Series
The Old Kingdom
Garth Nix · 5 novels · 1 novella · 1 novelette · 2 short stories · 1995–2021
The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix begins with Sabriel (1995), following a schoolgirl who must take up her dying father's role as a necromancer who lays the restless dead back to rest rather than raising them, using a set of magical bells and old lore from beyond a guarded border wall. Nix continued the series through Lirael, Abhorsen, Clariel, Goldenhand, and the prequel Terciel & Elinor, following different protagonists across generations in the same magical kingdom.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
Reading order
The order the books came out.
Best read in the order they were published.
- Omnibus editions(2 editions)
Map
The Old Kingdom at the centre, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 1990s1
- 2000s4
- 2010s2
- 2020s2
Shape
5 novels · 1 novella · 1 novelette · 2 short stories
1 author
reads like:fantasyundeadsecondary worldtimeless or unspecifieddarkyoung adult
Mood
Grim and intense: 86% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 46%.
this series · the catalog · one dot = one book7 of 9 works carry a tone
Edges of the map
- Liraeldarkest · calmest
- Goldenhandbrightest
- The Creature in the Casemost intense