Lirael

Plot introduction

The book is split into three parts, the first of which is set 14 years after the events in Sabriel; the last two parts are set five years after part one. Sabriel and Touchstone have married since Sabriel and assumed a measure of control over the Old Kingdom. Their children Ellimere and Sameth were going to school in Ancelstierre (similarly to Sabriel) before being expected to take up their duties in the Old Kingdom.

Plot summary

Lirael, the protagonist of the second and third books, is Sabriel's younger half-sister on the father's side; but is unaware of this until her nineteenth year, and largely raised by her mother's relatives, the Clayr. Because she lacks the Clayr's precognitive 'Sight', she is considered an eccentric by her neighbors at the Clayr's headquarters, and prefers solitude to company. In young-adulthood, she joins the staff of the Clayr's Library, and acquires the Disreputable Dog; and with the latter's help, vanquishes a series of monsters in the Library itself.

Five years later, in Ancelestierre, Prince Sameth encounters the necromancer Hedge and his undead minions, which injures Sameth both spiritually and physically. His father Touchstone therefore takes him back to the Old Kingdom and the safety of the palace in Belisaere. Here he is expected to succeed his mother Sabriel as the Abhorsen: a future whereof he is mortally afraid. Under Hedge's influence, Sameth's friend Nicholas Sayre (an Ancelestierran aristocrat) crosses the border into the Old Kingdom and travels to the Red Lake, where the royal rule does not extend and the Clayr cannot See. Sameth flees the palace to rescue Nick, and is later joined by Mogget. Lirael, on her nineteenth birthday, is identified as a 'Remembrancer' (a clairvoyant able to accurately perceive the past), and sent (with the Dog) to the Red Lake to rescue Nick, who has by now become the host of a malign, alien intelligence. En route, Lirael joins Sam and Mogget, and they continue to the Red Lake, but are nearly vanquished by Chlorr of the Mask and her followers, and recover at the Abhorsen's House. There, Lirael is identified as Sabriel's half-sister and heir, and Sameth with the long-extinct 'Wallmakers'.

Characters in "Lirael"

Major themes

The novel is more soul-searching than its predecessor Sabriel, and the major theme is that society does not have to dictate the outcome of one's future. Lirael comes to terms with her lack of the Sight by becoming busy in the Library, going nearer and nearer to her birthright as the Remembrancer, and, eventually, the Abhorsen-in-Waiting. This is also echoed in Sameth's story, as he struggles to accept (or avoid) his role as Abhorsen-in-Waiting.