The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix

[Túrin Turambar]

Moving house recently involved packing and unpacking my books, which led me to read some I hadn’t read and re-read others I hadn’t read in a while. This included the Old Kingdom series of young adult fantasy novels by Garth Nix.

I first read Sabriel as a teenager, around the same time I first read the Harry Potter books and The Lord of the Rings. It made a striking impression on me then, and re-reading it as an adult I find it still holds up very well, unlike most of the fantasy and sci-fi I came across in my heavy speculative fiction reading stage. I like the original ideas Nix brings to magic and wizardry, he’s able to combine a relatable coming-of-age story with high fantasy, and even now I still find his villains horrifying in a way I rarely do these days. I’m now re-reading the whole series, including Goldenhand, which came out a couple of years ago and I hadn’t read before.

This is not exactly news, but given these books are fairly popular (frequently in top 100 fantasy book lists) and I don’t believe we’ve ever discussed them here, I thought I’d start a thread to see if anyone had read them or was interested in reading them.

[Jude]

What's the first in the series? I'll reserve it from my library...

[Túrin Turambar]

Sabriel.

[Impenitent]

I'll check my son's bookshelves. I know he read Nix.

Sent from a tiny phone keyboard via Tapatalk - typos inevitable.