I first discovered Garth Nix when I was ten-years-old, on a tour of Britain with my mother. When we weren’t visiting museums, going to plays, or visiting with family, we were roaming the book stores. I think I ended up bringing fifty pounds of books back with me to the United States. (I’m not sure why my mother let me buy so many books, seeing as they were all available in the U.S. and much less expensive to boot.) Garth Nix was one of the authors I discovered during my British travels.
My favorite series by him is hands down the Abhorsen Trilogy, now referred to as the Old Kingdom series because he’s just recently come out with a fourth book and has a fifth in the works – I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am about this.
The Old Kingdom books have strong female leads, who are actually strong and forge their own ways. (They don’t just exist to measure the male lead’s progress, as happens so often these days.) The magic system is unique and fascinating. And there are Zombies. Pretty cool right?
Garth Nix has also written other fabulous young adult series and some stand alone novels as well, including the fabulous Rag Witch, but as I grow older, I can’t help but wish that he’d write for adults, because I think it’d be brilliant.
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