I read Sabriel at university when doing an assignment on the fantasy genre. I had decided to focus on fantasy for young adults because I was looking to write spec fic for that demographic myself. I unashamedly love young adult fiction because in the main it's a helluva lot better written than a lot of adult fiction. Young adult fiction also tends to have a clearer plot and clearer characters, and I rate both highly in a book.
It was fortunate I picked up Sabriel at that time because shortly after, Nix released Lirael, set several years later in the same kingdom.
Since Sabriel is a standalone book, I thought Lirael would be too. I won't repeat what I said after I found out it was 'to be continued'*. I waited two long years for the third book, Abhorsen.
I hear he will release another book in the series, a prequel called Clariel, and is working on another as-yet-untitled book that takes place after Abhorsen.
I met Nix at Worldcon 2010 in Melbourne (aka Aussiecon 4) and got him to sign Lirael, which I had toted interstate for the occasion. Since the signing was a sort of last minute thing, there were very few people around so I managed to ask him about what made him base a world around the nine gates of hell and the Abhorsen's bells.He said he was influenced by Dorothy Sayers' The Nine Tailors and decided to name the bells based on Norwegian long ships, which just goes to show you should read widely because you could end up writing bestselling novels based on a scion of an idea.
Honourable mentions go to Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' series and Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy.
* I just want to mention that I didn't want to start Nix's 'Keys to the Kingdom' series until all the books came out.
Day 04 – Favourite book of your favourite series
Day 05 – A book that makes you happy
Day 06 – A book that makes you sad
Day 07 – Most underrated book
Day 08 – Most overrated book
Day 09 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 – Favourite classic book
Day 11 – A book you hated
Day 12 – A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 – Your favourite writer
Day 14 – Favourite book of your favourite writer
Day 15 – Favourite male character
Day 16 – Favourite female character
Day 17 – Favourite quote from your favourite book
Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
Day 19 – Favourite book turned into a movie
Day 20 – Favourite romance book
Day 21 – Favourite book from your childhood
Day 22 – Favourite book you own
Day 23 – A book you've wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 – A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 – Favourite title
Day 29 – A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time
I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.
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