In addition to the great mental pictures the author skillfully paints in this book (for a small example, I kind of had the same reaction as Tal did to the Mother Crone's eyes...) I really liked how 13-year-old Tal and 14-year-old Milla learned how to work together despite their differences. What's really cool is how neither Tal nor Milla change who they are for the other person (though their characters DO grow) and still manage to form a team. Now we don't really know that Tal and Milla like each other, necessarily, and they still argue and tease each other, but as the two face more challenges - sometimes even apart (they get separated and Tal faces the Pit while Milla gets tossed into the Hall of Nightmares), they find ways to get back together and to help one another. I can't wait to see what happens next!
After their escape into the underfolk levels Milla leaves to deliver her information and give herself to the ice. But her seeminly simple plan goes awry when she is forced to go into the tenth Rockvir breathing pattern, the last resort to keep yourself alive long enough to accomplish a task. But after having managed he first part of her mission she does not kill herself since the crones have a different plan for her. Meanwhile Tal and Crow are doing the very thing that began Tal's adventure. They are climbing the red tower. As Tal and Milla risk their lives to prevent it someone is trying to do something terrible to the veil.
Imaginative Australian author Garth Nix gives new zest to fantasy fiction with this return to the Old Kingdom. We focus on Lirael and who she is. Unaware of her parentage and abandoned by her mother, she is unlike any other clairvoyant living in the Clayr's Glacier. Moreover, she does not posses what should be her birthright, the Sight, the gift of being able to see into the present and future.
Nonetheless, it is on her young shoulders that the very existence of the Old Kingdom rests. There is much to oppose her, including an age old evil force. Lirael has little to help her save her own heart, courage, and the ever faithful Disreputable Dog.
Those hoping for a neatly packaged and happy ending will not find it. Instead the story concludes whetting appetites for more with hints that there is greater danger and adventure to come in Nix's third in this series, tentatively titled "Abhorsen."
- Gail Cooke
Nix's other great strength (along with originality) is plot weaving and this is true for the earlier Ragwitch almost as much as for Sabriel and Lirael. You are immediately engaged when the Ragwitch takes over the body of a girl from our world-Julia-and flees to her world, followed by chance by Paul, Julia's sister. Paul is taken in by the kindly people of the strange country who are desperately unprepared for war with the returning Ragwitch. They aid him as he searches for a way to save his sister, and action follows at every turn, as both Paul and also Julia (from within) battle to Ragwitch. There are no strong fighters to help Paul, no saviors for him. He must find his own way, and that it what makes the book and unique. Because Paul is no hero, his war is one of bravery and brains, not braun. Julia has her own story. Although she is more full of bravado than Paul and a sister spirit to Sabriel (and maybe the inspiration for her), her war is one of the mind, resisting the power of the Ragwitch from within the witch's very body.
From what I have said, the book might sound pretty boring: no epic battles, no clash of roaring powerful mages. If I can guarantee you one thing about this book, though, I can guarantee that this book does not lack action. There ARE battles, fights, and struggles, and they are ferocious and gripping. It is almost as much of a page turner as Sabriel and Lirael. Anyone who liked those books is bound to find the earlier Nix just as engaging. Read this book, and you'll be glad of it. I give it five stars for originality and the fact that I at least, was never bored.
Both children actively oppose the ragwitch, although Julia's situation is far more horrific. She is wired into the ragwitch's nervous system while the evil, old sorceress shambles from atrocity to atrocity.
(Actually, I grew fond of some of her minions, called the Stone Knights. If you've ever seen the movie, 'Monolith Monsters' you'll be able to figure how the Knights pounded into combat).
Once Paul is transferred to ragwitch's original world through the ring of fire, he suffers more than his share of perils, including a battle or two. He finally finds friends and sets out on a quest to locate each of the four Elementals, Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth. If he can talk a good line, they might help him defeat the ragwitch and her destructive minions.
This is my favorite part of 'Ragwitch.' The Elementals are not the usual clichéd characters found in other fantasies I could mention. The author expends lots of imagination on them---I was never certain whether Paul was going to succeed in his quest, or die trying.
It isn't every boy who gets to meet Mother Earth, while digging for potatoes.
I can't remember how I would have handled this horror-fantasy mixture when I was under the drinking age. The book certainly veers toward the gruesome edge of Young Adult fantasy ---think of it as 'Hansel and Gretel' on steroids.
List price: $19.99 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $9.99