Sabriel by Garth Nix

After reading Shade's Children by Nix, I decided to try out his fantasy series to see if it was any better. While it wasn't as galling as Shade's Children, Sabriel, the first in Nix's Abhorsen series, was still a bit lackluster.

The premise is interesting enough. Sabriel is the daughter of a necromancer, a sorcerer who has power to revive or defeat the dead. This necromancer, known as the Abhorsen, is special. He's kind of the zombie fighter in the "Old World." He takes malicious dead back to where they belong. Unfortunately, a powerful dead creature traps the Abhorsen in Death and it's Sabriel's job to come and rescue him.

Sabriel's character is flat and a little boring. Nix is one of those men who can't convincingly write female characters. Because she's the only person doing anything in the beginning of the book, the first 200 pages are sluggish. In fact, I didn't actually get interested until the appearance of Touchstone, the main male character. He, at least, sounded like an actual person.