the ritual warning that I will be discussing details of the novel. If you want to avoid knowledge of a 23 year old book (please stop trying to set it up with that awkward cousin of yours, he's not misunderstood, just creepy) then do not keep reading. Ok, that said, today's drawing is on a bit of boarding pass I found (yep, I'm down to portions of boarding pass now) and features Touchstone imprisoned as the figurehead of a ship (the king is the figurehead of the ship of state? Nice one, Garth). We'll begin our analysis of the book at Chapter 13 where... Glory, Hallelujah, it's raining men! You know it! ...

Today's post is the fifth in a series examining Gath Nix's fantasy classic, Sabriel . If you are spoiler sensitive about a 23 year old novel (yeah, I know, you're going through that mental rolodex looking for religious friends it might have something in common with...) then don't keep reading. I warned you! Ok, so today's drawing feature Mogget assuming his Final Form. It reminds me a bit of Dead Hand in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time . This is the last boarding pass I have to beautify with my marker collection, though the pictures should continue with each post. Chapter 11 opens with another seemingly unreliable aid for Sabriel: The Paperwing. Evidently, Abhorsens fly about in magical paper airplanes! The paperwing is another of Nix's wonderfully novel fantasy elements. It is believable in execution and unlike anything in Tolkien, Lewis, Le Guin, Dunsany, MacDonald, or Howard. It is delightful, ambiguously trustworthy, and feels real . Interest...

Today's post contains part 4 of my read-through of Garth Nix's Sabriel , the first book in his Abhorsen Series. Due to the popularity of this book, I need to speed read from here forward in order to get it back to the library on time. That will make future posts more condensed, but perhaps that will make them more interesting. Either way, here we go! Do not continue reading if you have qualms about spoilers on a 23 year old book (that wants you to please stop asking it to hold babies at church; they're children, not an infectious disease). Chapter 8 begins with what should be a pleasant scene: in a nice soft bed with a fluffy white cat sitting at the foot. The first discomfiting fact is that Sabriel is naked (violation/vulnerability) and that the cat is really an imprisoned being of unimaginable power and malignancy. Things get creepier when the cat speaks and asks Sabriel to remove its collar. Mogget, for that is who the cat is, is unscrupulous as well as cle...

This is the third post covering my reading of Garth Nix's 1995 Dark YA Fantasy Sabriel . Prior posts in the series can be found here and here . Posts from 2014 on Nix's prequel, Clariel , can be found by using the Nix tag at the bottom of this post or on the side bar. As with the prior two posts, this one features my depiction of Sabriel encountering the Shining Spirit along the river of death. It is done with pitt pens and felt markers on the back of an airline boarding pass. In the meantime, let's get on to the review. As always, don't keep reading if you don't want spoilers on a 23 year old novel (That likes beer, hard liquor, and binge-watching Parks and Rec?). From my notes: Chapter 6 opens with a sudden shift in perspective, an odd choice that still plagues Nix in Clariel . We find ourselves in the head of one of the lesser dead, Thralk. The jump in perspective is meant to enhance the tension as we watch Thralk creep up on Sabriel's broken war...

Today, we continue my blog-through Garth Nix's 1995 dark fantasy sensation: Sabriel . The first post in this series can be found here . As an added bonus, I'm attempting to doodle my way through Nix's world and hope to provide a different drawing with each post. Today's features Sabriel setting out from the wall into the borderlands between the technological world of Ancelstierre and the magical world of The Old Kingdom. As this is a liminal place, her gear is appropriately liminal with modern and medieval touches. I think Sabriel as pictured here owes more than a little to Trish from the Eldritch Horror  games, though the sword is definitely John Howe and the bells are church handbells (nine tailors make a man). Anyhow, if you wish to remain spoiler free on a 23 year old book (is it in grad school or a temp at Dunder Mifflin?), don't read on. From my journal notes: Chapter 2 opens with a set-piece that reinforces the leitmotif of boundary-crossing: The W...

This poor post has been a long time in coming (hopefully Liz and Joi will forgive me). My first live blog through one of Nix's Old Kingdom books was Clariel   in 2014. LIFE has intervened since then. Anyhow, I finally have space to pick the poor project up again starting at the start of The Abhorsen Trilogy: Sabriel . In each post, I will share my thought from the previous spate of reading. I will also endeavour to accompany each post with a drawing giving a little glimpse into my experience of Nix's world. The first two drawing are done with bic pen on boarding passes as I began reading Sabriel  on a trip to Tulsa. As a final word: if you haven't read Sabriel  and want to remain spoiler free, don't read on. Ok, you're still reading, so from here on out your blood be on your own head. From my journal: I've read Clariel  at Liz's suggestion, so I know a little of what goes on in Nix's world. Still, we don;t ever get to see a trained Abhorsen in ...

Inspired by my students, I picked up a pack of Prismacolor brush tip markers on Saturday. To the left is my first attempt to get a feel for these new tools and what they can do. The image is from Yvonne Gilbert's cover for the 1984 paperback of The Tombs of Atuan  by Ursula K. Le Guin. It's the book my wife and I happen to be reading right now. I didn't discover Ursula Le Guin until I was almost out of college. It's a pity. These are the books I should have been reading back in junior high instead of wasting all that time on "The Re-Reads of Shannara". Oh well. Each thing has its season. What stands out to me about Le Guin's Earthsea, and The Tombs of Atuan  in particular, is her strict minimalism. Not only is her word count and vocabulary perfectly restrained -not a word more than is needed- but her world and its characters are too. That's nothing short of phenomenal in a genre where over-writing is par for the course. Le Guin allows her character...

Because it needed to happen:

A new semester has started at school and I have finished Nix's Clariel .  As a reminder, my purpose in reading this book is to see how Garth Nix is able to craft a compelling novel with a heroine who consistently does everything she can to avoid the Call of Adventure.  Prior entries in the series can be found here , here , and here . *Plot Relevant Material Discussed Ahead* 17. By adding Mogget to the mix, Nix finally presents us with a character who can beat Clariel at her own game.  As an incredibly powerful Free Magic creature who has been humiliatingly bound to serve its enemies, Mogget's grievances are deeper and his determination stronger than Clariel's.  As Mogget's plot unfolds, we are able to see the real consequences of Clariel's approach to life: this is what she is becoming, a harmless-looking but incredibly dangerous villain. 18. All story thrives on conflict.  One of the things that makes Clariel  work as a novel is that Clariel's oppos...

My strategic reading of Garth Nix's Clariel , the prequel to his bestselling Abhorsen Trilogy, is nearing the end.  My purpose in this particular reading is to discover the ways in which Nix makes his reluctant and less-than-likable title character compelling.  To that end, this post and its predecessors contain discussions of numerous plot points.  Those who have not read Clariel  may not wish to continue reading this post. *Discussion of Plot Material Ahead* If your still with me, today's post will move my analysis up to the end of chapter twenty-two (Clariel's first meeting with her grandfather).  The two previous posts can be found here and here .  My previous post ran to the end of chapter nineteen (Clariel's escape from the prison hole). 14. Once Clariel is out of Belisaere, the narrative loses some strength until her arrival at Hillfair.  The reason for this is that it presents Clariel with her first real opportunity to get away.  B...

My strategic reading of Garth Nix's Clariel  continues.  My goal with this reading is to find out how Nix creates an interesting novel with a heroine who persistently refuses the "call to adventure".  To this end, I've been taking notes as I read and sharing them here.  Those who have not read Clariel  may not wish to continue reading as I do mention major plot points in my remarks. *Dr. Song Says: Spoilers!* The last post ended with Clariel's first lesson at the house of Magister Kargrin.  This post will run to the end of chapter nineteen or Clariel's escape from the prison hole. 7. A reluctant hero often draws the wrong conclusion from valuable information since their focus is in the wrong place.  Nix manages to use Clariel's wrong conclusions in a way that still keeps her headed toward the "the call to adventure".  She consistently fails to realize that the threats posed by Kilp and Aziminil threaten any chance she has of living as a bo...

I'm about one-hundred pages in to Garth Nix's YA novel Clariel .  One purpose I have in reading this book is to discover how Nix gets us to invest in a story with a gruff and unlikable heroine who consistently resists the call to adventure.  That's a tall order for any author, but Garth Nix seems to have pulled it off.  So here I am, pen in hand, taking notes on how he does it.  Since it looks like I'll have quite the page of notes by the time I finish Clariel , I've decided to share my thoughts in several installments.  What follows takes us through the first one-hundred pages, or right up to her first lesson in Charter Magic.  If you haven't read the book yet, you may not want to continue reading. 1. To make an "unsympathetic character" "sympathetic", establish what they love and what their goal is early on.  Give them something they want that the audience can sympathize with.  For Clariel, it's a desire to go back to the Forest and ...