Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen

By: Garth Nix

Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm

The long-awaited fourth audiobook in the New York Times bestselling Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix.

Award-winning author Garth Nix returns to the Old Kingdom with a thrilling prequel complete with dark magic, royalty, dangerous action, a strong heroine, and flawless world-building. This epic fantasy adventure is destined to be a classic, and is perfect for fans of Game of Thrones.

Clariel is the daughter of one of the most notable families in the Old Kingdom, with blood relations to the Abhorsen and, most important, to the King. She dreams of living a simple life but discovers this is hard to achieve when a dangerous Free Magic creature is loose in the city, her parents want to marry her off to a killer, and there is a plot brewing against the old and withdrawn King Orrikan. When Clariel is drawn into the efforts to find and capture the creature, she finds hidden sorcery within herself, yet it is magic that carries great dangers. Can she rise above the temptation of power, escape the unwanted marriage, and save the King?

True to the rest

I loved the original trilogy when I was a kid. I read them until the bindings fell apart. This book brought about the same feeling and I will for sure be buying it and reading it to pieces as well!

Not up to the task

I love Garth Nix and his "Old Kingdom" world. That said, I was sort of let down by Clariel. There seems to be a lack of continuity, though I hope this will be rectified in "Goldenhand".

Sabriel is my Favourite

I read Sabriel when I was much younger and it is still one of my favourite books of all time. I recently realized that Clariel existed as a precursor to the Old Kingdom trilogy. I of course needed to listen right away. The narration was beautiful, if not a bit slowly read in my opinion. The story itself is not as strong as I feel the main trilogy is.

Clariel!!!!

I love the Old Kingdom books so much! Clariel is an awesome change of pace to the whole series. I wish I could give it six stars!

A prequel as rock-solid as a charter stone!!!

Would you consider the audio edition of Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen to be better than the print version?

Yes and no, Tim Curry was the reader for the other books in the Old Kingdom series and he is fairly amazing when it comes to narration and so a hard act to follow but Graeme Malcom did a remarkable job in spite of his predecessor.

What other book might you compare Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen to and why?

Fans of the character chemistry from "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson should enjoy the way Nix ties his characters together!

Any additional comments?

Welcome back to the Old Kingdom, or Welcome for the first time if you're new to this series. This book is a real elevator style book, I was up, I was down. It was a bit slow in parts and predictable in others but in such a way that I had to find out what was next if only to see if I was right. An absolute must read if you are as in love with the Old Kingdom set as I am!