Clariel
Prequel to the internationally bestselling Old Kingdom fantasy series
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4.6 • 27 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
The highly anticipated and long-awaited prequel to Garth Nix's internationally bestselling OLD KINGDOM fantasy series.
Sixteen-year-old Clariel is not adjusting well to her new life in the city of Belisaere, the capital of the Old Kingdom. She misses roaming freely within the forests of Estwael, and she feels trapped within the stone city walls. And in Belisaere she is forced to follow the plans, plots and demands of everyone, from her parents to her maid, to the sinister Guildmaster Kilip. Clariel can see her freedom slipping away. It seems too that the city itself is descending into chaos, as the ancient rules binding Abhorsen, King and Clayr appear to be disintegrating.
With the discovery of a dangerous Free Magic creature loose in the city, Clariel is given the chance both to prove her worth and make her escape. But events spin rapidly out of control. Clariel finds herself more trapped than ever, until help comes from an unlikely source. But the help comes at a terrible cost. Clariel must question the motivations and secret hearts of everyone around her - and it is herself she must question most of all.
With over 1 million Old Kingdom books sold in the UK, this timeless fantasy series is a must-read for fans of Philip Pullman.
Praise for Garth Nix:
'Sabriel is a winner . . . a world with the same solidity and four-dimensional authority as our own, created with invention, clarity and intelligence' Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials series
'One of the best worldbuilders in fantasy . . . I love the Old Kingdom series' Brandon Sanderson
'There is no joy like returning to the Old Kingdom . . . Nix sets the standard for fantasy' Leigh Bardugo
'One of the greatest living fantasy writers . . . I will never get enough of the Old Kingdom' Sarah J. Maas
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a prequel to his classic Old Kingdom series, set some 600 years before the previous novels, Nix introduces Clariel, the 17-year-old daughter of a supremely talented goldsmith mother. Clariel only wants to be left alone, "to become a Borderer, one of the wardens who patrolled the forests and woods of the kingdom," But unfortunately for her, she is also a close relative of the aging ruler of the Old Kingdom, as well as the Abhorsen, the kingdom's master of lawful Charter Magic, who must keep both the Dead and the Wild Magic in their places. Clariel soon becomes a pawn in the political machinations of both her mother and the ambitious guildmaster Kilp, who controls the capital city, Belisaere. Worse, she discovers that her occasionally violent temper may itself have dire (and magical) consequences for her future. Between striking characters from the heroic if not entirely competent young Abhorsen-in-Waiting, Belatiel, to the enigmatic, catlike Mogget and Nix's brilliantly complex magic system, this superb tale is exactly the book fans of the series have been awaiting. Ages 13 up.
