Readers hoping for a satisfying ending will have to wait for the third in the series, to be titled Abhorsen, and tentatively scheduled for fall 2002. I absolutely love that Death is a place / process and the magic system in the book is pretty entertaining as well. The evil is still at large, the Disreputable Dog still unexplained and Lirael's mother's desertion of her unresolved. Sabriel / Abhorsen Series by Garth Nix One of the more entertaining book series that I've had the pleasure of reading. The book ends on a cliffhanger, and Nix leaves nearly every major question unanswered. The overall plot may follow the expected course an evil magician threatens the well-being of the Old Kingdom and Lirael finds her destiny linked with that of handsome, nervous Prince Sameth (son of Sabriel) but startling subplots abound and keep the pages turning. Her act leads to a meeting with a healer (Lirael's great-great-grandmother) who fortifies her and urges her to take as her only friend the impertinent ''Disreputable Dog,'' a creature of suspicious magical origin whose true nature remains unknown. Just after her 14th birthday, Lirael releases a Stilken (half-woman, half-crustacean) from a glass-covered coffin. Lirael is the only one of a community of clairvoyant women not to be gifted with ''the Sight,'' and the mystery of her parentage contributes to her alienation. The relationships between the Kingdom's various realms and the magic may take some unraveling for readers new to the series, but the heroine's plight will be instantly compelling.

In Nix's sequel to Sabriel, readers return to the entrancing and complicated Old Kingdom: a world of necromancy, seers, dangerous monsters and talking animals (the cat Mogget is back).

Sabriel lirael abhorsen