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Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Series: Abhorsen/The Old Kingdom, Book 4
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Teen & Young Adult, Literature & Fiction
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- By John on 19-11-11
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is loose in the city, her parents want to marry her off to a killer, and there is a plot brewing against the old and withdrawn King Orrikan.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?
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What listeners say about Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kelly
- 13-01-18
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
6 people found this helpful
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- H. Coates
- 08-12-15
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.
5 people found this helpful
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- "sharky18"
- 29-04-19
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.
2 people found this helpful
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- Tim
- 24-07-15
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.
2 people found this helpful
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- mat
- 26-11-14
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.
2 people found this helpful
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- Stephen
- 19-11-14
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.
2 people found this helpful
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- Jonny
- 20-10-14
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.
5 people found this helpful
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- GeraniumCat
- 06-03-20
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.
1 person found this helpful
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- Kevin Glover
- 03-04-18
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.
1 person found this helpful
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- Brian Marshall
- 28-03-18
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.
1 person found this helpful
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- Katie
- 02-04-18
why
Clariel, why you gotta be so dumb?
I miss competent abhorsons.
I miss Tim Curry. only he can do the true mogget voice.
10 people found this helpful
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- ciorstan
- 17-10-14
Great prequel to Abhorsen trilogy
This is a good story. Sad, but very much in the spirit of the first Abhorsen trilogy.
Book well read, although I miss Tim Curry.
20 people found this helpful
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- Leissa
- 28-11-14
LOVED THE BOOK -- HATED THE NARRATOR
Garth Nix is one of mine and my family's favorite authors.We spent many a car trip listening and relistening to The Keys to the Kingdom and his stories of the Old Kingdom. Another adventure in the Old Kingdom has been eagerly awaited by my family for years. Now it's here and Audible ruined our experience by choosing a terrible narrator.Graeme Malcolm does sound a bit like Tim Curry, so perhaps that is what they were going for, but his pacing when reading the narrative was awful. I felt like my ears were on an audio roller-coaster.
15 people found this helpful
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- A reader
- 26-10-14
Return to the Old Kingdom in an inverted YA novel
The original trilogy of Old Kingdom novels are some of my absolute favorite "young adult (but really for adults)" fantasy novels. The world building is terrific, the characters wonderful, and the writing style helps bring everything to life with appropriate mystery and majesty. In this new novel, Nix finds his inner George Lucas, presenting a prequel explaining the background of a character in the original series, though to much better results than Lucas achieved.The return to the Old Kingdom is welcome, and this book has some very clever elements that I won't reveal so as not to ruin surprises, but it never quite hits the heights of the prior three books.
Part of both the cleverness and slight difficulty engaging with the book is is due to the fact that it turns many of the tropes of YA fantasy novels on its head - the main heroine is asocial, not interested in romance, and generally aloof. But that isn't all. The book is full of YA tropes: we are taken early on to a magical academy full of potential enemies and allies (obvious shades of Hogwarts) or we are introduced to Parents Who Don't Understand the Heroine (shades of every YA book ever) or we are made aware of the character's special destiny. But the book turns every one of these tropes on its head, in ways that are sometimes satisfying, but also occasionally off-putting. Still, it is never boring, and I very much enjoyed the experience.
The reading is great, and, if you have read the other Old Kingdom books, you should certainly read this as well. Otherwise, you really, really should read Sabriel now - it is excellent, and, in its sequels Lireal and Abhorsen, sets up mysteries that Clariel answers, even if not always in the most ultimately satisfying way.
30 people found this helpful
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- Elizabeth
- 14-03-15
Clariel is an amazing heroine
Clariel is a truly unique YA heroine. As a character study it is almost as if she falls somewhere far down on the autism scale and simply has next to no ability to connect with her own feelings; and yet, in the end, her single minded focus saves the kingdom. The book is fantastic and is nothing less than I would expect from the most wonderful and creative Garth Nix.
Sometimes I want to refute some of the more shallow reviews of books when I think the reader/reviewer missed the point of the book entirely; and that is the case now, but I am not going to except to say the that Clariel's references to the forest didn't bother me at all and were entirely in keeping with her rather aspebergerish personality.
9 people found this helpful
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- RUKiddingMee
- 26-12-14
Very difficult to hear at times
Malcolm's performance was very difficult to hear at times, especially when he used a very low, soft voice. I had to replay parts several times -- and still couldn't make out the words.
Still, I liked the book. I thought it a very good exploration of Clariel's character and the decay of a society.
If you are looking for the same kind of upbeat story line that Sabriel and Lirael had, however, look elsewhere. It's a pretty dark story.
5 people found this helpful
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- J.G. Brandt
- 20-02-15
All Free Magic and No Charter
What did you like best about Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen? What did you like least?
It was fun to see the Old Kingdom before its demise. You got a better view of the world beyond the wall than you had without reading Clariel. What was mainly lacking was Clariel herself. She was an angry teenager who didn't seem to really care much about anything or anyone.....accept the Great Forest. Which you hear about a lot in this book. She had the ability to go berserk but that was really about the only interesting thing about her. We had Sabriel, Lirael, Mogget, the Disreputable Dog, and multiple Clayr that made for such cool and powerful characters that I couldn't help but feel let down by this character. It didn't explain either how she really became Chlor of the mask either. It gave us the beginning of the path she started down and then left the rest up to the reader, which is ok but this is a character that I wanted much more detail on.
Would you recommend Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen to your friends? Why or why not?
Yes, because it is an Abhorsen book. There were some very fun scenes and it gave some clarification regarding Free Magic beings.
Which character – as performed by Graeme Malcolm – was your favorite?
Moget of course.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
Yes, I would see it. I would be much more interested if Sabriel were turned into a movie.
7 people found this helpful
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- John
- 28-10-14
Few qualms, but a very good addition to the series
I was very reluctant to buy this book because it was not narrated by Tim Curry, the narrator of the first three books in the series. However I believe that the new narrator did a good job (if not as good as Curry). If you are new to the series start at book 1 because there are minor spoilers in this book.
This is a YA book in a YA series by a YA author, but I have to say that the author did a good job of making this book enjoyable for his older fans. I very much enjoyed that Clariel was not just Sabriel 3.0, being an excellent Charter mage and swordswoman. I was not expecting that she would be a berserker like Touchstone from book 1, and I feel that it did a good job towards diversifying the series. Clariel was a bit whiny for the first half of the book (okay more than a bit) so the author could have reduced the total number of times she wistfully longed for the forest to maybe just once or twice per chapter instead of what seemed like every single paragraph. The other sorta-problem I had with the book was the way that every single adult took Clariel for granted, but I forgive this fact because it's a YA book and that's a theme in the genre. That said I would have liked it if Clariel's mom was a little more approachable/didn't view Clariel as a tool.
The second half of the book spoke more to me as an adult than the first half, being reminiscent in pace of Abhorsen (somewhat rapid fire when compared to the slower pace of Lirael). I liked that Free Magic was viewed as being somewhat not completely evil, just chaotic and freedom seeking, and that Mogget seemed true to form. I did not like that Clariel actually trusted Mogget first thing, but it made sense that she did what she did at the end of the book.
Overall this is a great addition to the series. Not as good as Sabriel, but it was as good as the good bits of Lirael and Abhorsen.
6 people found this helpful
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- general
- 27-03-21
True to the rest
I loved the original trilogy when I was a kid. I read them until the bindings fell apart. This book brought about the same feeling and I will for sure be buying it and reading it to pieces as well!
1 person found this helpful
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- Stephen Beesmer
- 29-12-20
a drip in a lake that becomes a tidal wave
I miss moggets prior voice. Tim curry captured this characters better where Graeme malcolm seems to have more flow and atmosphere which is great but I think mogget sounding sarcastic and care free is a part of his character.
1 person found this helpful