Re: McKinley: epic fantasies

I remember picking Sabriel up on a whim a couple of years ago, and I was
extremely surprised! It was admittedly darker than my usual fare, but I
was so engrossed by the immense understanding Nix appears to have for
his creation, I couldn't put it down. I'm always reassured where the
author at least _appears_ to know what he or she is writing about - and
Nix seemed to have an excellent handle on that.

Has anyone else found certain traits in authors that settle them into a
comfortable niche when reading? (Besides not killing off intriguing
characters in brutal fashion ;-)

@-}--Willow

> Ok, now that that's out of my system, I'll make some recommendations
> of my own. Has anyone read anything by Garth Nix? (please say yes!)
> He is probably my favorite author next to McKinley, and the first one
> I've ever come across to even come close to her. His books are young
> adult for the most part, although he has done some cute picture books
> that were only released in his native Australia. The one to read is
> called "Sabriel". It particularly reminded me of Blue Sword, as the
> circumstances are somewhat similar. Sabriel has spent most of her
> life in a girl's boarding school (think mid 20th century British), but
> returns to the land of her birth to discover what has happened to her
> necromancer father. It just seemed to me that Sabriel's and Harry's
> backgrounds are very similar, and they both find themselves struggling
> to fit in in a foreign land. The book is really quite extraordinary,
> so go read it if you haven't. I know it is available in paperback,and
> there's even a sequel due out soon.
>
> -Sarah (who knows she shouldn't be up this late at night).

-- 
She did observe, with some dismay, that, far from conquering all,
love lazily sidestepped practical problems.
		--Jean Stafford
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