Lirael by Garth Nix
Old Kingdom #2
Listening Library
Narrated by Tim Curry
Lirael has never felt like a true daughter of the Clayr. Abandoned by her mother, ignorant of her father’s identity, Lirael resembles no one else in her large extended family living in the Clayr’s glacier. She doesn’t even have the Sight, the ability to See into the present and possibly futures, that is the very birthright of the Clayr.
Nonetheless, it is Lirael in whose hands the fate of the Old Kingdom lies. She must undertake a desperate mission under the growing shadow of an ancient evil, one that opposes the Royal Family, blocks the Sight of the Clayr, and threatens to break the very boundary between Life and Death itself. With only her faithful companion, the Disreputable Dog to help her, Lirael must find the courage to seek her own hidden destiny.
Lirael was honestly quite hard to get through. I started reading the ebook from my library, then later, because it was taking me so long to read and I’d already renewed it twice, I switched over to the audiobook which I got from Scribd. This made it a little easier, as I then listened on my car rides to and from work.
Lirael is a daughter of the Clayr and she really wants the sight. She has passed the age where most get their sight. The sight is the ability to see the future. As her birthdays pass, she becomes more and more depressed, frustrated, and jealous of the others who have the sight. As her birthdays passed, as a reader, I also became more and more frustrated. The story seemed to circle around her antics and explorations which failed to get me excited, even though she found some interesting items, and ummm…I’m going to say people, on her journeys.
I do plan to continue the series. This book was just a really long set up, and the last quarter got real interesting as Lirael was sent from the Clayr on a journey. I think I will stick with the audiobook format though. I seem to do better with those for this series.