Saturday, March 20, 2010

This One's For You, Melissa

A million years ago, in another life, a friend and coworker of mine moved away. In one of those random bouts of purging that I never seem to go through, she gave me a little pile of books by Garth Nix and said I'd love them. And she moved away and I haven't seen her in ages, which makes me sad.

Somehow, I never read the books, either. I think it was partly the lack of information: I had the recommendation and three very long paperbacks with less-than-informative back cover blurbs, and that was it. Even the titles were character names--no information there. I had no idea what I was getting into, and (as we all know) a hugely long list of things to read. Aside from the fact that they were clearly fantasy and that Melissa Montgomery liked them, I had nothing to go on.

As part of my Personal Library Renaissance--now more like a Personal Library Outreach Program--I picked up Sabriel, the first the series. The prologue was interesting, shading perhaps a hair toward the melodramatic. High fantasy, solemn fantasy. Okay. Chapter one appeared to take place in a version of the modern world that included magic and--promising--the undead. Promising. Our main character is a boarding school girl whose father has also been privately training her to become a necromancer.

Okay, I'm totally marking the kind of geek I am by saying this, but KA-CHING!

I'm loving this book. Still near the beginning, but it's a very strong story--characters, telling, everything. So thank you, Melissa Montgomery, wherever you are.

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