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Summary

The long-awaited fourth audiobook in the New York Times best-selling Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix.

Award-winning author Garth Nix returns to the Old Kingdom with a thrilling prequel complete with dark magic, royalty, dangerous action, a strong heroine, and flawless world-building. This epic fantasy adventure is destined to be a classic, and is perfect for fans of Game of Thrones.

Clariel is the daughter of one of the most notable families in the Old Kingdom, with blood relations to the Abhorsen and, most important, to the King. She dreams of living a simple life but discovers this is hard to achieve when a dangerous Free Magic creature is loose in the city, her parents want to marry her off to a killer, and there is a plot brewing against the old and withdrawn King Orrikan. When Clariel is drawn into the efforts to find and capture the creature, she finds hidden sorcery within herself, yet it is magic that carries great dangers. Can she rise above the temptation of power, escape the unwanted marriage, and save the King?

©2014 Garth Nix (P)2014 Listening Library

What listeners say about Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen

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Performance
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Story
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Tim Curry we seek you, here, there & everywhere

Story brilliant as usual.

Tim, our dear friend, we are so glad to hear you say that you are now doing so well. How about redoing this book and Goldenhand? Really no one can possibly live up to your Mogget, it is an unfair task to set them. Until you do I will not be able to listen to Goldenhand, this narrator tried hard, and if he had not had to follow you I would probably have even liked him a lot, poor fellow, what an impossible task to pick up a series of yours half way through! However he was not kept for Goldenhand and I have listened to the sample of that narrator and all I can say is that I must reread the book for myself x

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Ok

I liked it. Different to the others in the series but enjoyable. My main issue was that he didn't do Mogget's voice. Tim Curry had absolutely perfected both the voice and character of Mogget, whereas Graeme Malcolm didn't really change his voice at all. I therefore found it hard to think of the character as Mogget, and he lost a lot of his personality.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Gleeful Return to the Old Kingdom

What did you like most about Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen?

I loved getting back into the lore and magic system of the Charter. It is a good standalone novel as it has left me wanting more and I am now listening to the previous trilogy.

What did you like best about this story?

Exploring the Old Kingdom's history and Moggett!

What about Graeme Malcolm’s performance did you like?

He's not Tim Curry, but a very good narrator; he kept me interested.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did, pretty much. Only took me two days.

Any additional comments?

There wasn't enough Moggett in it, like many people he is my favourite charecter. It was nice however to see the slightly more evil side of him. The book is great, don't get me wrong.. but there was something lacking.. Even after I finished the book I was unsure of why Clariel becomes and I hope there is possibly more books to fill in more adventuires of Clariel.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Slow burner

As a massive fan of the first three books, I was a little hesitant to continue on with Clariel. Especially knowing that Tim Curry was no longer narrating.

I found Clariel to be quite a slow book. What I love about the first three are the free magic creatures and demons. But there are none through out the first half of this book. I found the narrator poor as well. His voice was dull and he made NO effort with character voice change. Not even Mogget, which Tim Curry did so well.

Having said all that, it really picks up towards the end and I found myself loving the story as I did the others. I love that Clariel turns out to be someone other than the hero.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

The Weakest In The Abhorsen Series

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Overall, this book left me with a feeling of disappointment. Perhaps, I'm being a little unfair as it is a decent story but it falls well beneath the high standards set by the other books in the series. For these reasons, I would not recommend it to a friend

Have you listened to any of Graeme Malcolm’s other performances? How does this one compare?

This is the first time I have listened to a story read by Graeme Malcolm and I enjoyed his performance. He handled each character adequately and I especially liked his interpretation of the Free Magic creatures.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Story ok. Performance awful

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He sounds bored. He has the most bored sounding voice I have heard as a narrator. At times he sounds like he's thinking 'here we go again'. The narrator of the original books was far superior.

Any additional comments?

The story was not as good as the originals. It was okay, but didn't feel I'd gained much from listening. Narrator may have not helped. If you're new to the series I'd suggest you start with the original trilogy.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not what i wished for

I was looking forward to this book tremendously and after listening to it I feel somewhat at a loss to describe how I feel about it. The narration is very good but Tim Curry who did the original old kingdom books was much, much better. The world in which the adventure take’s place was not expanded or fleshed out to give you a greater understanding of the charter or free magic. There was not enough meat on the bones of the characters to make you care enough about them But it is a solid stand alone adventure.
All in all a good book maybe over shadowed by my high expectations.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love the book, but....

...I am sorry but I really hate the narration. The reader ends every phrase on a down inflection even when it's inappropriate to do so. He's a little better at dialogue but not nearly good enough to carry an exciting story and I couldn't finish listening (happily, I have a paperback copy as well).

Oh, how l miss Tim Curry's spellbinding reading of the earlier three books.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent prequel

A seemingly stand alone story, this prequel still feels exactly as it should do. Dispite the absence of all your favourite Abhorsen characters, everything else feels extremely familiar, and of you haven't yet read Goldenhand, you're going to enjoy the twist.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

only just OK but not great.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The book is OK but not as good as the first 3 books in this series, the first three had me gripped and interested but I did read these an paper and then went to the audio books. This book just seemed to be lacking in magic of the Abhorsens and lacking in interest. I wanted to really like but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re a real die hard Nix fan.

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